On Friday, Jeff Petry did something he hadn’t done since last year.

Play in an NHL game.

The Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman was in the lineup for Friday’s home contest against the Ottawa Senators at PPG Paints Arena.

While it wasn’t literally his first game in a year, it was his first game of the calendar year. A suspected left arm injury he suffered during a 3-1 home win against the Buffalo Sabres had sidelined him for the previous 16 games.

Activated from long-term injured reserve on Friday afternoon, Petry opened Friday’s contest on the top pairing with Marcus Pettersson and provided a badly needed salve to a blue line that has been operating without its three top right-handers — Kris Letang, Jan Rutta and Petry — due to various ailments in recent weeks.

“It’s going to be, obviously, an adjustment,” Petry said of his return after Friday’s morning skate. “Keep it simple, don’t try to do too much. Kind of like when you’re coming off the summer (the offseason), which is a much longer period. Just take little steps, keep it simple and not try to do too much.”

To make room for Petry on the 23-man roster as well as within the limit of the salary cap ceiling of $82.5 million, the Penguins made several in-house transactions.

Most notably, Letang was transferred from regular injured reserve to long-term injured reserve, retroactive to Dec. 28.

The latter designation allows teams to temporarily relieve themselves of a player’s salary cap hit. In this case, Petry’s figure of $6.25 million — the second-highest on the roster — was swapped out for Letang’s figure of $6.1 million.

Players designated to long-term injured reserve must remain with that designation for a duration of 10 games and 24 days on the NHL calendar. Friday marked the 10th game and 23rd day Letang has been absent.

Other transactions

Starting goaltender Tristan Jarry was activated from regular injured reserve and returned to the lineup after missing seven games because of a suspected right leg injury.

In corresponding transactions, Jan Rutta was placed on regular injured reserve retroactive to Jan. 14. He missed his third consecutive game due to an undisclosed injury.

Additionally, reserve defenseman Taylor Fedun and goaltender Dustin Tokarski were assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League.

Forward Kasperi Kapanen remained on the active roster despite coach Mike Sullivan proclaiming him as being out on a “week-to-week” basis due to an undisclosed injury.

Joseph v. Joseph

Penguins rookie defenseman P.O Joseph faced his brother, Ottawa Senators forward Mathieu Joseph, for the first time in an NHL contest.

The natives of Laval, Quebec, might have squared off Wednesday during the Senators’ 5-4 overtime home win at Canadian Tire Centre, but Mathieu Joseph was scratched as a disciplinary measure for an unspecified violation of team rules.

Approximately 50 members of their family were present for the contest in Ottawa. P.O Joseph indicated their parents were scheduled to attend Friday’s game.

The Penguins’ Joseph indicated he planned to play the Senators’ Joseph like any other opponent.

“It’s definitely something that we’ve been looking (to) for a long time,” P.O Joseph said. “But whatever the circumstances are, I’ve still got to play my game and still got feel like he’s a player on any other team. I’m not going to be easy on him as usual.”

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