Penguins Trim Roster

The Penguins placed three forwards on waivers today and sent six other players to their Wilkes-Barre/Scranton farm club.

Andreas Johnsson, Joona Koppanen and Alex Nylander hit the waiver wire…we’ll know by tomorrow if they clear or not. The others sent down include forwards Avery Hayes, Rem Pitlick, Sam Poulin and Valtteri Puustinen, along with defensemen Xavier Ouellet and Ty Smith.

The fact that Poulin and Puustinen are waivers exempt no doubt influenced the decision to send them down. Personally, I thought both played well enough in preseason to stick, but there weren’t clear-cut slots available for them. Especially the 24-year-old Puustinen, who would seem to be top-six or bust.

Pitlick, Ouellet and Smith already passed through waivers a handful of days ago. Under contract with the Baby Pens, Hayes didn’t require waivers.

I would’ve been sorely tempted to keep Smith, who played well against Detroit and handles and distributes the puck well, over career AHLer Ryan Shea, who by all accounts had a rough night.

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