Penguins announce season-opening roster
The Pittsburgh Penguins announced their roster to open the 2023-24 season and a handful of transactions Monday evening.
In total, the roster has 22 players (12 forwards, eight defensemen and two goaltenders).
Forwards — Noel Acciari, Jeff Carter, Sidney Crosby, Lars Eller, Jake Guentzel, Jansen Harkins, Evgeni Malkin, Matt Nieto, Drew O’Connor, Rickard Rakell, Bryan Rust and Reilly Smith
Defensemen — Ryan Graves, P.O Joseph, Erik Karlsson, Kris Letang, John Ludvig, Marcus Pettersson, Chad Ruhwedel and Ryan Shea
Goaltenders — Tristan Jarry and Alex Nedeljkovic
Of those 22 players, 10 are newcomers: Acciari, Eller, Graves, Harkins, Karlsson, Ludvig, Nedeljkovic, Nieto, Shea and Smith.
Forwards Vinnie Hinostroza, Colin White and Radim Zohorna, defenseman Mark Friedman as well as goaltenders Magnus Hellberg and Garret Sparks were assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
Friedman, Hellberg, Hinostroza, White, Zohorna are all signed to NHL contracts and cleared waivers Monday, allowing them to be assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Sparks is signed to an AHL contract.
Forward prospect Raivis Ansons and veteran defenseman Will Butcher have been designated as injured non-roster. Neither player participated in training camp because of undisclosed injuries.
Defenseman Owen Pickering, the team’s first-round pick (No. 21 overall) in 2022, was assigned to his junior team, the Swift Current Broncos of the Western Hockey League.
There was no official mention of statuses for defensemen Mark Pysyk and Libor Hajek as well as forward Austin Wagner, all of whom participated in training camp on professional tryout contracts.
Pysyk, who suffered an undisclosed injury early in training camp, still had a locker stall in the home dressing room of PPG Paints Arena on Monday following practice. Meanwhile, there was no sign of Hajek or Wagner. Hajek is believed to have left Pittsburgh over the weekend.
According to Cap Friendly, the Penguins will open the campaign with $170,658 of salary cap space.
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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