Joseph, Bjorkqvist, Riikola, Domingue Recalled For Taxi Squad

Following the new NHL rules about taxi squads, the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday recalled four players from their American Hockey League affiliate, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton: defensemen P.O. Joseph and Juuso Riikola, forward Kasper Bjorkqvist and goaltender Louis Dominigue.

They could be of use with six Penguins players in COVID-19 protocol, including goaltender Tristan Jarry.

The Penguins’ next scheduled game is Friday at Ottawa.

Here is the full news release from the Penguins:

The Pittsburgh Penguins have assigned forward Kasper Bjorkqvist, defensemen P.O Joseph and Juuso Riikola, and goaltender Louis Domingue to the taxi squad from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey League, it was announced today by general manager Ron Hextall.

Bjorkqvist, 24, has appeared in a career-high 17 games for WBS this season, notching two goals, an assist, three points and one game-winning goal. The native of Espoo, Finland has spent parts of three seasons with WBS, dressing in 28 games and accumulating five points (4G-1A). Last season, the 6-foot-1, 198-pound Bjorkqvist spent the majority of the season with KooKoo of Liiga, Finland’s top professional league, where he finished fifth on the team with 26 points (11G-15A) in 44 games.

Joseph, 22, has split this season between Pittsburgh and WBS, appearing in four games for Pittsburgh and 16 games for WBS. With WBS, Joseph is tied for third on the team and ranks first among defensemen with 11 points (3G-8A) and is a team-high plus-5. His three goals this year are tied for his AHL career high set in 52 games during the 2019-20 campaign. In total, the Laval, Quebec native has accumulated five points (1G-4A) in 20 NHL contests, and 41 points (7G-34A) in 91 AHL games.

Riikola, 27, has also split the season between Pittsburgh and WBS, registering one assist and is plus-2 in five games with Pittsburgh and six assists in 10 games with WBS. The 6-foot, 189-pound blueliner played in two games for the Penguins during the 2020-21 campaign and practiced with the team’s taxi squad for the majority of the year. The Joensuu, Finland native has dressed for 80 career NHL games, scoring three goals, 10 assists and 13 points with a plus-8. In 15 career AHL games split between the 2018-19 and ’21-22 seasons, Riikola has tallied eight assists.

Domingue, 29, has played in 10 games for the WBS Penguins this season, going 3-4-2 with a .918 save percentage and 2.69 goals-against average. The 6-foot-3, 208-pound native of Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec has played 140 games in the NHL over the past seven seasons with Arizona, Tampa Bay, New Jersey, Vancouver and Calgary. Domingue has compiled a 58-59-10 record at the NHL level with a 3.05 goals-against average, .904 save percentage and two shutouts.