Penguins Make Pair Of Defensive Roster Moves

With some injuries piling up on the left side of the blue line, the Pittsburgh Penguins made a roster move Sunday to give them another body for the last leg of their current Western road swing.

The Penguins recalled defenseman Ilya Solovyov from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (WBS) Penguins, and on the same day, re-assigned newly acquired blueliner Ryan Johnson to WBS.

These moves come a day after defenseman Sam Girard was injured during the second period of the Penguins' 6-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights, when Girard was tripped by Vegas forward Brett Howden and flew awkwardly into the bottom of the wall shoulder-first.

In addition, Trevor van Riemsdyk is still working out in Pittsburgh and rehabbing from a lower-body injury. He is currently on injured reserve. 

Solovyov, 26, began the season on the Penguins' NHL roster. After failing to appear in a game, the Penguins waived him on Oct. 9 in hopes that he would pass through waivers and join WBS to have an opportunity to be in the lineup every night. In three games for WBS, Solovyov had one assist and was a plus-6, largely playing top-pairing minutes with right defenseman Harrison Brunicke. 

The 6-foot-3, 229-pound defenseman was traded to Pittsburgh during the second half last season and appeared in 14 games, registering five points to go along with a plus-1.

Johnson, 25, is a former first-round pick (31st overall in 2019) who was acquired from the Buffalo Sabres on Oct. 12. He has yet to appear in an NHL game this season, and he has seven assists in 47 games across three season, all of which were accrued in 41 games during his rookie season in 2023-24.

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