Even if he was drafted more than five years ago, forward Kasper Bjorkqvist still is relatively new to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

He hasn’t even played a game of consequence for the NHL club as of yet.

But Tuesday, a day after he was recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League, Bjorkqvist was given some ice time with franchise icon Sidney Crosby and tasked with a pretty important job.

Push Crosby around.

During an optional morning skate, Bjorkqvist and Crosby were part of a group of 13 players who took to the ice, and Bjorkqvist was asked to provide contact to Crosby along the boards and in the corners of PPG Paints Arena.

“I’ve pushed some heavy sleds in my career, especially in college,” said Bjorkqvist, a product of Providence College. “We used to do a lot of sled workouts.

“But that guy, he’s hard to move, that’s for sure.”

What is less sure is a return date for Crosby as he recuperates from offseason surgery on his left wrist.

But there were plenty of signs during Wednesday’s practice suggesting that date is very close.

For one, Crosby centered the team’s top trio during line rushes as he skated with Jake Guentzel on the left wing and Evan Rodrigues on the right wing. Additionally, Crosby worked on the team’s top power-play unit with Guentzel, Rodrigues, forward Jason Zucker and defenseman John Marino.

Then, there was who was watching practice.

His father, Troy Crosby, observed the session from the southern end of the building.

Despite all those indicators, coach Mike Sullivan stopped short of offering a status for Crosby for Thursday’s home game against the Calgary Flames.

Sullivan did label Crosby as “day-to-day.” That was the first time Sullivan has used that description for Crosby since he underwent surgery Sept. 8.

“He participated out there in a full capacity today,” Sullivan said. “We’ll see how he responds. We’ll listen to the medical staff, and we’ll make decisions accordingly. But we’re real encouraged with his progress. We think he’s getting real close. We’ll take each day as it comes and make decisions accordingly.”

Sullivan added that Crosby does not have any sort of “final” steps that need to be satisfied to be medically cleared to play.

Whenever Crosby does play, his return might be coupled with forward Jeff Carter coming off the NHL’s list for covid-19 protocol. On Tuesday, Sullivan indicated Carter could be eligible to come off that list by “the end of the week.”

Regardless, the addition of two centers capable of playing among the team’s top six forwards would be a welcomed development. However, it will force the coaching staff to figure out which of their reserve forwards must be pushed out of a lineup that has started the season in a mostly satisfying fashion.

“We have an idea of when we have a full complement of players, what our roster might look like, what our lineup might look like,” Sullivan said. “But I think things change and performance matters. We also believe in creating a certain meritocracy where how you perform matters. There’s internal competition that’s very high right now. We have a lot of players playing really well. It makes for very difficult decisions as a coaching staff, but those are always good challenges to have.

“I think we’re going to have some difficult decisions inevitably when that moment occurs, and we’re looking forward to those difficult decisions. Hopefully, it will be sooner than later because that suggests that some of these guys are going to be back in our lineup. We’ve had a lot of players here play extremely well for us in this early part of the season. It helps us create that healthy internal competition that keeps everyone at their best.”

By most accounts, Crosby appears to be at that level based on the observations of those who have been on the ice with him in recent days.

“He certainly hasn’t gotten any worse,” backup goaltender Casey DeSmith quipped. “He’s really coming along. He’s been working hard. I know he’s been putting in a lot of hours, trying to get back into form.

“Hopefully, he’ll be back soon.”

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