Pittsburgh Penguins place Paul Martin on IR, re-call Simon Despres
By Matt Shetler
The bad news keeps piling up for the Pittsburgh Penguins in terms of injuries as Wednesday the team placed defenseman Paul Martin and forward Tanner Glass on IR and made a slew of roster moves.
Martin and Glass joins the likes of Rob Scuderi, Tomas Vokoun and Beau Bennett as major pieces of Dan Bylsma’s team who are currently out of the lineup.
April 27, 2013; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Simon Despres (47) handles the puck against the Carolina Hurricanes during the third period at the CONSOL Energy Center. The Pittsburgh Penguins won 8-3. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
To replenish the injured bodies, Penguins general manager Ray Shero called up three more bodies from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League.
Two days after summoning forwards Zach Sill and Andrew Ebbett from WBS, the Penguins have promoted forwards Jayson Megna and Chris Conner along with defenseman Simon Despres.
It’s the second promotion for Menga as the 23-year old played in six NHL games this season, tallying three points, scoring a pair of goals. In 11 games with Wilkes-Barre this season Menga has scored seven goals to go along with three assists.
Conner is no stranger to the Penguins locker room either as he has 19 career points in 70 games with the Penguins spanning several seasons. He’s collected 11 points in 15 AHL games and appeared in two games on the big roster already this season.
As for Despres, he was passed on the depth chart this season by youngster Olli Maatta, but gets another opportunity to show what he can do.
Last year, Despres posted NHL career-high totals with 33 games played, two goals, five assists and seven points with Pittsburgh. He is currently riding a nice streak where he has totaled eight points over his last nine games with WBS.