With the end of the NHL's regular season comes the end of the salary cap and recall limits, and the Penguins have already made their first move.
The Penguins on Saturday recalled forward Drew O'Connor from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
With Jason Zucker's status still uncertain as he continues to be evaluated for a lower-body injury, the Penguins had no extra healthy forwards entering the playoffs prior to the O'Connor recall.
O'Connor appeared in 22 games for the Penguins in the regular season in a bottom-six role, scoring three goals and two assists.
This recall marks O'Connor's first time back on the NHL roster since suffering an injury, a reported collapsed lung, on Jan. 15 in San Jose. After being sidelined for over a month, O'Connor was re-assigned to Wilkes-Barre once healthy.
O'Connor has played in 28 games with Wilkes-Barre since recovering from his injury, recording nine goals and 18 assists in that span, skating primarily in a top-six center role and playing on both special teams units.
Mike Sullivan said last month that one of the things they wanted O'Connor to work on in Wilkes-Barre in order to contribute more at the NHL level is the ability to kill penalties.
"Especially if you're playing in the bottom-six role on our team, to have the ability to participate on one of the special teams gives us the chance to manage minutes better with respect to the rest of the group that we have, so that we can sustain a high level of play and we don't overplay certain guys in certain situations," Sullivan said. "So I know he's working at (killing penalties) in Wilkes. And I know when he was up here, he worked with Mike Vellucci, spent a lot of time with him on the film, and also just getting reps in practice. He's had a few opportunities in games to help us on the penalty kill, but that's something that I think he could potentially be really good at, because of his mobility, his size, his reach, and his instincts."
O'Connor's grown into one of WIlkes-Barre's more regular penalty-killers as of late, and has been a big part of the Penguins' shorthanded success. Two weeks ago Filip Hallander scored a shorthanded goal that was made possible by O'Connor's heavy pressure on the Checkers' power play:
After that game I asked head coach J.D. Forrest about what he's seen from O'Connor on the penalty kill since he was sent down.
"Up ice, he's been really, really effective on the forecheck on the penalty kill," Forrest said. "He just has a knack for hitting pucks and getting a stick on things and making it hard to make a play out of their zone. He's doing really well in that area. In-zone it's the same, he has that ability to knock pucks down and be in the way. His speed and reach are deceptive, it's a little bit harder for the opponent to read sometimes if they think he's coming a little bit slower. They don't realize how close he is, how fast he gets there. It's still a work in progress for him. It's a lot of the read-react game there and understanding what their power play wants to do. But I think he's been doing a nice job for us lately."
