Tangradi Re-Assigned To Wheeling?

All of us have heard of movies having alternate endings.

How about an alternate beginning?

After announcing their final roster moves yesterday and revealing that power forward Eric Tangradi had made the team, the Penguins shocked many by later announcing that they had re-assigned the Big Dog to the Wheeling Nailers of the East Coast Hockey League.

Not Wilkes-Barre Scranton. 

Wheeling.

Together with that re-assignment came the news that goaltender Patrick Kileen had been called up from Wheeling.

Huh?

Trying to figure out what the Penguins were doing led to all kind of speculation, either about something Tangradi did, about the need to be salary cap compliant, about one of the Penguins' netminders -- Marc-Andre Fleury or Brent Johnson -- having a sudden injury or being ill, and even about whether or not there was any connection between the moves and forward Aaron Asham's seeming uncertain status for tonight's home opener against the arch-rival Philadelphia Flyers at the CONSOL Energy Center.

Right now, exactly what went on remains unclear, but a few reports have indicated that the  Fleury and Johnson are both healthy, and that the team expects Tangradi to be back with the big club today because the move was only temporary. 

One thing is for sure -- having Tangradi in Wheeling, rather than WBS, keeps him close.  And he doesn't have to clear waivers.  Both of those things suggest a quick return.

Still, that begs the question --- WHY? 

Well, it's only rational to assume the Penguins have a plan of SOME kind, because if they told Tangradi he had made the team, only to reverse course suddenly a few hours later, that would be bad on them.   Especially since the joy and emotion from Tangradi was obvious in the immediate aftermath of the announcement that he was supposed to stick. 

He even said he was going to have a lot of family and friends coming from Philadelphia -- his home town -- to watch him. 

If the Penguins blundered and really didn't intend to keep him despite telling him as much, well .... maybe they aren't as good with player relations as they are with fan relations.

In my season preview, I'm going to assume that #42 will return to the team sometime today.

Look for that shortly.