Penguins bring back defenseman P.O Joseph in trade with Blues

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ divorce from P.O Joseph did not last long.

A little more than five months after the Penguins allowed Joseph to walk away as a free agent, they brought the left-handed defenseman back after acquiring him in a trade with the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday evening in exchange for future considerations.

The 25-year-old Joseph has appeared in 23 games this season and recorded two assists. He has averaged 13 minutes, 6 seconds of ice time per contest while skating primarily on the Blues’ third pairing. In addition to being a healthy scratch for seven games this season, he missed three contests with an undisclosed injury in mid-November.

The transaction comes on the heels of fellow left-handed defenseman Marcus Pettersson landing on injured reserve because of an undisclosed ailment that will keep him sidelined on a “week-to-week” basis. Additionally, reserve defensemen Sebastian Aho and Jack St. Ivany, each currently assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, are hobbled with undisclosed injuries as well.

Via an e-mail with Pittsburgh-based outlets, Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas explained the reasons for the reunion.

“It was a confluence of a number of things,” Dubas wrote. “First, injuries to our defensive position and depth at large. Second, the impending departure of (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins defenseman) Mac Hollowell for Team Canada for the Spengler Cup. Third, losing (defenseman) John Ludvig on waivers in the fall. Fourth, the holiday roster freeze (Thursday) night. We just didn’t feel we were putting our group in a good enough position to perform or develop, in some cases, and needed to shore up our depth there.

“There’s a familiarity with P.O — the person and the player with most of our coaches room and staff — that doesn’t exist with the others on the waiver wire today, so we felt this was the best course of action to bolster our depth with someone that won’t require a lot of lag time to get up to speed with our team.”

This past offseason, Joseph (6-foot-2, 185 pounds) was scheduled to become a restricted free agent July 1, but the Penguins did not extend a formal qualifying offer to Joseph, allowing him to become an unrestricted free agent.

Dubas cited the risk of a high arbitration award that could have clouded the Penguins’ salary cap figures as a leading factor for that decision.

“We offered (Joseph) a contract, but it became one of those situations where he had arbitration rights and by qualifying him it would have put us at the mercy of various other cases signed by the comparison group over the summer, so we elected not to qualify him,” Dubas wrote. “Early in free agency we moved to sign (defenseman) Ryan Shea, Sebastian Aho and P.O. eventually signed with St. Louis. It happens pretty frequently with players in P.O’s situation that have arbitration rights.”

On July 2, Joseph signed with the Blues, agreeing to a one-year deal with a salary cap hit of $950,000. He is a pending restricted free agent after this season.

Last season, Joseph appeared in 52 games with the Penguins and scored 11 points while averaging 15 minutes, 5 seconds of ice time per contest. A significant portion of his playing time in 2023-24 came on the top defensive pairing with Kris Letang, a player he became close to as a friend. According to Natural Stat Trick, Joseph logged 371:19 of common five-on-five ice time with Letang last season, his highest figure with any non-goaltender on the roster.

In a corresponding transaction Wednesday, the Penguins assigned defenseman Nate Clurman to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. A day earlier, he was recalled to the NHL for the first time in his five-year professional career. Clurman, 26, is signed to a one-year, two-way contract with a salary cap hit of $775,000.

After Wednesday’s transactions, the Penguins have $$3,087,144 of salary cap space according to Puckpedia’s figures. The addition of Joseph gives them 49 active NHL contracts this season, one short of the league’s limit of 50.

These maneuvers come as the NHL’s holiday roster freeze is about to begin. Between Dec. 20-27, NHL clubs are not permitted to make specific transactions (i.e. waivers, trades or assignments to a minor league affiliate), though a handful of exceptions exist.

The Penguins originally acquired Joseph in June 2019 via a multi-player trade that sent forward Phil Kessel to the Arizona Coyotes.

Joseph spent five seasons with the Penguins organization between the NHL and AHL rosters before signing with the Blues.

For the Blues, they had a surplus of left-handed defensemen after they acquired blueliners Cam Fowler in a trade with the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.