Head coach Mike Sullivan provides an update on Riley Sheahan.

The Pittsburgh Penguins had an extremely busy day on Sunday in spite of the fact that we have not yet reached the start of the 2018 - 2019 National Hockey League regular season. The Penguins placed a whopping 6 players on the waiver wire as they prepared to face off against long time rivals the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday afternoon and amidst all that action some good news appeared to slip through the cracks.

According to a report from Pens Inside Scoop head coach Mike Sullivan confirmed to them this morning that veteran forward Riley Sheahan was able to participate in a full practice today, one that included full contact for the first time since he suffered a lower body injury. Sheahan has been on the road to recovery for the past week or so and has been skating on his own for some time, but obviously participating in a practice with your teammates at full speed, especially when contact is involved, is a major step forward in recovery.

That being said though it's not clear how well things went for Sheahan on Sunday morning as Pens Inside Scoop has indicated that the Penguins are going to continue monitoring the injured forward and "will see how he responds" moving forward following the practice. Unfortunately for Sheahan he likely would have relished the opportunity to be fully healthy today as the Penguins are set to face off against Sheahan's former team this afternoon. It's only a preseason game but considering Sheahan spent the majority of his career as a Red Wing I have no doubt that he would have loved the chance to face off against some familiar faces.

Sheahan, a center, was a pretty strong performer for the Penguins last season after he was traded to Pittsburgh by the aforementioned Red Wings. Following the trade Sheahan appeared in 73 regular season games for Pittsburgh and recording 11 goals and 21 assists for a total of 32 points on the season. He finished the year with a plus minus rating of +4 but perhaps most important of all he provided Penguins coach Mile Sullivan and general manager Jim Rutherford with the depth of the middle that they so desperately wanted. Unfortunately for Sheahan though the Penguins fell short of their goal of winning a third consecutive Stanley Cup Champion but they can take solace in the fact that they lost to a red hot team that eventually went on to capture hockey's holy grail.

One more little bit of information on the Sullivan front as well. The veteran head coach appeared to be extremely pleased with the performance of 24 year old defenseman Juuso Riikola over the week end and even appeared to sing the praises of general manager Jim Rutherford for getting the deal done.

“His hockey sense jumps out at you. He’s a real good puck mover. He can skate. What surprised me is his willingness to embrace physical aspects of the game… When we signed him, we thought he could play the game we want to play - he's found a way to do that."

Things are looking up for the Pens.

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