Penguins acquire Riley Barber, Phil Varone from Canadiens
TORONTO — The Penguins have acquired minor league forwards Riley Barber and Phil Varone from the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for forwards Joseph Blandisi and Jake Lucchini.
Barber and Varone will each report to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League.
Barber, 26, is a native of Washington, Pa. A sixth-round pick of the Washington Capitals in 2012, Barber has predominately played in the American Hockey league during his professional career. Barber has all of 12 career NHL games on his resume, with nine coming this season as a member of the Canadiens. He has no career points.
In 39 AHL games with the Laval Rocket this season, Barber (6-foot, 203 pounds) has 31 points (13 goals, 18 assists).
(Video courtesy the Laval Rocket)
He is signed to a one-year, two-way contract with a salary cap hit of $700,000 at the NHL level. Barber is scheduled to become a restricted free agent this upcoming offseason.
Last season, Barber, then a member of the Hershey Bears, was sixth in the AHL with 31 goals in 64 games.
He is the son of Don Barber, a forward with the Minnesota North Stars, Winnipeg Jets, Quebec Nordiques and San Jose Sharks throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
Varone, 29, has appeared in 27 games with Laval this season and has 14 points (four goals 10 assists). A fifth-round pick of the San Jose Sharks in 2009, the 5-10, 193-pound forward has 97 career NHL games and 17 points (eight goals, nine assists) with the Buffalo Sabres, Ottawa Senators and Philadelphia Flyers.
He is signed to a one-year, two-way contract with a salary cap hit of $700,00o and is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent this upcoming offseason.
Blandisi, 25, had appeared in 21 NHL games this season for the Penguins and scored five points (two goals, three assists). Recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on seven different occasions this season, including one sequence which saw him play four games in four days at the NHL and AHL levels, Blandisi has played in 26 AHL games this season and had 14 points (six goals, eight assists). He is on a one-year, two-way contract and is a pending restricted free agent.
The Penguins acquired Blandisi in a trade which sent forward Derek Grant to the Anaheim Ducks on Jan. 17, 2019.
Lucchini, 24, has never played in the NHL. In 53 AHL game this season, he has 15 points (seven goals, eight assists). The Penguins signed him as an undrafted free agent from Michigan Tech in March of 2019. He is on a one-year entry-level contract and is a pending restricted free agent.
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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