The Penguins recalled forward Drew O'Connor and defenseman Mark Friedman from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Tuesday, Ron Hextall announced.
In order to make cap room for the recalls the Penguins put Jeff Petry on long-term injured reserve retroactive to Dec. 11, giving the Penguins cap relief on Petry's $6.25 cap hit for as long as he remains on long-term injured reserve.
Long-term injured reserve requires a player to be out for a minimum of 10 games and 24 days, whichever is longest. The soonest Petry can return is Jan. 8 in Arizona.
Petry suffered an apparent injury to his left wrist or arm when he was hit into the boards in the Penguins' game Dec. 10 against the Sabres:
To my knowledge, there isn't an injury to a forward that would have necessitated the need for a forward, but there's no reason not to now that the Penguins have put Petry on long-term injured reserve. Using long-term injured reserve prevents a team from banking any daily unused cap space, so there's no reason to not use it. With the Penguins going on a two-game road trip this week, it could help to have O'Connor as simple insurance on the trip.
It's no surprise as to why O'Connor was the forward who got the recall. He has nine points (three goals, six assists) in his last two games with Wilkes-Barre alone, giving him eight goals and 14 assists in 20 games this season. O'Connor is capable of playing both center and wing, and has spent most of this season as Wilkes-Barre first-line center, though the coaching staff in Pittsburgh has expressed a preference for O'Connor at wing at the NHL level.
This is the second recall of the season for O'Connor, who played three games in the NHL at the start of November. He recorded no points and a minus-1 rating in those three games.
Friedman has one goal and four assists in 19 AHL games this season, and head coach J.D. Forrest has praised Friedman playing "sound" hockey defensively.. Friedman played on both the first and second defense pairings for Wilkes-Barre this season, and is comfortable playing on both the left and right sides of a defense pairing.
This is the second recall of the season for Friedman, though Friedman didn't play in any games on the first recall.
O'Connor is exempt from waivers, and Friedman is waivers-eligible. Because Friedman cleared waivers at the start of the season, he can play up to 10 games or spend up to 30 days (whichever comes first) before needing waivers to be sent down again. Those totals are cumulative over the course of a season. If he's not up in the NHL for that long, he can be sent back to Wilkes-Barre without waivers.
The Penguins had a day off from practice on Tuesday. They'll practice in Cranberry at 11 a.m. on Wednesday before leaving for a two-game road trip to Sunrise, Fla. and Raleigh, N.C.
