Pittsburgh Penguins announce first batch of cuts from 2019 training camp

The Pittsburgh Penguins have announced their first batch of cuts from their ongoing NHL training camp. It’s no surprise and mostly younger players. From the team news release:

The following players have been assigned to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey League:

F - Chase Berger

F - Jordy Bellerive

F - Jan Drozg

F - Ben Sexton

D - Matt Abt

D - Michael Kim

D - Jon Lizotte

G - Alex D’Orio

G - Dustin Tokarski

Nothing too surprising, mostly the AHL contract players, though the young Bellerive getting cut prior to the batch of prospects does stand out a bit.

The initial Pittsburgh Penguins training camp roster was 54 players and three groups, which always makes for a bulky start with a lot of bodies.

We now unofficially enter a “Stage 2” of Camp, where there is only two groups of teams remaining on the schedule. Thus the need to trim the pool of players down a bit.

The players that remain are:

Goaltenders (4): Casey DeSmith, Tristan Jarry, Emil Larmi, Matt Murray

Defensemen (14): Niclas Almari, Kevin Czuczman, Brian Dumoulin, Erik Gudbranson, Jack Johnson, Pierre-Olivier Joseph, Kris Letang, John Marino, Marcus Pettersson, Juuso Riikola, Chad Ruhwedel, Justin Schultz, Zach Trotman, David Warsofsky

Forwards (28): Andrew Agozzino, Justin Almeida, Anthony Angello, Zach Aston-Reese, Kasper Bjorkqvist, Nick Bjugstad, Joseph Blandisi, Teddy Blueger, Joseph Cramarossa, Sidney Crosby, Thomas Di Pauli, Alex Galchenyuk, Jake Guentzel, Ryan Haggerty, Patric Hornqvist, Adam Johnson, Dominik Kahun, Sam Lafferty, Nathan Legare, Jake Lucchini, Evgeni Malkin, Jared McCann, Sam Miletic, Oula Palve, Samuel Poulin**, Bryan Rust, Dominik Simon, Brandon Tanev

Also of note is that Calen Addison’s name wasn’t included in the cuts today, but no longer appears on the team’s listing of the 14 defensemen still in camp, so I assume we didn’t get the memo or it wasn’t announced but Addison has been returned to his WHL team as expected.

Here’s the remaining preseason schedule:

Saturday, September 21

9:00-10:30 AM - Non-Game Group Practice (Fedex Rink - Rink 1)

2:00 PM - GAME AT COLUMBUS (Nationwide Arena)

Sunday, September 22

10:00-11:30 AM - Non-Game Group Practice (Fedex Rink - Rink 1)

5:00 PM - GAME AT DETROIT (Little Caesars Arena)

Monday, September 23

DAY OFF

Tuesday, September 24

11:00 AM - Practice (Fedex Rink - Rink 1)

Wednesday, September 25

10:30 AM - Morning Skate (PPG Paints Arena)

7:00 PM - GAME VS. DETROIT (PPG Paints Arena)

Thursday, September 26

12:00 PM - Practice (Fedex Rink - Rink 1)

Friday, September 27

11:00 AM - Practice (Fedex Rink - Rink 1)

Saturday, September 28

4:00 PM - GAME VS. BUFFALO (PPG Paints Arena)

Sunday, September 29

10:30 AM - Practice (PPG Paints Arena)

We’ll see when the next rounds of cuts come, which could be in the next few days. Last year Wilkes-Barre’s AHL training camp opened up on 9/23, I haven’t seen confirmation of that but those guys will be kicking into gear shortly and likely all the AHL only contracts (and perhaps more) will be assigned from Pittsburgh to the AHL.

NHL teams must be under 23 healthy players and salary cap compliant by the start of the league year on October 2nd. (Which feels like a long way away, but is only two weeks from today!)