Pitts wrote: Tue Nov 21, 2023 1:48 pm
Latest as of today per Taylor Haase:
Rickard Rakell: Longer-term, upper-body injury
Chad Ruhwedel: Week-to-week, lower-body injury
Matt Nieto: Maintenance day
Bryan Rust: (Came onto the ice for practice but left early) Being evaluated for lower-body injury.
P.O Joseph: Still dealing with lower-body injury, "unavailable" for next game.
This is the nightmare scenario I talked about early in the offseason. We picked up tons of depth, but this team was going to be in trouble if it lost 2 top 6 wingers, which we now apparently have in Rust and Rakell.
So, the Penguins go into the game tomorrow missing 2 top 6 wingers, dressing 2 bottom 6 players who are offering next to nothing in Nieto and Carter.
WBS also has injuries, as both Poulin and White are injured.
If I'm Sullivan, I call up Puustinen and give him his shot in the top 6. If you want to see if the kid has anything and is worth keeping around, now is the time. I'd promote Zohorna back to the other top 6 spot next to Malkin, and I'd likely call up Gruden for the 4th line:
Guentzel-Crosby-Puustinen
Smith-Malkin-Zohorna
DOC-Eller-Acciari
Nieto-Gruden-Carter