NHL Rumors: Columbus Blue Jackets and the Pittsburgh Penguins
Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Jack Johnson

Milano may not get through waivers if placed on it

Aaron Portzline of The Athletic: Columbus Blue Jackets forward Sonny Milano is no longer waiver exempt. After talking with executives from five different teams, all doubt Milano would get through waivers if the Blue Jackets put him on it.

With two spots open, Milano could be battling with Emil Bemstrom, Marko Dano and Jakob Lilja.

Penguins have some decisions to make to become cap compliant

Josh Yohe of The Athletic: The Pittsburgh Penguins are over the salary cap by around $300,000-$400,000 and a trade is “definitely a possibility” according to Penguins GM Jim Rutherford.

“We have several options,” Rutherford said Tuesday night, “none of them that we are totally comfortable with.”

The Penguins looked at trading goaltender Tristan Jarry this offseason but there were no takers. The goalie market may be heating up now though.

“We just couldn’t do anything in the summer,” Rutherford said. “But in the last three or four days, things have changed. The market is really heating up, especially for goalies.”

Forwards Bryan Rust and Nick Bjugstad are believed to also be available for trade. Defenseman Jack Johnson could also be made available as he could be falling down the depth chart.

Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The Penguins may have to make a roster decision they really don’t want to make.

“There’s always difficult situations when you’re dealing with the cap. Usually it’s a decision you don’t want to make. But you get forced to,” the GM said Tuesday when asked if there were any surprises during training camp. “As for the roster, yeah, it’s coming together pretty much the way we expected it to.”

Options to get under the salary could include keeping less than 23 players, having Tristan Jarry as their back up and not Casey DeSmith,  trading a veteran or demote him for a little bit of cap relief.

The Penguins had thought they could clear a little room in the offseason but found out there were a lot of other teams trying to do the same.