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Derrick Pouliot and Jake Guentzel were reassigned this afternoon to Wilkes Barre/Scranton. With Guentzel falling out of the lineup with one bad game, it was inevitable he would be sent down this week to get playing time this weekend.
The Pouliot situation takes another twist.
The player is as frustrated as can be and as mentioned on Monday, so are his representatives, league sources say.
Aside from his role, where there’s some contentions has been the Penguins odd handling of Pouliot’s injury.
He was injured on October 20 with the Penguins publicly saying on October 22nd that he was out “long-term.” Pouliot started skating again on Nov 14.
Despite being fully cleared to play in Wilkes Barre and having no setbacks following a conditioning assignment around Thanksgiving, Pouliot was told by the team early last week he still needed to come off long-term injured reserve before he could be an option to play.
Long-term injured reserve is either 10 games or 24 days whether a player has to sit out.
Did the Penguins not add Pouliot to long-term injured reserve until some point in November?
It’s easy to see why the player may feel the team has dragged on his injury for whatever reason.
“I’m not too sure of what the future holds,” Pouliot told Jason Mackey of the Post-Gazette. “We’ll have to see where things go down the road. Trades happen. You never know what could unfold.”
I’m of the camp that Pouliot’s ceiling is nothing more than a third pairing defenseman but the leash an Olli Maatta gets compared to Pouliot who barely gets a sniff to play, has to be extremely frustrating for someone who was the 8th overall pick of the same draft class.
Trade Scuttlebutt: Canadiens tracking Bonino heavily this season
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Scouts at this time of the year are not only tracking potential trade targets for the deadline. Many teams have scouts filing 21-days to monthly tracking reports on pending unrestricted free agents who may be looked at as summer targets or down the road.
While the Penguins have received trade feelers on Nick Bonino, the Montreal Canadiens have been one team in particular that has been heavily tracking Bonino all season, league sources say, even prior to the rash of injuries they’ve endured down the middle.
The belief is that Montreal’s interest in Bonino is more as a summer UFA target than the team seeing Bonino as a realistic trade target as two of the best Eastern Conference teams making a trade of roster players is not something that usually happens.
If the Penguins reach the point where they might want to shop Bonino and see what’s out there, they’re not there yet, one player I believe that would interest Pittsburgh is Phillip Danault who Penguin scouts have long been high on. 23 years old, can skate well, kills penalties, and is cost control, signed through next season with a $912K cap hit.
Different GM now, but most of the same management team/scouts are around. Pittsburgh gave strong consideration to drafting Danault in round 1 of the 2011 draft.
Pittsburgh’s long-term plans for Bonino remain unknown as the emergence of Jake Guentzel who’s a natural center and the encouraging development of Oskar Sunqvist makes more sense for the Penguins to apply their dollars elsewhere next summer.
Teams will continue to check in on Bonino leading up to the deadline.
More Buzz
— Marc Andre Fleury nor his agent Allan Walsh have yet to be asked by the Penguins for a list of teams in the goalie market he’d be interested in playing that is either blocked or not blocked on his trade list.
However, indications are a sit down will happen after the holiday trade freeze between the two sides and get a feeling out process on where things stand.
Fleury has a trade list of 12 teams he can block a trade to and the latest list was updated on July 1.
The Penguins would first like to find an actual trade suitor but a priority for them remains to do things right with Fleury, one reason a buy-out isn’t being ruled out internally, though, publicly the Penguins would never admit a buy-out is a possibility down the road.
If a scenario does exist prior to the deadline with multiple teams trying to trade for Fleury, should be noted that isn’t happening yet, the Penguins would let him pick his destination.
One thing the Penguins shouldn’t expect happening in June:
Fleury informing the team he would waive his no movement clause to be eligible for the expansion draft.
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