Penguins set roster - 9-29-09

The Penguins set their roster at 21 players today and forwards Paul Bissonnette, Ryan Bayda and Chris Conner and defensemen Nate Guenin (above) and Deryk Engelland are not on it. All five were placed on waivers with the hopes of demoting them to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL.

Defenseman, Martin Skoula, signed earlier today, will be on the season-opening roster as the No. 7 defenseman.

The roster:

FORWARDS

27 - Craig Adams

24 - Matt Cooke

87 - Sidney Crosby

9 - Pascal Dupuis

26 - Ruslan Fedotenko

28 - Eric Godard

13 - Bill Guerin

48 - Tyler Kennedy

14 - Chris Kunitz

38 - Mark Letestu-*

71 - Evgeni Malkin

17 - Mike Rupp

11 - Jordan Staal

25 - Maxime Talbot-*

DEFENSEMEN

7 - Mark Eaton

3 - Alex Goligoski

55 - Sergei Gonchar

58 - Kris Letang

6 - Ben Lovejoy-*

74 - Jay McKee

44 - Brooks Orpik

XX - Martin Skoula

GOALTENDERS

29 - Marc-Andre Fleury

1 - Brent Johnson

*-Injured reserve

EN Says:  It might be a bit surprising that the Penguins aren't going with a 13th forward, but all the potential candidates for that position are on two-way contracts. The Penguins save a little bit of money and Bayda, Bissonnette and Conner each get playing time at the AHL level instead of being a regular scratch at the NHL level.

As far as Skoula versus Engelland or Guenin, it's still a bit of a head-scratcher for us, but he's a veteran who has found a way to be an NHL regular for the past nine seasons. Guenin and Engelland have struggled to break into the NHL throughout their professional careers. On paper, the move make sense.

That all said, NHL teams still have roughly 24 hours to set their rosters. The Penguins could still make a claim off waivers.

UPDATE: According to Bob McKenzie of TSN, Skoula's deal is worth $575,000.

(Photo: Jay LaPrete/Associated Press)