When the Pittsburgh Penguins placed a handful of players on waivers, at seemed all but certain at least one of them was going to be claimed by another team.
Considering Kyle Dubas’ track record of losing players to the waiver wire, and one of the names the Penguins put out there, it’s a surprise another team didn’t come calling.
Ty Smith was arguably the biggest name placed on waivers, but he made it through and was assigned to the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
It didn’t come as a huge shock that Dubas placed Smith on waivers, though, as he struggled to make his own noise at training camp.
For a brief moment, it was believed a new kind of opportunity was opening for Smith as Mark Pysyk went down with an injury and Smith filled in that role during a preseason game.
Nothing much came from the chance and the Penguins added Smith to the list of cuts.
The Penguins are lucky, however, that Smith cleared waivers and will remain in the organization for the time being.
Smith is a skilled, young, and affordable blue liner that a number of teams would love to have, but for whatever reason, they all stayed away.
That goes to show what kind of camp he had, but it’s still a surprise no other team even wanted to take a flier.
Smith was buried in the AHL last year, but in the nine games he had in the NHL, he looked good offensively, which is the main focus of his game.
In those nine games he recorded four points and quarterbacked the Penguins’ top power play unit in the absence of Kris Letang.
Heading into this year’s training camp, Smith had all kinds of competition to fight through to make the lineup, and he inevitably lost.
That doesn’t mean his time is up, however, as he will likely fill a similar role as last season in being a quick call-up in case of injuries.
Players getting banged up is inevitable and Smith at least showed flashes of being able to play on either side of the ice.
While not on the NHL roster, Smith can at least stay fresh with WBS and be ready to go if/when he gets his call.
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