Penguins announce very NHL-caliber roster for Sunday’s game against Detroit

Early on Saturday, coach Mike Sullivan hinted his lineup for tomorrow’s 12 PM matinee preseason game at home against the Detroit Red Wings would have a lot more veteran players. He wasn’t kidding, below is the roster the Pens have announced. Other than subbing in Zach Aston-Reese (currently out with COVID) for Sam Lafferty and then Juuso Riikola out for Marcus Pettersson (who played 24 minutes in Friday night’s game), this could basically be a dress rehearsal for the Penguins.

Forwards:

9 - Evan Rodrigues

10 - Drew O’Connor

11 - Brian Boyle

16 - Jason Zucker

17 - Bryan Rust

18 - Sam Lafferty

23 - Brock McGinn

42 - Kasperi Kapanen

43 - Danton Heinen

53 - Teddy Blueger

59 - Jake Guentzel

77 - Jeff Carter

Defensemen:

2 - Chad Ruhwedel

5 - Mike Matheson

6 - John Marino

8 - Brian Dumoulin

50 - Juuso Riikola

58 - Kris Letang

Goaltenders:

30 - Louis Domingue

35 - Tristan Jarry

Sullivan announced that Jarry will play the full game after the goalies have split time evenly, as planned, in the first two preseason games.

Lines haven’t been announced, but so far Jeff Carter has played with Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust, that’s probably sticking together. Evan Rodrigues was getting a look with Jason Zucker and Kasperi Kapanen on the second line. Teddy Blueger has been working with Brock McGinn and Danton Heinen has stepped up in the absence of Aston-Reese. That would leave Brian Boyle to play with youngsters Drew O’Connor and Sam Laffery if the practice lines hold.

After cutting the team down to 35 players in camp today, the Pens are getting down towards what will eventually be their 23 player regular season team. It looks like that instead of running a practice for their Sunday, they’re as using the day as basically a scrimmage for 95% of their NHL team.