CRANBERRY, Pa. -- After suspiciously missing Friday's practice at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, it was announced the Penguins have placed 26-year-old winger Kasperi Kapanen on waivers.
"When a team doesn't live up to expectations, change is inevitable," Mike Sullivan said. "That's part of it. Kappy is a really talented player. To a certain extent, it's on all of us because we didn't find a way to maximize his potential."
Kapanen has another season remaining on his contract at a $3.2 million cap hit. If he is claimed off waivers by another team, the Penguins will be off the hook for his contract entirely. If he isn't claimed, they can re-assign him to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the AHL for $1.1 million in salary cap savings.
In and out of the lineup as a healthy scratch throughout a good chunk of November, Kapanen has seven goals and 13 assists in 43 games this season. He has 29 goals and 53 assists in 162 regular-season games with the Penguins dating back to the 2020-21 season.
"It was two years ago Kap had 30 points in 40 games and it was looking like he was a pretty good player," Ron Hextall said of the decision to re-sign Kapanen last offseason. "The feeling was that last year was a bit of a down year and that he would bounce back. He’s still almost a half a point a game guy and I think he can be a productive player. Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked here. So, tough decisions have to be made along the way, and that’s what this was with Kappy."
Another factor of Kapanen being waived is that the Penguins needed to clear cap space in order to activate Jan Rutta from long-term injured reserve and accommodate his $2.75 million cap hit.
"We had to make a hard decision to get Rutts back on, and that was the one we made," Hextall said. "It wasn’t easy. Kappy’s still a good player. Is he a perfect player? No. But there’s not many perfect players. Kappy brings an element with his speed and his skill. As I said earlier, it just hasn’t worked here."
MORE FROM PRACTICE
• Hextall spoke with the media in a general pre-trade deadline availability Friday. I've got everything you need to know covered in a separate story.
• Danton Heinen took over for Kapanen on the right wing of the third line during Friday's practice, and figures to get back into the lineup for the first time since Jan. 28 when the Penguins visit the Blues in St. Louis on Saturday.
"I think he's done a really good job," Sullivan said of the way Heinen's handled being out of the lineup. "He's a really good pro. It's not an easy circumstance when players are in those types of situations, and I think Danton's handled it extremely well. He's a good pro, he has a great attitude, he works hard, he comes to the rink every day, he controls what he can. He tries to help our team in any way that he can even though he's not in the lineup. And as I said, those are not easy circumstances for anyone to be involved in, but Danton has carried himself with nothing but professionalism."
• Rutta (upper-body injury) has been back and skating with the team for a while now, but he hadn't skated on anything other than the extra defense pairing during practice. That changed when he skated on the third pairing with P.O Joseph Friday.
He said it's up to the coaches, but Rutta expects to be available against the Blues. Sullivan later said he's trending toward being a game-time decision.
"We'll talk to the medical staff today," Sullivan said. "He's made significant progress here over the last week or so. There's always that last element in bringing a player up to speed with respect to the performance aspect and the game-like conditions, things of that nature. He's checked a lot of those boxes to this point."
• Each set of wingers in the top six were flipped halfway through the Penguins' 7-2 loss to the Oilers Thursday, but they were reverted back at practice. Here's the entirety of the Penguins' workflow:
Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell
Jason Zucker - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust
Brock McGinn - Jeff Carter - Danton Heinen
Drew O'Connor - Teddy Blueger - Josh Archibald
Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson - Jeff Petry
P.O Joseph - Jan Rutta
Mark Friedman - Chad Ruhwedel
• The only change to either power-play unit was Heinen in for Kapanen with the second group.
PP1: Crosby, Guentzel, Rakell, Malkin, Letang
PP2: Carter, Zucker, Rust, Heinen, Petry
• Following the formal portion of practice, the Penguins held a shootout competition. The final two skaters not to score were Carter and Malkin. The latter ended up losing.
• There didn't seem to be a different mood around the team following a fourth loss in a row or Kapanen being waived. Doesn't mean anything, necessarily, simply an observation.
• Taylor Haase is in St. Louis for Saturday's matchup against the Blues. Puck drops at 3:38 p.m.
