There's an abundance of evidence to suggest the Penguins envision Ty Smith permanently slotting into the left side of the No. 3 defense pairing next to Jan Rutta, but due to the Penguins being right up against the salary cap and Smith being exempt from waivers to start the season, Smith currently finds himself in the AHL with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
Smith will be back, no doubt, and it might not even take long, but for now it's a battle between P.O Joseph and Chad Ruhwedel for the opening next to Rutta as the Penguins' No. 6 defenseman.
Based on the combinations used during Penguins practice here at PPG Paints Arena on Wednesday, it will be Joseph drawing into the lineup Thursday night for the season opener against the Coyotes. Joseph skated on a pairing with Rutta for the majority of practice while Ruhwedel found himself on the outside looking in from the No. 4 pairing.
This shouldn't come as much of a surprise considering Joseph shoots left-handed and Ruhwedel shoots right-handed. The Penguins typically like to keep their defensemen on their strong side of the ice (save for right-shot Mark Friedman, who prefers the left side) and Ruhwedel has played very minimally on his weak side. It wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to throw Ruhwedel into a situation where he might not be at his best when Joseph is sitting right there.
The Penguins are -- and have been -- actively looking to trade Joseph. While he's assuredly ready to be a full-time NHLer, the reason he's still around is because the Penguins didn't want to risk losing him for nothing on the waiver wire. It's definitely not the worst thing in the world to give him a look early on to really figure out what kind of player he can be at this point. Best case, he performs really well and the Penguins are able to move him for a superior return to what they might get right now. Or perhaps the Penguins will feel comfortable enough to let him embrace that role full-time. Worst case, he doesn't play well and the Penguins ultimately waive him and lose him in favor of Smith.
Regardless of the reason he's still here, this is the moment Joseph has been waiting for, and he's ready to seize it.
"I'm just gonna go and enjoy and have some fun with it," Joseph said of his opportunity at hand following practice. "You know, just try to play my game and build from there, but of course I want to show that they (management) made a good choice and I want to prove myself that I can be in this league, and to the other players as well."
Joseph didn't tip his cap in confirming if he'll be in the lineup tomorrow, but every indicator says he will be.
"Nothing is really 100%, but we'll see what's coming next," Joseph told me. "I'm gonna get ready as if I'm playing tomorrow."
MORE FROM PRACTICE
• Although Mike Sullivan said he's not ruling anyone out for tomorrow's opener, it certainly doesn't seem like Teddy Blueger, who has been out for a couple of weeks now with an upper-body injury, will be suiting up against the Coyotes. After he was absent from practice on Monday, Blueger re-joined the team for practice on Wednesday, but once again was out there in a gray non-contact jersey.
Blueger did not skate on a line or even rotate in on a line during practice. Instead, he worked on a fourth D-pairing with Ruhwedel before getting some reps with the penalty kill unit toward the end of the session.
• Blueger spoke with the media after practice for the first time since sustaining his injury. He, obviously, isn't a happy camper right now.
"It's been getting better," Blueger said of his injury. "I think it's definitely a lot slower than I would've hoped or liked, and it's been pretty frustrating, but sometimes that's how it goes, so I just gotta kind of stick with it and take it day-by-day and take the small improvements as they come."
• Here are the lines and D-pairings utilized during practice:
Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell
Jason Zucker - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust
Danton Heinen - Jeff Carter - Kasperi Kapanen
Brock McGinn - Ryan Poehling - Josh Archibald
Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson - Jeff Petry
P.O Joseph - Jan Rutta
Teddy Blueger - Chad Ruhwedel
• And the Penguins' special teams personnel ...
PP1: Crosby, Guentzel, Rust, Malkin, Letang
PP2: Carter, Rakell, Zucker, Heinen, Petry
PK1: Poehling, McGinn, Dumoulin, Rutta
PK2: Kapanen, Archibald, Pettersson, Joseph
• It probably means absolutely nothing, but I find it slightly amusing that the second power-play unit once again had no issue scoring several times during practice while the first unit struggled a bit. This has been the case pretty much since the start of training camp. It's not like the second unit has just been feasting on Casey DeSmith, either, as Tristan Jarry was the one on the wrong end of their success on Wednesday.
• Don't expect any sort of change in Letang's style or approach on the ice heading into his age 35 season.
"I mean, it's kind of the same as last year, I guess," Letang told me. "I don't think one year's gonna change me that much. The main thing is to stay healthy and make sure I manage my body the right way, but once we step on the ice, you know, business as usual."
• Crosby's father, Troy, was spotted out in Cranberry at the Lemieux Complex during training camp. He's still around and soaking in his son, as I saw him watching practice with Ron Hextall and Brian Burke in the corner of the lower bowl at PPG Paints Arena on Wednesday.
• The Penguins have named Kerry Huffman, 54, director of professional scouting, it was announced on Wednesday by Hextall. Huffman will manage the Penguins' four-person pro scouting staff as well as the entirety of the team's scouting efforts in the NHL and AHL.
Huffman joined the organization in 2021-22 as a professional scout after serving as an assistant coach with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the AHL from 2016-21, and working as a certified NHLPA player agent from 2012-16.
