The Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins have signed forwards Wade Brookbank and Wyatt Smith to one-year contracts, it was announced today by Executive Vice President and General Manager Ray Shero.
Brookbank, 31, registered one goal and 40 penalty minutes in 27 games with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2008-09. The 6-4, 225-pound winger also spent part of the season with Norfolk of the AHL, recording one assist and 46 penalty minutes in 24 games.
Brookbank has appeared in 127 career NHL games over parts of four seasons with Nashville, Vancouver, Boston and Carolina. He was part of the Penguins organization in 2006-07, when he had one goal and 116 penalty minutes in 39 games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL. He is a native of Lanigan, Saskatchewan.
Smith, 32, appeared in a combined 71 games with San Antonio and Norfolk of the AHL in 2008-09, tallying 19 goals and 47 points in addition to 71 penalty minutes.
The 5-11, 205-pound center has played parts of eight NHL seasons with Phoenix, Nashville, the New York Islanders, Minnesota and Colorado. Smith has recorded 32 points (10 goals, 22 assists) 65 penalty minutes in 211 career NHL games. He is a native of Thief River Falls, Minnesota.
Pure AHL signings that can be called up in an emergency. I'd never have thought Wyatt Smith has played over 200 NHL games. Should be good as veteran scorer to replace Minard, Taffe and now James. Brookbank I guess is an insurance in case Bissonnette won't be healthy enough (or in the NHL). Also tells me that the staff has given up on Aaron Boogaard to fill even an AHL enforcer role.
Brookbank just fills one of the wing spots on the baby Pens 4th line, no big deal there. But Smith, by my estimation, just pushes a legit prospect down the depth chart or possibly even to Wheeling.
Brookbank just fills one of the wing spots on the baby Pens 4th line, no big deal there. But Smith, by my estimation, just pushes a legit prospect down the depth chart or possibly even to Wheeling.
4 spots for 5 centers in Wilkes-Barre this season: Letestu, Jeffrey, Veilleux, Vitale and now Smith. Guess we'll start shifting Veilleux to wing now? But there's not much room there for him either...
4 spots for 5 centers in Wilkes-Barre this season: Letestu, Jeffrey, Veilleux, Vitale and now Smith. Guess we'll start shifting Veilleux to wing now? But there's not much room there for him either...
Yeah. Veilleux is going to make the move to wing I think. You make room for a guy of Veilleux's potential.
I don't get this.. even as depth for AHL I don't get this. I thought it was already pretty jam packed in WBS as it is...
Hell why even waste the NHL contract on them, have WBS sign them instead.
just a question cuz i dont actually know.
can WB/S signed players be called up to the Pens? because if not i would think that is the reasoning... maybe to insure that we don't have to rely on one of our prospects playing more time than needed in the NHL and ruining their development? since these guys are both in their 30's and done developing?
can WB/S signed players be called up to the Pens? because if not i would think that is the reasoning... maybe to insure that we don't have to rely on one of our prospects playing more time than needed in the NHL and ruining their development? since these guys are both in their 30's and done developing?
thats the only reasoning i have behind it.
no, player has to be contracted with the team to be called up... even if that is the case I don't want to see Brookbank called up over any of our other guys. Just seems like a total waste of a NHL contract.
WBS needs a reliable, experienced HW. Boogaard has been a disappointment and even if Bissonnette is able to play, he probably won't be able to fight for a while.
Brookbank was a two-way deal but he'll almost certainly never see Pittsburgh. If the Pens didn't offer a two-way, Brookbank probably would not have signed. Signing a guy like Brookbank was a necessity for WBS. I wouldn't be surprised to see them bring in another AHL knuckledragger.
WBS needs a reliable, experienced HW. Boogaard has been a disappointment and even if Bissonnette is able to play, he probably won't be able to fight for a while.
Brookbank was a two-way deal but he'll almost certainly never see Pittsburgh. If the Pens didn't offer a two-way, Brookbank probably would not have signed. Signing a guy like Brookbank was a necessity for WBS. I wouldn't be surprised to see them bring in another AHL knuckledragger.
I agree with you. We have a lot of young talented forwards playing this season at WBS. They need a good HW that can stop other teams from trying to go after these young kids. As for Smith it never hurts to bring in a player that has over 200 NHL games to help with veteran presance on a very young team.
KV plays all 3 forward positions so its ok Posted via Mobile Device
I actually don't think the conversion of Veilleux to wing has occured yet, so as of right now...he plays 1 forward position, and it's the one we have the most of on the NHL roster.
brookbank plays the dennis bonvie role. smith will actually play a prominent role in wilkes-barre.
for those that are disappointed about that, i don't know what to tell you. the odds of WBS going into the season with a forward corps of all prospects and chris conner were very, very slim. there needs to be some sort of veteran leadership on the team.
...if this means joey haddad or aaron boogaard starts out the season in wheeling, well, them's the breaks.
