Injuries starting to add up for the Penguins

The list of injured is growing at a quick rate for the Pens

Mike Sullivan gave an injury update on Tuesday, and it wasn’t very good news for the Penguins. Pittsburgh was already limping down the stretch with seven losses in nine games since the 4 Nations Faceoff and headed towards a poor finish in the standings, and now they have some injuries to deal with.

Joseph hasn’t played since being hurt on March 1st and there wasn’t a specific update on him. “Status quo” was amended to say week-to-week injury.

Shea going down is about as much of a bummer as it ever can be for an NHL team to lose Ryan Shea. Shea has gone from healthy scratch for much of the year to one of the most used players in the past couple of weeks (seriously – only Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang have more ice time per game than Shea since February 22nd). The solid play and increased role earned Shea a contract in Pittsburgh for 2025-26, but now even he can’t have too much of an upturn in this down year for the team with an undisclosed week-to-week upper body injury.

Tommy Novak dropped out of the Pens’ last game against Minnesota and hasn’t been back on the ice since. It doesn’t look like he will play tonight against Vegas but his injured was only deemed day-to-day. Tough break there considering that Novak only recently joined the team and was looking to get in a groove in Pittsburgh. That will be delayed a bit longer.

Due to all the changes, Vladislav Kolyachonok (a waiver pickup with three games of experience with the Pens) was playing on the top pair with Kris Letang. Veteran and frequent healthy scratch Ryan Graves will draw back into the lineup. Sebastian Aho (former Islander, not star Carolina center) has been recalled from Wilkes for the first time this year as an emergency call-up, he’ll have to be returned to the AHL tomorrow if, as expected, the six defenders who remain healthy all play tonight.

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