After leaving the Penguins this summer time, Pierre-Olivier Joseph is heading again there. The workforce introduced (Twitter hyperlink) that they’ve acquired the blueliner from St. Louis in change for future concerns.
The 25-year-old spent 5 seasons in Pittsburgh’s system, cut up between them and AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Over his time with the Penguins, Joseph primarily performed in a depth position and was typically sixth or seventh on their depth chart. Last season, he obtained into 52 video games with Pittsburgh, recording 11 factors whereas averaging a little bit over quarter-hour an evening of ice time. However, they elected to not tender him a qualifying provide of $935K, figuring out that doing so would have given him arbitration rights.
That made him an unrestricted free agent and whereas the Penguins have been believed to have curiosity in maintaining him round, Joseph as an alternative elected to signal a one-year, $950K cope with St. Louis on the identical day that the Blues acquired his brother Mathieu Joseph from Ottawa. However, the change of surroundings hasn’t modified his position as Joseph has remained in that depth position. He has performed in 23 video games to this point this season, choosing up two assists whereas averaging simply 13:06 per night time, a profession low.
With the Blues bringing in Cam Fowler just lately, taking part in time was going to be that a lot more durable to come back by for Joseph whereas additionally they have Matthew Kessel and Tyler Tucker within the minors, gamers with some NHL expertise. Presumably, they’ll be citing a defender – fairly presumably a kind of two – earlier than lengthy. As for Pittsburgh, Marcus Pettersson landed on injured reserve yesterday whereas Jack St. Ivany was injured with AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton per Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Twitter hyperlink), main GM Kyle Dubas to hunt out some low-cost depth within the interim. Joseph will as soon as once more be arbitration-eligible this summer time however barring a change in position within the second half of the season, he might be trending towards being non-tendered for the second 12 months in a row.
Following the swap, the workforce introduced (Twitter hyperlink) that defenseman Nate Clurman was re-assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. He was recalled on Tuesday however Joseph will take his place on the lively roster.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the primary to report that Pittsburgh was buying Joseph.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
