Penguins Sign Trio to PTOs

According to an announcement on TSN, the Penguins have signed three players…a forward and two defensemen…to professional tryout offers (PTOs).

I confess, when I first glimpsed the name of the forward (Austin Wagner) my mind tried to make it Austin Watson instead.

Wagner is a 6’1” 190-pound left wing who’s played in 178 NHL games, mostly for the Kings. Watson is a 6’4” 204-pound, body-banging forward with 482 big-league games on his resume, not to mention a tough-guy rep. Big difference, literally and figuratively. But I digress.

A fourth-round pick of the Kings in 2015, Wagner has scored as many as a dozen goals (in 62 games as an NHL rookie in 2018-19) although his role and ice time have diminished over time. Typical of many of the players Kyle Dubas has brought in since taking over.

While he’s no Watson (or hoped for invitee Tomáš Tatar), Wagner does play with some aggression (403 hits in 178 NHL games) and he’ll drop the gloves should the situation call for it, to modest effect.

As for the defensemen?

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