Penguins Notebook: Rust, Nieto Set To Travel With Team, Puljujarvi Slots In

The Pittsburgh Penguins are gearing up for a three-game road trip this week featuring some tough matchups in the Metropolitan Division.

They will face the New York Islanders on Tuesday before going back-to-back against the Carolina Hurricanes and Washington Capitals on Thursday and Friday. The Penguins have only played in two division games so far this season – against the New York Rangers and the Hurricanes – and couldn’t generate much in either, getting outscored 10-1.

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It’s imperative that they ride some of the momentum they gained in their two consecutive wins against the Anaheim Ducks and Montreal Canadiens, and a lot of that has come down to their play in the defensive zone.

“All those little details add up to winning hockey, and it’s nice to get rewarded for it,” captain Sidney Crosby said after Saturday’s win against Montreal. “I think that’s good for us, just to see that and feel that, so we’ll continue to build, but we’ve definitely done a better job of tightening things up.”

Of note, head coach Mike Sullivan said Monday that injured reserve forwards Bryan Rust and Matt Nieto will make the trip. To activate both players, the Penguins will need to make a corresponding move in order to be cap-compliant. As it stands, they sit only $107,104 under the cap limit, and Nieto’s $900,000 cap it would have to be activated.

The most logical corresponding move would be to option goaltender Joel Blomqvist, who is waiver-exempt, to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (WBS). However, things become complicated because of Tristan Jarry’s conditioning loan.

The Penguins planned to keep Jarry in the AHL for the entirety of the 14-day conditioning stint, which would mean the first game he is eligible to return for is the tilt against the Dallas Stars on Nov. 11. If Nieto is ready to be activated during the trip, Pittsburgh would have just a few options: activate Jarry from his conditioning loan early, send Rust to long-term injured reserve, or waive/deal another forward.

In the case of the last option, Valtteri Puustinen is the only rostered forward whose cap hit of $775,000 wouldn’t be enough to offset Nieto’s shift to the active roster. So, it will be interesting to see how this situation is handled.

There were also a few changes in the lines at Monday’s practice. Forward Jesse Puljujarvi took the place of Puustinen and skated on the third line alongside Michael Bunting and Noel Acciari. Cody Glass was elevated to the second line with Drew O’Connor and Lars Eller.

Otherwise, everything remained the same:

The Penguins depart for Long Island this afternoon and will practice at UBS Arena on Tuesday.