Kyle Dubas says Kris Letang has a decision to make this offseason.
Kris Letang led Penguins skaters in ice time for the 11th straight season while playing through “significant” health issues this season, Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas said Friday.
Now Pittsburgh’s No. 1 defenseman has a “decision” to make this offseason, Dubas said.
Letang is still seeking a second opinion, but Dubas said the decision is “likely going to head” toward what sounds like significant surgery.
Kyle Dubas said Kris Letang is going to get a second opinion “on all that ails him, which is significant. He’s played with it the whole year. But it’s likely going to head that way, and we’ll have an update once he makes a decision one way or the other.”
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) April 19, 2024
Head coach Mike Sullivan spoke about what Letang played through this season the day prior, per Justin Guerriero of TribLive.
“What I will tell you is that he was dealing with a myriad of injuries for a long time,” Sullivan said during Thursday’s locker cleanout. “He’s a warrior — there’s no other way to put it — with some of the things he was dealing with down the stretch and continuing to play through to try to help us get to where we wanted to go. That was a big reason why he wasn’t practicing, that I will offer you.”
Michelle Crechiolo of Pens Inside Scoop noted several times during the tail end of the season (including April 10 and April 12) that Letang was taking a notable number of “maintenance days” between games.
Despite the missed practices and Letang’s visible struggles to keep up to his usual skating speed later in the season, the Penguins’ top defenseman did not miss a single contest. The 2023-24 campaign marked Letang’s first 82-game season since 2011.
That alone is a relief for the Penguins and Letang after the stroke that caused him to miss a significant portion of last season.
Letang, who turns 37 this month, averaged 24:41 on the ice per night while recording 10 goals and 41 assists this season. He has four years remaining on the deal he signed with the Penguins in 2022.