Penguins place Elmer Soderblom on injured reserve, activate Justin Brazeau

The Pittsburgh Penguins have done some shuffling with their roster, as they’ve placed winger Elmer Soderblom on injured reserve and activated winger Justin Brazeau from IR on Wednesday.

Soderblom’s status was in doubt after the team announced on Tuesday that he wasn’t participating in practice and was day-to-day with an upper-body injury. This latest announcement confirms that he will miss at least the next week with the injury, as he can’t be activated from IR for at least seven days.

Soderblom has been in and out of the lineup this season as a healthy scratch, only playing in six of the Penguins’ 12 games so far this season. He has one assist in those six games.

Brazeau has been activated off of IR in Soderblom’s place, although he won’t immediately return to Pittsburgh, as the team announced that he’s been assigned to their AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, for a conditioning stint. He’s missed the entirety of the regular season thus far after sustaining an injury to his right foot in training camp, and will use the conditioning stint to work his way back to NHL play.

Brazeau is coming off the best season of his career, as he had 17 goals and 17 assists for 34 points in 64 games with the Penguins last season. All three stats were career highs for the winger.

The Penguins also announced that Avery Hayes and Chase Pietila were re-assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Wednesday. While nothing is official, it appears those moves were made in preparation for activating Sam Girard and Ben Kindel from IR ahead of Thursday’s game against the Utah Mammoth.

The Penguins currently sit in sixth in the Metropolitan Division with a 5-6-1 record, and are five points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Pittsburgh will look to build off of back-to-back wins when they host the Mammoth on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET.