Two players removed from the Penguins’ roster amidst growing monster trade rumours

On Wednesday, fans who browsed the Pittsburgh Penguins’ NHL roster were stunned to notice that, once again, forwards Vinnie Hinstroza and Radim Zohorna have been removed from the roster per the league’s media site.

While there is no precise explanation on the roster moves at this time officially from the Penguins, team insider Seth Rorabaugh from the Pittsburgh Tribune Live points to paper transactions for the salary cap.

Right when the transactions were shared on social media, fans wondered why the Penguins kept doing this. Rorabaugh explains the moves with the Penguins potentially, eventually, benefiting from an incremental amount that could help Pittsburgh them down the road for potentially larger transactions later this season.

Cap Friendly also explains what the Penguins could be looking to do and prevent in advance under the section about “Accruable Cap Space Limit”, in which we can read:

“The accruable cap space limit is the teams new upper limit excluding their LTIR relief pools. If the team operates below the ACSL, they begin to accrue cap space. A team can operate up to the ACSL without using their LTIR relief pools, once they operate above the ACSL, they begin to use their LTIR relief pools. In the majority of cases, a team using LTIR will be using their relief pools. Only in uncommon circumstances does a team operate below their ACSL.”

These moves to the roster has fueled the latest trade rumours emerging from Pittsburgh after their disappointing 3-6-0 start through October. The Athletic’s Josh Yohe therefore believes general manager Kyle Dubas could be looking at making a significant move if the Penguins can’t snap out of their slump. However Dubas will need to battle against a $90,000 cap space and many potential trade chips that carry no-trade clauses.

Pittsburgh Hockey Now’s Dan Kingerski recently suggested Dubas could look for help among some of his Metropolitan Division rivals, maybe finding a way to convinced the bitter rivals Philadelphia Flyers to help, seeing that they have more than $12 million eligible for long-term injury reserve, including $6.25 million in Ryan Ellis’ cap hit, per PuckPedia.

A lot happening in Pittsburgh...

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