Pittsburgh Penguins Send Cal O'Reilly to WBS

The Pittsburgh Penguins announced earlier this morning that they’ve reassigned newly acquired forward, Cal O’Reilly, to WBS.

I was busy thinking about which player may be returning to the lineup to wonder about how the Penguins are able to assign O’Reilly to the AHL being that they recently claimed him; however, the official Penguins webpage is on top of it with this explanation:

O’Reilly did not have to clear waivers to head to WBS. Since he was claimed off waivers, the team has 10 games or 30 days to evaluate him. Since he has not surpassed either mark, he does not have to clear waivers to be sent to WBS. However, if he is to be recalled, he will have to clear re-entry waivers to come back to Pittsburgh

I’m still not sure if this means that any of the players will be returning to the lineup for the game on Saturday, but it is surely a possibility with O’Reilly being sent down to Pittsburgh’s AHL affiliate; however, they always have the option of bringing another forward up today or tomorrow.

Also, the Penguins re-assigned goalie Brad Thiessen back to WBS yesterday as back-up, Brent Johnson, is better and returned to practicing with the team after having a cold.

Sidney Crosby is also back practicing with the team today as is Brooks Orpik; Matt Niskanen isn’t on the ice according to PittsburghPenguins.com.  If there’s any significant news later, I’ll be sure to keep you updated.