The Penguins reportedly signed Declan Carlile to a two-year deal, adding a 26-year-old left-shot defenseman to the left side of their blue line. The move comes during free agency and after Parker Wotherspoon was moved out yesterday.
Declan Carlile in Pittsburgh
Carlile is 6 feet 3 inches and 190 pounds, and last season gave Tampa 42 regular-season games plus two playoff games after spending a handful of years in the AHL. He made a decent accounting on the PK, which is part of why he fits the depth profile Pittsburgh appears to be targeting.
The Penguins have added again in free agency, and this one reads as a low-risk piece with a clear path to minutes if the staff wants another left-shot option. That path is more open now because Parker Wotherspoon is gone, which leaves room for Carlile to compete with other depth defenders for work on the left side.
Ryan Shea and Ilya Solovyov
The complication is overlap. Carlile is the kind of player Pittsburgh already has in Ryan Shea, and the article also points to Ilya Solovyov as a similar depth option, so the signing adds competition as much as it adds insurance. For a player coming off a 42-game NHL sample, the challenge is turning a reported two-year deal into a regular role rather than another roster layer.
Development camp takes center stage this week, and Carlile will be part of the group as Pittsburgh sorts out who can handle the next step. The deal gives him a chance to push for a bigger role, but the contract details beyond the two-year term were not laid out, leaving the structure of the move as the one practical question still hanging over it.
