Penguins Sign RW Austin Wagner to Pro Tryout

The competition for a spot on the Pittsburgh Penguins’ bottom two lines just got a little more complicated.

They have signed right winger Austin Wagner, who played seven games with Chicago last season, to a professional tryout agreement.

Wagner skates well and can be an effective forechecker, but has limited offensive ability, as evidenced by his career totals of 23 goals and 19 assists in 178 NHL games.

Wagner, 26, was a fourth-round draft choice by the Kings in 2015. His most productive NHL season was 2018-19, when he put up 12 goals and nine assists in 62 games.

Kyle Dubas, the Penguins’ president of hockey operations and general manager, has made upgrading the team’s bottom-six a priority during this offseason, bringing in the likes of Lars Eller, Noel Acciari, Matt Nieto and Rem Pitlick, among others.

All of those players are under contract, which suggests Wagner will have to significantly outperform at least one of them to earn a place on the major-league roster for the regular-season opener Oct. 10 against Chicago.