2019 first-round pick Samuel Poulin to be on Penguins’ playoff roster

Samuel Poulin, Pittsburgh’s first-round selection in the 2019 NHL Draft, will be one of the forwards on the Penguins’ expanded roster for the playoffs, he told TVA Sports on Friday.

“Honestly, I would be lying if I said I didn’t expect news about the Penguins,” Poulin told TVA Sports in French. “I knew that I was a bit in their plans. Since the start of the pandemic, I trained knowing that I may be called back to practice with them, so I always had that in mind. To really receive the news, it proved that I had not trained for nothing and that I had put the efforts for the right reasons, so I am very satisfied with that.”

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Teams are expected to be able to carry 28 total skaters and an unlimited number of goaltenders on their expanded rosters for the playoffs. The Penguins currently have 23 healthy skaters on the NHL roster -- 15 forwards and eight defensemen -- so they will likely add three forwards to the expanded playoff roster before training camp begins on July 10. Poulin will be one of them.

Poulin, 19, is still in Quebec, and hasn’t been able to skate since the QMJHL season ended in March. Instead, he’s been rollerblading to keep in shape. He hopes to be able to skate next week at the practice facility of the Canadiens -- the Penguins’ first opponent -- in Brossard, Quebec, when the facility opens on Monday. The NHL is allowing players to skate in NHL facilities other than that of their own team during Phase 2 as long as ice time allows for it, and only four Canadiens -- Paul Byron, Jonathan Drouin, Charles Hudon and Michael McNiven -- are currently in Montreal.

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