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Pittsburgh Penguins Cut Ties With Pierre-Olivier Joseph
With NHL free agency opening today, yesterday was the deadline for teams to issue qualifying offers to their restricted free agents, and Kyle Dubas elected not to qualify one surprising player.
That player would be defenseman Pierre-Olivier Joseph, who was a former 1st round pick of the Arizona Coyotes back in 2017.
Joseph never played a game for the Coyotes and has instead spent the majority of his career playing in Pittsburgh.
Of his 194 career games played, 171 of them have been with the Penguins.
The only stint he had away from the team came this season, where he started the year with the St. Louis Blues.
However, after just 23 games with the Blues, he was traded back to the Penguins, where he spent the rest of the season, putting up a single assist in 24 games.
The 25-year-old was a restricted free agent heading into the offseason, but now he will be free to sign wherever he wishes as Kyle Dubas has elected not to issue him a qualifying offer.
This year's class of free agents is considered to be quite weak, and there is a big drop off after Mitch Marner, who tops the list.
This is good for Joseph, as it gives him a chance to earn a contract with another team.
If the free agent class was a bit deeper, there would be a realistic chance that he would be forced to sign a tryout contract when training camps kick off in the fall.
For the Penguins though, this move is largely inconsequential as the team already has seven defenders signed for next season.
Perhaps this means rookie Owen Pickering will get a bigger opportunity with the club next season as they look to start turning things around.
Either way, Kyle Dubas and the Penguins could be very busy tomorrow as free agency kicks off, so be sure to tune in to see how things play out.
| POLL | ||
JUILLET 1 | 150 ANSWERS Pittsburgh Penguins Cut Ties With Pierre-Olivier Joseph Are you surprised that Pierre-Olivier Joseph did not receive a qualifying offer from the Pittsburgh Penguins this offseason? | ||
| Yes | 32 | 21.3 % |
| No | 110 | 73.3 % |
| Unsure | 8 | 5.3 % |
| List of polls | ||