Because the Pittsburgh Penguins head towards subsequent week’s Olympic break, they’ll be with out one in every of their key defensemen. The team announced that Kris Letang will miss at the very least the subsequent 4 weeks on account 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, selecting 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 ok to sit down second amongst Pittsburgh defenders behind solely Erik Karlsson.
On high of nonetheless being one in every of their extra productive gamers from the again finish, Letang can also be one in every of their high minute-munchers, logging over 22 minutes per contest for the sixteenth straight season whereas taking a daily activate each particular groups models. That additionally ranks second behind Karlsson.
That is the second damage of observe on Pittsburgh’s again finish this week. The group can also be with out Jack St. Ivany for the subsequent couple of months after he just lately 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 doubtless. Within the interim, Connor Clifton will return to the lineup after being a scratch for the previous week.
This damage comes on the heels of Letang lacking a pair of video games final week on account of an undisclosed damage. It’s unclear if this announcement pertains to that, and he simply wasn’t in a position to hold enjoying by way of it or if it’s a special damage altogether.
If there was ever an excellent time for a participant to overlook 4 weeks with an damage, that is it. With the NHL shutting down for greater than three weeks for the Olympics, Letang is barely slated to overlook the subsequent 5 video games. In fact, if the fracture doesn’t heal as rapidly as anticipated, he’ll miss extra time than that, however as issues stand, they shouldn’t be with out one in every of their high blueliners for too lengthy total.
