Zach Trotman Undergoes Surgery

The Pittsburgh Penguins will be down a depth defenseman for the next while, announcing today that Zach Trotman has undergone successfully knee surgery. The procedure was to repair a torn meniscus and comes with a recovery timeline of four to six weeks. Trotman had previously been placed on injured reserve, where he will remain for at least the next month.

Trotman, 30, played just eight games with the Penguins last season, spending much more of the season at the minor league level. In fact, he’s played in just 24 games since arriving in Pittsburgh in 2017, filling in on occasion when the team dealt with injuries on the back end. The 6’3″ defenseman has just 13 points in his 91-game NHL career and wasn’t likely to see a ton of action this season anyway.

Still, losing defensive depth at any point in a condensed season is troubling, but perhaps even more so when the Penguins are already dealing with some struggles at the position. Cody Ceci was moved out of the starting lineup at morning skate today, replaced on the third pairing by Chad Ruhwedel after a brutal opening night.

There’s more than enough depth in Pittsburgh to deal with this injury for now, but things can quickly get whittled down in a season like this. Six weeks would put a return for Trotman at the end of February after a good chunk of the schedule is already completed.