Somewhere between the Florida-Georgia line and the Piedmont of North Carolina, John Ludvig received a change in his itinerary Monday.

One of the final cuts from the Florida Panthers’ training camp roster, Ludvig was en route to join their American Hockey League affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers, and then found out he had to go further north.

Pittsburgh.

The Penguins had claimed him off waivers Monday afternoon, prompting him to drive several more hours to his ultimate destination.

“You think you’re getting sent down, put on waivers, don’t really know what’s happening,” Ludvig said Tuesday after an optional morning skate at PPG Paints Arena. “I’m driving to Charlotte for the minors, and I get a call and I come in here.

“I got two hours of sleep last night. Drove 14 hours and then another three hours this morning. So today was a tough morning skate. Didn’t feel too good.”

It remains to be seen how long Ludvig will remain in Pittsburgh. At the moment, the Penguins have 22 players on their active roster, one short of the 23-man limit. The composition of that group includes 12 forwards, eight defensemen and two goaltenders.

Should the Penguins find themselves short a forward, they would need to waive Ludvig and/or fellow reserve defenseman Ryan Shea before potentially sending one of them to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL and calling up a forward.

Regardless, he expressed jubilation over being part of the Penguins.

“They like my game, and I bring a hard, defensive style game. Something I think they’re saying this team needs, and that’s what I’m looking to bring here.”

A third-round pick (No. 69 overall) of the Panthers in 2019, Ludvig never has played an NHL game of consequence but has spent parts of three seasons in the AHL. With the Checkers last season, Ludvig, a left-hander, appeared in 54 games and scored 17 points (three goals, 14 assists).

At 6-foot-1 and 213 pounds, Ludvig primarily offers a defensive game and isn’t afraid to get physical.

— Charlotte Checkers (@CheckersHockey) January 28, 2023

“He has good size, he has good strength, he’s really strong at the net front, he’s a good shot blocker, he’s hard to play against, he’s abrasive,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “Those are the strengths of his game. Potentially, that’s what he could bring to our group. We’re looking forward to working with him.”

Ludvig entered this past offseason as a restricted free agent, and the Panthers thought enough of him to re-sign him to a two-year contract extension in July. And they only placed him on waivers as a procedural maneuver that is required to assign players with his service time to a minor-league affiliate.

That allowed the Penguins to claim him, and as a result, he opened a season on an NHL roster for the first time in his career.

“It’s part of the business every year, coming into camp,” Ludvig said. “You just try and put your best foot forward and make the team you’re there with. But, things happen.

“Getting picked up here is a blessing for sure.”

Notes: Defenseman Will Butcher participated in the optional morning skate. This marked the first time Butcher — an unrestricted free-agent signing this past offseason (one-year, two-way contract) — took the ice in either a full practice or morning skate. An undisclosed injury suffered during offseason training has sidelined him to this point. … Wilkes-Barre/Scranton assigned forwards, Jordan Frasca, Ty Glover, Dillon Hamaliuk, Lukas Svejkovsky and goaltender Taylor Gauthier to Wheeling of the ECHL. All five players are signed to NHL contracts.

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