The Penguins' game in Toronto scheduled for Wednesday has been postponed, the NHL announced on Sunday.
The game was one of three games postponed league-wide on Sunday due to COVID-related reasons.
The Penguins on Sunday added Evan Rodrigues to the COVID protocol list, the only Penguins player added to COVID protocol over the holiday break. The Maple Leafs added two players -- William Nylander and Jake Muzzin -- to COVID protocol over the break, and had a limited group of players participate in Sunday's practice.
Players participating in today's practice:
— Leafs PR (@LeafsPR) December 26, 2021
Forwards: J. Anderson, M. Bunting, K. Clifford, P. Engvall, O. Kaše, M. Marner, A. Matthews, N. Ritchie, B. Seney, A. Steeves, J. Tavares
Defencemen: A. Biega, C. Dahlström, J. Holl, F. Král, T. Liljegren
Goalies: I. Scott, J. Woll
The Penguins have now had four games postponed this season -- Dec. 21 against the Devils due to COVID issues affecting the Devils, and Dec. 23 vs. the Flyers and Dec. 27 vs. the Bruins due to the NHL pausing games league-wide.
The NHL said Sunday that "a variety of factors will be considered when assessing whether a game should be postponed -- including the number of players unavailable to a team due to COVID, the risk of further COVID transmission within a team, a club’s access to players from its minor league affiliate, and positional roster issues that may arise due to player shortages, among other factors."
The Penguins' next game on the schedule is Dec. 31 in Ottawa. They are scheduled to return to practice on Monday in Cranberry.
In addition to the postponements, the NHL on Sunday announced new measures and modifications to the CBA that assist teams with roster management for this season:
• Taxi squads are reinstated until the All-Star break. A team may have a maximum of six players assigned to the taxi squad at one time, and they function as they did last season, with the player's contract and cap hit essentially functioning as if the player were in the minors. If a player would need waivers to be assigned from the NHL roster to the minors, he would also need minors to be assigned from the NHL roster to the minors, as was the case last season. Taxi squad players are permitted to travel and practice with the team. A player cannot be assigned to the taxi squad for more than 20 consecutive days.
• Teams can recall a player with a cap hit under $1 million using the league's emergency roster exception if they have fewer than 18 skaters, and it will not count against the team's salary cap.
• If a team has fewer than 18 skaters due to COVID protocol, they can use that emergency roster exception without having to first play a game with fewer than 18 skaters, as was previously required.
• If a team has fewer than two goaltenders due to injury or illness, they can recall a goaltender without him counting toward the salary cap.