Announced today was the news that the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have signed Peter Mannino to a contract for the 2013-14 campaign.
Mannino played 20 games for the Manchester Monarchs last season. He filled in sparingly for the Monarchs as Martin Jones saw the lions share of work in Manchester last season in goal.
The signing is an interesting one at best, as Pittsburgh just signed Eric Hartzell to an NHL contract. Unless there’s a competition in camp, one would project that Hartzell starts the season in Wheeling, likely starting every game he possibly can to get pro experience. I can’t see the Penguins carrying three goalies (Jeff Zatkoff being the other goalie not mentioned yet)
However, the move does make some sense in regards to the young, fairly inexperienced Wilkes-Barre blue line projected for the Fall. You now have two veteran goaltenders to backstop all the youth.
Mannino was a member of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in 2008-09, and their play-by-play voice Phil Giubileo chirped in with the following:
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I do have other things in the hopper that I want to off in a future blog post. Just minor moves in and around the East Division. If no other news breaks (which I don’t expect it to) that will all roll in the Thursday Summer blog update.
* – No malice intended with this headline. You’ll probably see it again in a future game recap.
WBS News
Chirps from Center Ice 