PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – At times he really seemed to fit the Pens system and be a potential asset to the team, but the Pens did not make restricted free agent Ryan Poehling a qualifying offer, making the forward an unrestricted free agent.
The Pens still own exclusive rights to attempt to sign him until noon on Saturday, but the 24-year-old would be free to go elsewhere if not. Poehling battled through injuries and ended up in 53 games with seven goals and seven assists with eight penalty minutes and a minus two in a bottom six, penalty killing role. The 6’2”, 196-pound forward was the Canadians 2017 first-round pick and came over with Jeff Petry in the Mike Matheson trade with Montreal.
Five were signed to qualifying offers including Drew O’Connor. The 6’3” forward had 11 points (five goals) in 46 games with 12 penalty minutes last year. He was a regular from Valentine’s Day on last season. Defenseman Ty Smith, who won’t turn 24 until March, played only nine games with the Pens last season (goal, three assists). He was a staple for the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins and might be the best prospect from that team.
Forward Jonathan Gruden is also 23 and didn’t score in the three games he played in the NHL last year. He was one of the WBS Pens top scorers with 16 goals and 15 assists in 54 games. Forward Filip Hallander, who has signed to play in Europe, was given a qualifying offer. Interesting to see what he does this year, the 23-year-old played 43 games in the AHL with 11 goals and 22 assists last season and got two games in the NHL last year with no points. The final extended a qualifying offer is goalie Filip Lindberg. The 24-year-old has played only 26 games in the AHL over the last two seasons. Last year in 19 games, a 3.13 goals against average and .896 save percentage.