With Rust Out, Blueger Recalled

The Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday recalled forward Teddy Blueger from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL on an emergency basis, a day after winger Bryan Rust got hurt.

The Penguins needed to add a forward before Friday’s game at Buffalo. At practice Wednesday, they were one player short of being able to fill out four lines, forcing assistant Mark Recchi into substitute duty on the fourth line. Rust will be out longer term because of a lower-body injury believed to involve his left leg.

Blueger, 24 and a second-round draft pick in 2012, had three goals and an assist in nine games in a recent call-up. There seemed to be a consensus that he played well enough to stick, but there was a numbers crunch and Blueger did not require waivers to return to the AHL, so he was returned earlier this week.

After he was sent back to WBS, he was asked if he had done enough to earn another promotion. According to the Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader, Blueger said, “To an extent. To be honest I was hoping to stick around and stay up there. For the most part I played well but I came up a bit short of my end goal.”