On Tuesday afternoon, the Pittsburgh Penguins placed forward Valtteri Puustinen on waivers.
Puustinen, 25, registered only one goal and one assist in 10 games for Pittsburgh this season. Bottom-six injuries gave Puustinen a few shots to start games, but he struggled to become a mainstay in a Penguins’ lineup that has not started the season well, and he was a frequent healthy scratch.
Following the acquisition of right winger Philip Tomasino from Nashville on Monday, the Penguins got ahead on a roster move in addition to activating Tomasino. The team has a surplus of forwards, and with the returns of Cody Glass and Blake Lizotte likely in the very near future, they would have been forced to make some decisions about player personnel, anyway.
The only waiver-exempt players left on Pittsburgh’s roster are Owen Pickering and Jack St. Ivany, both of whom are defensemen.
In 63 career games for the Penguins over parts of three seasons, Puustinen registered six goals and 23 points. The Finnish right winger was drafted by Pittsburgh in the seventh round of the 2019 NHL Draft, and he signed a two-year, $1.55 million contract extension with the Penguins during the offseason.
If he is not claimed within the next 24 hours, he will be optioned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Pittsburgh’s AHL affiliate.
