Besides the news earlier today that the Penguins traded away Sergei Plotnikov for Mattias Plachta, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Arizona Coyotes were not done doing business with one another.

Pittsburgh traded away Matia Marcantuoni for Dustin Jeffrey and two ECHLers in Dan O’Donoghue and James Melindy. Marcantuoni goes to Springfield, Jeffrey to Wilkes-Barre from Springfield. O’Donoghue and Melindy from Rapid City of the ECHL to Wheeling.

Not a bad haul if you ask me for the farm from Pittsburgh. The markets were too expensive for the already cap strapped Penguins so they shored up things with the affiliates in Wilkes-Barre and Wheeling.

Regarding Jeffrey, here are a few tweets…

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Wait. What?

Apparently Oskar Sundqvist was injured this past weekend, apparently during the 3-2 loss yesterday to the Providence Bruins. I watched the whole game and nothing stood out to me regarding an injury to Sundqvist.

There were other moves today.

David Warsofsky was placed on waivers yesterday for the purposes of reassignment to Wilkes-Barre. Well, at noon today we learned that the New Jersey Devils claimed Warsofsky. That’s the second Ray Shero / John Hynes waiver claim from the Pittsburgh Penguins this season. Earlier this season the Devils claimed Bobby Farnham. Hynes saw his full share of Warsofsky, facing against the defensemen in the AHL Calder Cup Playoffs and also coached him in the U.S. Development program.

More on Plachta.

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Paper moves.

According to the Penguins transaction page on theAHL.com, the Pittsburgh Penguins assigned Bryan Rust, Scott Wilson, Conor Sheary, Matt Murray and Derrick Pouliot were assigned to Wilkes-Barre thus making them eligible to play again in the AHL this season. There was an interesting twist, however. NHL teams don’t normally announce AHL paper moves on trade deadline day. They made a formal announcement on the reassignment of Conor Sheary. Pursuant to the transaction page mentioned earlier, Rust, Wilson, Murray and Pouliot were “recalled” back to Pittsburgh while Sheary remained.

That could be procedural, as NHL teams are limited now to just four callups. Teams skirt the rules under “emergency” reasons, so conceivably Sheary could return to Pittsburgh tomorrow. Time will tell, but it is fun to speculate…

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Skating on the Susquehanna has a nice summary of the days proceedings.

Elsewhere in the Division…

The Washington Capitals traded Chris Brown to the New York Rangers and in return received Ryan Bourque. Both players will report to their respective AHL teams. Bourque, joining his brother in Hershey and Brown to Hartford. Later, Connor Carrick was traded to Toronto in a deal involving NHL players.

Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley stayed quiet.

Boston / Providence got ex-Penguin Max Talbot and Joonas Kemppainen and Zac Rinaldo to the Rhode Island capital. Providence is a perfect dark horse in the Atlantic.

Springfield was pillaged, losing Corey Potter to Nashville, in addition to Jeffrey and Plachta.

Bridgeport and Portland didn’t make any moves that jumped out.

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Overall, not a bad haul for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins. They lose a key defenseman and a power play quarterback in Warsofsky to waivers but gain an elite AHL scorer in Jeffrey, shore up their ECHL affiliate with O’Donoghue and Melindy and add Plachta who I am thinking the change of scenery will do him well.

So there you have it. Wilkes-Barre is setup to claw back against Herhsey and regain the Atlantic Division lead. The Penguins play the Bears twice this weekend.

Let’s Go Pens!