It'll be a Joseph family reunion in St. Louis next season.
P.O Joseph on Tuesday signed a one-year contract worth $950,000 with the Blues according to a report from Elliotte Friedman -- only hours after the Blues acquired his older brother Mathieu and a third-round pick from the Senators in exchange for future considerations.
The Penguins will face the Josephs and the rest of the Blues for the first time on March 13 in Pittsburgh next season. The Penguins' trip to St. Louis is on April 3.
P.O was set to be a restricted free agent this summer with his contract that carried a $825,000 cap hit expiring, and Kyle Dubas told me at the NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo, N.Y. on June 8 that they planned on qualifying him in order to retain his rights.
"(Director of hockey operations) Vukie (Mpofu) and (Joseph's) agent have had some conversations already," Dubas said at the time. "So I think we'll try to get that wrapped up, if we can. He's got arbitration (eligibility) if not, so it'll come to a conclusion one way or another. But he'll definitely be somebody that we will qualify."
Plans changed, and the Penguins didn't qualify Joseph before Sunday's deadline to do so, making him an unrestricted free agent at noon on Sunday. Joseph had turned down an initial offer from the Penguins, and not wanting to risk arbitration, the Penguins decided to let Joseph test free agency. But Dubas didn't rule out a return for Joseph when he spoke on Monday.
"It's still open," Dubas said of the possibility of Joseph still signing. "We had said (to Joseph's camp), 'This is what we would do.' Otherwise, we probably weren't going to be qualifying. They elected not to take it and they could test the market out initially. With the number of similar players that were there, I thought it would be a slam dunk to qualify. But the situation changed, and we always have to be cognizant of that."
So, Joseph joins his big brother in St. Louis.
Joseph, who turned 25 on Monday, had spent his entire five-year professional career with the Penguins. He was initially a No. 23 overall pick by the Coyotes in the 2017 draft, but was traded to the Penguins along with Alex Galchenyuk in the Phil Kessel deal in 2019 before he turned pro.
Over Joseph's five years in the organization, he appeared in 147 NHL games in Pittsburgh, scoring eight goals and 29 assists. He played 138 games in the AHL with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, scoring 14 goals and 50 assists.
The Joseph brothers went head-to-head on a number of occasions, in the QMJHL, AHL and NHL. They were always heated battles.
"I love playing against him," Joseph told me two seasons ago before their first meeting at the NHL level. "We hate each other on the ice, it's always good competition."
The battles would often get heated enough that their mother France Taillon told me she has the same message for her sons whenever they happen to play each other: No fighting.
"They're so competitive, both of them in very different ways," she said. "They were always warned that it wouldn't be acceptable that they would fight each other. I was always saying that if you don't want Mommy going on the ice and bringing you out, then don't even think about doing it!"
Despite the warning ... P.O didn't rule out dropping the gloves with Mathieu at some point.
"It's always been a struggle with my mom with fighting and stuff like that," P.O said before that first NHL meeting. "I don't think we're going to be fighting anytime soon, but you never know with the energy that we bring on the ice. I wouldn't be surprised if at one point in my career I fight against him, but for now I'll try to keep my mom happy."
Their parents will probably be even happier to see them on the same side, now.
