Kyle Dubas and the Pittsburgh Penguins Place 25 Year Old Forward on Waivers
The Penguins have struggled early on the new season, and after making a shock move on Monday, they've now placed home grown forward Valtteri Puustinen on waivers.
Despite posting a 7-12-4 record through their first 23 games this season, the Pittsburgh Penguins appear to be pushing to get back into the playoff race after making the surprise move to land Philip Tomasino on Monday.
After that deal with the Nashville Predators, a corresponding move needed to be made, and that came on Tuesday when Elliotte Friedman reported the latest waiver news.
According to the NHL's top insider, the Penguins have placed 25-year old forward Valtteri Puustinen on waivers after the former seventh round draft pick had played in 10 games with the team this season.
While neither Puustinen nor Tomasino are off to great starts this season, the Penguins believe that the 23-year old from Nashville presents a much bigger threat in their lineup than Puustinen, who has put together just 1 goal and 2 points thus far in 2024/25.
If Puustinen clears waivers, that makes three players headed to the Wilkes/Barre-Scranton Penguins in the last few days, and from what it seems, the team believe Puustinen will clear waivers.
A seventh-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, Puustinen has played in 63 NHL games in his career thus far, posting 6 goals and 23 points in that time, but without much of an impact this season, it's a move that made sense for Kyle Dubas and the team as they look to get captain Sidney Crosby back into the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
We will now see whether or not the Tomasino move is what this team needed to spark a run during the season, because if not, we could be seeing many more huge moves coming soon from Pittsburgh.
