Wayne Train Back in the Penguins Station

PITTSBURGH - Choo choo! The Wayne Train has returned to Pittsburgh, as General Manager Ian Gurtowski announced today that the team had acquired Wayne Simmonds and cash considerations from the Calgary Flames in exchange for Patrick Marleau. Simmonds, 32, spent the first four seasons of his EHE career with the Penguins, amassing 83 goals and 108 assists for 191 points in 250 regular season games from 2014 to 2018, as well as being a key part of the Penguins team that went to the Lemieux Conference Final in 2016.

With him, Simmonds brings veteran experience as well as a brand of physicality and depth scoring that the Penguins desperately needed as they contiue to free fall in the standings (As of this writing, the Penguins are last in their division and 28th overall in the league). Simmonds bounced around quite a bit since leaving Pittsburgh, playing two tours with Colorado, as well as spending time with Carolina and Calgary. The early impression is that this is the conclusion to a year of turmoil for Simmonds.

"You know, we had a good thing going in Carolina and then to move on to Colorado and Calgary, it was a lot of movement in a short amount of time, you begin to get used to living out of a suitcase and you kinda forget where home is, so it's nice for me to come back to a team and a city that means so much to me and my family, as well as my career. It's also nice to see some familiar faces still hanging around as well. Benner [Jamie Benn], Eddy [Alexander Edler], and Dooby [Devan Dubnyk] were good guys to be around when I was here before, so I'm glad to be back with them and hopefully we can get the team on track."

GM Gurtowski also announced a separate deal today, that Richard Panik had been traded to the Golden Knights for Phil Di Giuseppe and cash considerations. Gurtowski wasn't available for comment today, but his office did release that they wish Panik the best in Vegas and that they just wanted a different look in the bottom six and that it wasn't personal.

The rumor mill has been cooking with gas this week, as whispers have started to come out about Riley Nash as well as some players on the Penguins AHL affiliate as well, who are third in their division and look interested in adding to the roster, unlike their NHL counterpart which appears to be shipping pieces off. Whatever happens, we know for sure that Di Giuseppe and Simmonds will both be in the lineup tonight as the Penguins are in Boston looking to put an end to their five game losing streak. Claude Julien appears to be rolling with another new set of forward lines tonight, based on the line rushes at practice today:

Benn-Horvat-White
Kempe-Norris-Saad
Di Giuseppe-Turris-Simmonds
Simon-Nash-Gibbons

The D pairs will remain the same and Jonathan Bernier is expected to get the start. Follow the game live at http://www.elitehockeysim.com/File/2020-RegularSeason/EHE2021-341.html and be sure to stick to the site for any more team news.