The Penguins’ roster is set for a while with the NHL’s holiday freeze
No trades in the next week, not that there would have been any anyways
The NHL rosters are now temporarily frozen for the holidays. Here are the nuts and bolts:
The NHL's Holiday Roster Freeze begins tonight at 11:59 p.m. local and runs through 12:01 a.m. local on Dec. 28.
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) December 19, 2023
No waivers or trades permitted during the holiday period, and only limited circumstances where players can be loaned between the NHL/AHL. pic.twitter.com/OoXKlt5stQ
Key takeaways are that no trades can be made, and all players on the NHL roster will now remain there through at least the 28th. For the Penguins, this will affect their crew for their next three games.
As always with rules, there are some exceptions, mostly surrounding the injured reserve rules. That’s mostly inapplicable to Pittsburgh this year because Bryan Rust, recently shifted to long term injured reserve, isn’t eligible to come back until January 2nd and wouldn’t be in the picture to come back during the holiday portion of this freeze anyways. CapFriendly doesn’t have any players on the team designated as emergency recalls.
The Penguins have prepared this week for the freeze, defenseman Ryan Shea was waived and re-assigned to the AHL yesterday and forward Vinnie Hinostroza joined him going down just prior to the freeze taking place.
The Penguins have re-assigned forward Vinnie Hinostroza and defenseman Ryan Shea to the @WBSPenguins.
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 19, 2023
Forwards Marc Johnstone and Jonathan Gruden were also sent back down so that the team could stay under the 23-player limit and bring Noel Acciari and Rickard Rakell back prior to the freeze. The results of these moves have left the Pens with just 12 healthy forwards, they would still be able to recall a player from Wilkes-Barre to add to the NHL roster if they needed, but they lack the ability to send anyone down for the next week.
This freeze means that Jansen Harkins and Valtteri Puustinen will all be on the NHL roster for the next week with waivers being de-activated for the time being. Not that either of those developments are surprising or wouldn’t have happened anyways.
The NHL’s trade market has been mostly quiet this season, but players don’t have to worry about getting dealt over the holidays at this point either due to the freeze.