As you will recall, on December 2nd the Pittsburgh Penguins signed red-hot forward Stefan Noesen to an NHL contract. At the time, Noesen (on an AHL contract with the WBS Penguins) had scored 14 goals and 8 assists in 22 games for the minor league franchise. He did that despite signing for the team on the first day of the league calendar, one day before WBS’s season opener.
Noesen scored in his first game for Pittsburgh, part of a 3-0 shutout of the defending league champion St. Louis Blues, but in his next five games in the lineup he didn’t factor into the scoring at all, recording a meaningless minus December 14 against Los Angeles and averaging just over nine minutes of ice time across those five games.