Penguins acquire blueliner Colton Poolman from Sabres
The Pittsburgh Penguins swung a minor-league trade Friday afternoon, acquiring defenseman Colton Poolman from the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for forward Bennett MacArthur.
Poolman, 29, has appeared in five games for the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League and is signed through 2024-25 at $775,000 annually.
He will report to the Penguins’ AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
The move comes as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton battles through a shortage of bodies on the blue line, with Sebastian Aho, Filip Kral, Justin Lee and Jack St. Ivany all missing practice lately, per Inside AHL Hockey’s Tony Androckitis.
Those not on the ice for practice today include:
Defensemen
Sebastian Aho
Mac Hollowell (Spengler Cup)
Justin Lee
Nilolai Knyzhov
Filip Kral
Jack St IvanyForwards
Raivis Ansons
Jimmy Huntington@InsideAHLHockey— Tony Androckitis* (@TonyAndrock) December 31, 2024
The 6-foot-1, 200-pound Poolman was undrafted out of the North Dakota by the Calgary Flames in 2020.
In parts of four AHL campaigns with the Flames, he played with the Stockton Heat and Calgary Wranglers (the Heat relocated to Calgary and became the Wranglers ahead of the 2022-23 season), Poolman scored six goals with 33 assists in 2018 career games.
This past summer, he was signed as a free agent by the Buffalo Sabres.
He has an assist and a minus-2 rating this year with Rochester.
Poolman, a left-handed shot, is the brother of Colorado Avalanche defenseman Tucker Poolman.
Note: Friday featured another deal made with the Americans, as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton traded forward Jagger Joshua for future considerations. Joshua, 25, has been limited to four AHL contests this year due to injury. In 2023-24, his first season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton after going undrafted out of Michigan State, he scored 10 goals with 15 assists in 63 games.
Justin Guerriero is a TribLive reporter covering the Penguins, Pirates and college sports. A Pittsburgh native, he is a Central Catholic and University of Colorado graduate. He joined the Trib in 2022 after covering the Colorado Buffaloes for Rivals and freelancing for the Denver Post. He can be reached at jguerriero@triblive.com.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.