The Pittsburgh Penguins may have beat the New Jersey Devils 5-2 on Tuesday night, but the victory came at a great cost.
Defenseman Brian Dumoulin will miss the next 4-6 weeks with a broken jaw after taking an Andy Greene slap-shot to the face. The cap-strapped Penguins have already placed Dumoulin on LTIR.
Dumoulin joins fellow injured top-four defensemen Kris Letang and Trevor Daley. Both men are considered week-to-week with lower and upper body injuries respectively.
While Dumoulin is not an offensive threat (he hasn’t scored an NHL regular season goal since December 15, 2014), he has become a dependable part of the Penguins’ blue-line since cracking the NHL full time last season. He was acquired by the Penguins in the Jordan Staal trade at the 2012 draft.
With Daley, Dumoulin, and Letang all out, the pairing of Ian Cole and Justin Schultz is now the de facto top pairing. Schultz has been on fire in the last 15 games, posting 7-10-17 in that stretch, which included the winning goal against the Devils.
Pens need to go out and get a defenseman, Daley, Letang, and now Dumolin; furthermore, Maata is out due to illness.
Letang and Daley are out, but will be back after the break. You want the team with the most points in the league to trade assets for a player that will really only be useful for a handful of games? Makes no sense.
Time to move Kunitz and fluery for some cap relief and a defenseman