Pittsburgh Penguins Opening Day Roster

The Pittsburgh Penguins announced a number of moves today in order to get their roster compliant for the start of the 2014-15 season.

Scott Harrington has been assigned to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and Oskar Sundqvist has been loaned to Skelleftea in the SHL. Both had excellent performances this year and it won't be long before they are ready to stick in the NHL for good.

In addition, Zach Sill, Andrew Ebbett, and Taylor Chorney were assigned to the Wheeling Nailers. For those who remember last year when we had injured players in Training Camp this appears to be a paper transfer in order to make room until the team can place guys on LTIR tomorrow.

With Beau Bennett and Robert Bortuzzo expected to be out until sometime in November we can expect for the team to place them on LTIR tomorrow. It is uncertain whether Derrick Pouliot will be placed on LTIR or assigned to the Baby Pens for the remainder of his injury.

The surprise name that didn't get cut today is Kasperi Kapanen, who was recently seen in Finland where the Pens said he went to spend time with his family.

However, it is worth noting that if they are planning to take advantage of LTIR then it is in their best interest to come as close as possible to the Cap ceiling today, since you only receive Cap relief equal to the player's Cap Hit minus your available Cap space. So it is entirely possible that keeping Kapanen, and possibly Pouliot as well, allows them to maximize their LTIR exemption and we could still see them moved tomorrow after the LTIR goes into effect.

One good thing is that these moves suggest that Olli Maatta will indeed be ready to go for the start of the season, and while we have heard that it is still about 50/50 it seems that Evgeni Malkin may be coming back by Saturday.

EDIT

For those wondering, D Derrick Pouliot, recovering from shoulder surgery, is not on the 22-man roster Penguins submitted to NHL.

— Dave Molinari (@MolinariPG) October 7, 2014