The Pirates roster was pretty stacked heading into the weekend, and it’s about to get whole lot more impressive – at least on paper – thanks in part to the Portland’s parent club, Phoenix Coyotes.

The Coyotes announced this afternoon that they’ve assigned defenseman Chris Summers, Maxim Goncharov and forward Marc-Antoine Pouliot to the Pirates.

All three were assigned mainly because of the All-Star Break which began last night. The Coyotes won’t play again til next Tuesday at home against Ottawa so it made sense for two reasons to send them down. One, get them off the salary cap in new era of salary cap hockey, and two, why have them sitting in Phoenix when they can get playing time in Portland.

Getting Summers and Goncharov, plus Pirates’ captain Dean Arsene – who will have finished serving his four-game suspension – back in the lineup will create a log jam on defense. Portland will have nine players available to head coach Ray Edwards once the suspension by Arsene has been served.

Up front, it’s even more congested right now with 18 forwards. Only three of them – Colin Long (concussion), Mathieu Beaudoin (hand) and Spencer Bennett (wrist) are out with long-term injuries.

Just like on the blueline, the Pirates have to make several decisions in terms of which veteran to dress and which veteran to sit, because the reality of it is a veteran or two will have to sit.

The Pirates have seven veterans in the lineup right now with Ryan Hollweg, Marc-Antoine Pouliot, Patrick O’Sullivan, Cal O’Reilly, and Alexandre Bolduc up front and Nathan Oystrick and Dean Arsene on the blueline. The AHL only allows five veterans on a roster plus one exemption. A veteran is classified as any player with 260 or more professional games in the NHL, AHL or overseas and an exemption is more than 320 professional games.

As a result, Pirates forward Mike Hoffman was a casualty of the current numbers in Portland as he was released from his PTO on Tuesday.

Hoffman played 13 games this season, scoring two assists, but his job, a job he did well, was to be a presence on the ice protecting the smaller players.

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Colin Long got some good news this week as he stepped on the ice for the first time in nearly two months after suffering concussion symptoms. Long, who suffered his third concussion of his career in December, has begun to skate without any gear after practice in hopes of making a return to the ice at some point this season.

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The jury is still out on Pirates goaltender Curtis McElhinney, who was injured two weeks ago in Manchester, when he moved awkwardly causing an abdominal injury.

Coyotes Assistant GM Brad Treliving, indicated that McElhinney’s injury status was more week-to-week as they determine the medical treatment moving forward. McElhinney played in 23 games, going 10-12-1-0 with a 3.04GAA and a .907 save percentage.