Because the Pittsburgh Penguins head towards subsequent week’s Olympic break, they’ll be with out one among their key defensemen. The team announced that Kris Letang will miss not less than the subsequent 4 weeks as a consequence of a fracture in his foot. He has been positioned on injured reserve consequently.
The 38-year-old has bounced again a bit offensively this season, choosing up 25 factors in 50 video games after managing simply 30 in 74 contests in 2024-25. In fact, that’s nonetheless a far cry from the routine showings of 40-plus factors that Letang has had for almost all of his profession, however his level complete remains to be adequate to sit down second amongst Pittsburgh defenders behind solely Erik Karlsson.
On prime of nonetheless being one among their extra productive gamers from the again finish, Letang can also be one among their prime minute-munchers, logging over 22 minutes per contest for the sixteenth straight season whereas taking an everyday activate each particular groups models. That additionally ranks second behind Karlsson.
That is the second harm of observe on Pittsburgh’s again finish this week. The workforce can also be with out Jack St. Ivany for the subsequent couple of months after he not too long ago underwent hand surgical procedure. Now, with Letang on injured reserve, the Penguins solely have six wholesome blueliners on their lively roster, so a roster transfer to deliver somebody up from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton appears probably. Within the interim, Connor Clifton will return to the lineup after being a scratch for the previous week.
This harm comes on the heels of Letang lacking a pair of video games final week as a consequence of an undisclosed harm. It’s unclear if this announcement pertains to that, and he simply wasn’t in a position to maintain enjoying via it or if it’s a distinct harm altogether.
If there was ever a very good time for a participant to overlook 4 weeks with an harm, that is it. With the NHL shutting down for greater than three weeks for the Olympics, Letang is simply slated to overlook the subsequent 5 video games. In fact, if the fracture doesn’t heal as shortly as anticipated, he’ll miss extra time than that, however as issues stand, they shouldn’t be with out one among their prime blueliners for too lengthy total.
