In early 2021, as the shortened 2020-21 season was getting underway, the Pittsburgh Penguins were dealing with a massive number of injuries on defense. The team was without Mike Matheson, Marcus Pettersson, and Juuso Riikola all at once, forcing them to recall 21-year-old Pierre-Olivier Joseph and put him in the lineup. A few days later Brian Dumoulin and Kris Letang went down as well, meaning suddenly there were very few trusted names available.
The then-rookie Joseph stepped up, logging nearly 26 minutes and recording three assists in just his fifth NHL game. He followed that with a 26:14 performance two nights later, logging more ice time that night than even Sidney Crosby.
One would think that was the origin story for a key contributor, a player who is in the lineup every night thereafter. That wasn’t the case for Joseph, who played just 16 games total that season and just four in 2021-22. Instead of becoming the stud top-four option that many expected, the young defenseman now finds himself battling for a roster spot.
In fact, he could potentially even find himself on his way to a new organization in a few days. Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reports that last week, Penguins general manager Ron Hextall reached out to all 31 other general managers and let them know that Joseph is available for trade.
That’s because the Penguins are facing a roster crunch on the back end and may have to waive the 23-year-old if they make it through the next week healthy on defense. With seven other defensemen signed to one-way contracts and Ty Smith locked into a spot, there may not be room for Joseph. His $825K cap hit may actually hurt his chances, as he costs slightly more than depth players like Chad Ruhwedel and Mark Friedman.
Today, the Penguins lost forward Radim Zohorna on waivers to the Calgary Flames. Losing another player – especially one with the upside of Joseph – doesn’t make a lot of sense. Perhaps the team can work out a trade before it comes to that, or decide to risk one of the more veteran names instead.
I’d keep Joseph and get rid of Friedman.
Of course there are many reasons that your GM career never really got any traction.
I feel like they’ve backed themselves into a corner with their defense situation. Anybody who is interested in POJ is probably just going to lowball them knowing there is an upcoming roster crunch coming for their roster.
Backed into a corner? A origination ran by Ron Hextall? Well I never!
Without knowing anything about the cap realities, the Blues defensive depth has taken a big hit with injuries, so they might be interested.
Good call, Scandella and the youngster are hurt. I was hoping they’d make a trade with the Bruins for one of there left side d like Forbort or Reilly.
Hawks have tons of Stan Bowman high draft picks that I’m sure Davidson would be happy to pass along. Most of them are D Men also. Take your pick.
Simply sending Smith to the AHL puts the Pens under the cap so waiving POJ isn’t strictly needed. And how does Smith have a lock on a spot? I get he has greater potential, but he isn’t very good defensively right now. Send him down.
And I’m a bit pissed about Zohorna. How is Josh freaking Archibald taking up a spot and costing us a real hockey player?
JGeyer
Agree with everything you said
I strongly dissagree.
Seattle bound to play with Sprong again…
Agree if lost Zohrona for archibald makes no sense. Archibald is just a fourth line guy nothing special. Could maybe see if it was for Poehling he may still have some potential