East Notes: Dupuis, Kessel, Plekanec, Krejci

As Pascal Dupuis enters his first full year away from hockey, he’s expected to remain with the Penguins organization in an off-ice capacity, reports Bill West of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.  While his exact role has yet to be determined, he’s expected to do some amateur scouting based out of Quebec and potentially some player development work.

Dupuis was forced to hang up the skates last season due to recurring blood clot issues.  He skated in 18 games with Pittsburgh, picking up two goals and two assists.  For his career, he suited up in 871 NHL contests with the Penguins, Wild, Thrashers, and Rangers, tallying 190 goals and 219 assists.

While Dupuis won’t play this year, he still has not yet officially retired as he is still owed $3MM in salary (with a $3.75MM cap hit) for 2016-17.  The Penguins will be able to place him on Long-Term Injury Reserve (LTIR) at the start of the season.

More from the East:

• Still with Pittsburgh, right winger Phil Kessel may not be ready for the start of the season as he continues to recover from offseason hand surgery, tweets Josh Yohe of DK Pittsburgh Sports. He adds that it will be close so even if he isn’t ready on October 13th, he shouldn’t miss too much time.  Kessel had 26 goals and 33 assists in 82 games in the regular season with the Penguins and then picked up his play in the postseason, scoring 10 goals and 12 helpers in just 24 games to lead the team in scoring.
• Canadiens center Tomas Plekanec has been named team captain for the Czech Republic’s entry into next month’s World Cup of Hockey, the team announced. This will mark the fourth time that Plekanec has captained his national squad, including the 2012 and 2016 World Championships and the 2014 Olympics.
• Boston center David Krejci is on the ice with a handful of Bruins for their Captains’ practice, tweets WEEI’s DJ Bean.  Krejci underwent hip surgery back in late April and his recovery time was estimated to be around five months so it would appear that he is on pace in his rehab process.  In a follow-up tweet, Bean added that it’s not looking likely that Krejci will be able to play in the World Cup though he is still talking to the Czech national team.