Poor cap management coming back to haunt them, Penguins may use Daniel Winnik on defense some tonight

The Penguins front office messed up the cap situation so bad this season that the team does not have cap space available to recall one of their touted young defensemen in the minors in Scott Harrington or Brian Dumoulin or anyone at all.

Not willing to risk any forwards on waivers, Pittsburgh will be forced to play with five defensemen tonight vs the San Jose Sharks as Kris Letang is out indefinitely with a concussion and Christian Ehrhoff is also not close to returning as Ehrhoff is dealing with off and on headaches, according to a source. The team has not officially said Ehrhoff has another concussion.

One option the coaching staff is exploring is using Daniel Winnik on defense some tonight vs the Sharks. Winnik has some experience of practicing on D, including this year in Toronto.

David Perron is officially listed as “doubtful” due to an illness.

Daniel Winnik – Sidney Crosby – Patric Hornqvist

Chris Kunitz – Evgeni Malkin – Blake Comeau

Nick Spaling – Brandon Sutter – Steve Downie

Beau Bennett – Max Lapierre – Craig Adams

Paul Martin – Ben Lovejoy

Ian Cole – Derrick Pouliot

Rob Scuderi

Marc Andre Fleury