The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins announced on Monday that the club has signed defenseman Dmitri Samorukov to a one-year American Hockey League contract for the 2023-24 season. Samorukov, 24, played in 69 games with the Springfield Thunderbirds in 2022-23 tallying a career-best 20 points (four goals, 16 assists). The native of Volgograd, Russia has 172 games of AHL experience between Bakersfield and Springfield.
Samorukov was acquired by the St. Louis Blues from the Edmonton Oilers days before the 2022-23 season got underway with the Thunderbirds in desperate need of help on the back end. With the Blues loading up on young talent on their blue line’s depth chart, the team elected not to extend Samorukov and left him as a free agent, with this contract his first at the AHL level.
The signing adds some additional depth to the Penguins’ lineup for 2023-24. Wilkes-Barre is icing a very different group than they did a year prior, and Samorukov will have to battle his way into a lineup spot for most games amongst several veterans like Xavier Ouellet, Taylor Fedun, and Will Butcher. The bright side is that there’s plenty of room for spots to be earned with enough turnover on the roster for him to impress, a feat easier said than done.
It’s the latest add of veteran talent across the board for the Penguins, who signed goaltender Garret Sparks and forward Austin Rueschhoff to AHL contracts earlier in the summer to further bolster their lineup. It’s going to be a solid mix of veteran players guiding future Pittsburgh hopefuls in the early stages of their professional careers under the direction of J.D. Forrest and company behind the bench at Mohegan Sun Arena.
