Jake Livanavage
Jake Livanavage is a 22-year-old, left-shot defenseman who signed out of North Dakota, got a brief NHL cameo at the end of last season, and spent this training camp fighting for a full-time job; as of the Penguins' own announcement on September 26, 2026 he has been reassigned to the AHL's Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, so he opens the season outside the NHL lineup.
Role
Per Pittsburgh Hockey Now and the Penguins' own team X account (both September 26, 2026), Livanavage was sent to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton along with Owen Pickering, Chase Pietila, Rafael Harvey-Pinard and goalie Cam Johnson as the Penguins trimmed their camp roster; Caleb Jones was waived for the same purpose. In the September 24 exhibition game against Columbus (Pittsburgh's own preseason lineup release and PensBurgh's game recap), he was paired with Ilya Solovyov on the blue line; he did not dress in the September 21 exhibition opener against Buffalo. With Erik Karlsson, Kris Letang, Trevor van Riemsdyk and Sam Girard treated as roster locks on defense per The Hockey News' camp preview, Livanavage was competing with Harrison Brunicke, Tomas Galvas, Owen Pickering, Declan Carlile and Kaeden Korczak for the final one or two spots, and that competition did not go his way for opening night.
He is regarded as one of the more polished young defensemen in the system, an alternate captain at North Dakota who put up strong collegiate numbers and logged heavy minutes, and The Hockey News' camp preview (reported roughly three weeks before this check) described him as a legitimate contender for a full-time NHL role this season rather than a long-shot camp body; he already has an NHL game under his belt from last season's finale.
The roster decision has already been made for now: the Penguins' own transaction announcement on September 26, 2026 confirms he was assigned to the AHL rather than kept on the 23-man roster, meaning he begins the regular season without an NHL job, behind a defense corps that The Hockey News flagged as having four established veterans plus other younger competitors ahead of or alongside him for the remaining spots.
Where analysts split
There is no active analyst disagreement to report here; the roster question that was open through camp (whether he'd win a job over Brunicke, Galvas, Carlile, Korczak and Pickering) was just settled by the club itself sending him down on September 26. The open question going forward, which has not yet been addressed in coverage found, is how quickly Pittsburgh would call him up if an injury hits the NHL blue line.
Research confidence: reported. Outlooks are grounded in web search over current reporting and refreshed through the season.
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