Pittsburgh Penguins forward Valtteri Puustinen cleared waivers Wednesday and was assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League.
That transaction allowed the team to activate forward Blake Lizotte from injured reserve prior to Wednesday’s home game against the Vancouver Canucks. Lizotte has missed the previous five games due to a concussion.
Puustinen had spent the entire season at the NHL level before Wednesday. In 10 games, he has two points (one goal, one assist) while averaging 9:53 of ice time per contest. He has been a healthy scratch in 13 of a possible 23 games.
A right-handed shot, the 25-year-old Puustinen is in the first year of a two-year contract with a salary cap hit of $775,000.
Lizotte has suffered two concussions in recent months over a span of 45 days. He was initially injured during a preseason game Sept. 29 then was sidelined again Nov. 13. In each occurrence, he was stuck in the head by pucks that came off the sticks of teammates.
Those injuries have limited him to seven games and two points (each goals) along with an average of 9:04 of ice time per contest.
Following Wednesday’s transactions, the Penguins now have $2,685,792 of salary cap space according to Puckpedia.
