Kyle Ross-Imagn ImagesIMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect CRANBERRY TWP., Pa. — The Pittsburgh Penguins lineup will be older Thursday when the team hosts the Utah Mammoth.

While the lineup in their last win featured a handful of players under 25 who only recently lost their rookie status, Thursday will likely be another reversal of that trend. Rutger McGroarty and Avery Hayes were not with the team at practice Wednesday.

They skated before practice. Though the team has not yet officially demoted them back to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, and each still had a full dressing stall in the room, the move is coming.

“They skated earlier this morning, and a lot of that for today had to do with just the numbers. You saw yesterday, it was a lot of bodies on the ice, and so we’ve got to manage it a little bit,” coach Dan Muse said.

“And so, any kind of decisions moving forward, I’ve got to have some conversations we can check off on guys in terms of health and status for (Thursday), and then decisions to be made.” The last couple of words mean the Penguins prospects are headed northeast, assuming everyone is as healthy as they were on Wednesday.

And it will be yet another bypassed on-ramp to the youth movement. Chase Pietela was part of practice as an eighth defenseman.

As for those conversations and decisions, the Penguins will need to clear three spaces, beginning with a spot for defenseman Sam Girard, who was a full-contact participant in practice for the second straight day. Girard has seven points (1-6-7) in nine games this season and was assertive with the puck before suffering a lower-body injury.

Of course, two other young forwards are set to return to the lineup as well. Ben Kindel will return Thursday after his health scare last week.

At practice, Kindel was again between Evgeni Malkin and Egor Chinakhov, whom reporters noticed has a new haircut, almost a buzz cut. Chinakhov is also expected back in the lineup after missing a few games, also with a lower-body injury.

Justin Brazeau was again a full participant, but unlike Tuesday, when he donned the standout green jersey with McGroarty and Hayes, he was in the solid black. However, Brazeau was not in the regular line rushes during practice.

He has been absent since suffering an injury in preseason. The 6-foot-6, nearly 250-pound Brazeau doesn’t need to watch any more hockey and doesn’t need to do much thinking when he comes back.

“I think for myself, like, I know what I bring. And I don’t bring the same things as other guys.

I would say I’m pretty unique that way, and where I want to get to on the ice, and the game I want to play,” Brazeau told PHN. “So, maybe (I’ll watch to see where I’ll fit) a little bit, but I’ve played the same way now for whatever, the last seven or eight years as a pro, so I think it’s just more kind of watching, cheering the guys on.

You know, hopefully we’re kind of executing our plan, and then I get a chance to come back and play that game.” Muse ventured into the room Tuesday to have a chat with Brazeau. The team could buy time to make harder decisions by assigning Brazeau to the WBS Penguins on a 14-day conditioning assignment, or they could activate him as soon as he is ready.

When the team demotes McGroarty and Hayes, Brazeau would be the only extra forward, as Elmer Soderblom is out day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Penguins Lines Tommy Novak-Sidney Crosby-Rickard Rakell Egor Chinakhov-Ben Kindel-Evgeni Malkin Andrei Kuzmenko-Hendrix Lapierre-Ville Koivunen Connor Dewar-Blake Lizotte-Nick Robertson (Brazeau) Defense Spencer Stastney-Erik Karlsson Sam Girard-Kaedan Korczak Declan Carlile-Kris Letang (Solovyov-Pietila) In a prelude to a larger story PHN will publish this week, Rickard Rakell broke down the difference between having Novak on the line rather than Bryan Rust, who is out with a lower-body injury for another five weeks, at least.

“I think it’s just a little bit different. I mean, Tommy is really comfortable holding onto the puck and trying to make plays and being patient,” Rakell told PHN.

“So I think we’ve got to let him do that.”