Penguins recall defenseman Yannick Weber from taxi squad

As a 12-year veteran who has played in Montreal, Vancouver and Nashville, defenseman Yannick Weber is no stranger to travel.

But the trek he made to join the Penguins was quite a caper.

The native of Switzerland signed with the Penguins on Wednesday but was unable to arrange a flight to Boston, where the Penguins were in the middle of a two-game series against the Bruins.

So he opted to drive from Nashville — he was previously a member of the Predators — to Pittsburgh.

But a snowstorm forced him and his fiance to seek shelter in the Bluegrass State.

“I was supposed to meet the team in Boston — drive from Nashville to Pittsburgh then take a car to Boston — and unfortunately, we got stuck in a snowstorm in Kentucky, of all places,” Weber said via video conference before his new team’s road game against the New York Rangers on Saturday. “Got to spend the night on the road. I was fortunate enough to eventually make it to Pittsburgh and then meet the team here in New York.”

“The first trip was Nashville to Pittsburgh … with the snowstorm, it was more like 10. It was me and my fiancee that drove up. Audiobooks, podcasts. That’s probably the best way these days to kill some time these days on the road. There really wasn’t much to look at. It was snowy and not really pretty out. From Pittsburgh to New York was about six hours, but it was quite a breeze. I had to answer a lot of text (messages), had a lot of phone calls coming in that I had to answer, a lot of family members that wanted to get in touch with me with the news that just came out. Luckily, it didn’t feel like 16 hours, but I’m glad that it’s behind me.”

The Penguins signed Weber off the street — or, perhaps more accurately, the interstate — as a result of five defensemen being injured.

A member of the Predators for the past four seasons, Weber attended that team’s training camp as a nonroster invitee but was released from his professional tryout agreement Jan. 13. Regardless, he was able to find some ice in Nashville and maintain his conditioning to some degree while waiting for potential inquiries.

“I was still able to skate there and prepare myself,” Weber said. “The couple days between (the Predators’ decision and the call from Pittsburgh), I just tried to stay in shape just knowing that something may happen. It was good. I was able to skate in Nashville. … It should be a fairly smooth transition.”

The right-handed Weber (5-foot-11, 200 pounds) previously played for coach Mike Sullivan in Vancouver when Sullivan served as an assistant coach during the 2013-14 season.

“I have an established season with him,” Sullivan said. “He’s a good, solid player. He’s got a big shot from the offensive blue line. He sees the ice pretty well. When I had him in Vancouver, he played on one of our power-play units. But he’s a good, solid two-way defenseman. We’re excited to have him join our group, especially under the circumstances that we’re in right now from an injury standpoint. He’s a real good pro. He works extremely hard. We think he’s going to fit into our group really well.”

Typically used on the Predators’ bottom pair last season, Weber appeared in 41 games and scored three points (one goal, two assists). The 32-year-old logged 14:01 of ice time per game in 2019-20.

The Penguins formally recalled Weber from their taxi squad Saturday morning, and he played against the Rangers.

Sullivan seems comfortable with the notion of using Weber despite him being limited to a single morning skate as a member of the organization.

“He went through Nashville’s training camp so he has that foundation underneath him in that particular team,” Sullivan said. “But anytime you join a new team, there are certain trends in the league where a lot of teams are playing in a similar fashion, there are subtleties to everybody’s game that are different. Priorities are different. And there are tactical differences. We’ll work with (Weber) to try to get him up to speed. Though we certainly don’t want to give him too much information too soon and overload him. It’s paralyzing or can be paralyzing. We’ll give him the basics, and we’ll build on that foundation as he goes.

“But (Weber) is a good pro. He’s been around the league for some time now. He understands what his strengths are and how he can help teams.”

Signed to a one-year, two-way contract worth the NHL’s league minimum ($700,000), Weber is grateful to be back in the league, particularly with a high-profile team such as the Penguins.

“I’ve had some bad memories facing (the Penguins),” said Weber, who was a member of the Predators team that lost the 2017 Stanley Cup Final to the Penguins. “So it’s nice to be on this side. I’ve been in the league for a long time now. Pittsburgh, as long as I’ve been in the league, has always been a powerhouse. That’s really hard to do as an organization for this long of a time. Just coming in and knowing that there’s a veteran group here that has had a lot of success as a team and as individual players, you can definitely feel that. There’s a willingness to win on this team. There’s a hunger to wanting to get back to winning seasons.

“For me, it’s a great opportunity to be here and a team that wants to win and has guys that have had success and want more of it. I’m really happy to be a part of it.”

And happy to be off the road.

Notes:

• The Penguins are scheduled to start goaltender Casey DeSmith against the Rangers. In three games this season, DeSmith has a 2-0-0 record along with a 2.76 goals against average and an .871 save percentage.

• The Penguins changed the recall statuses of defensemen Kevin Czuczman and P.O Joseph from emergency to regular.

• The Rangers are expected to start goaltender Alexandar Georgiev. In three games this season, Georgiev has a 1-2-0 record with a 2.66 goals against average and an .896 save percentage.

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