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Kris Letang Undergoes Heart Surgery

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Penguins defenseman Kris Letang underwent successful surgery to close a small hole in his heart called a patent foramen ovale, the team announced. He’ll miss the team’s final regular-season game but is expected back for training camp in the fall. The recovery time for the procedure is four to six weeks.

It’s a scary headline for a player who’s had a few of them in his lengthy career, so such a brief recovery window immediately comes across as good news. The two-time All-Star had strokes that caused him to miss significant portions of the 2013-14 and 2022-23 seasons, as well as a herniated disk in his neck that kept him from suiting up in the Penguins’ run to the Stanley Cup in 2017. While PFOs are usually innocuous and occur in about 25% of people, it does lead to an increased risk of stroke, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Letang, who turns 38 later this month, continued to be a workhorse in his 19th NHL season. His 17:53 of ice time in his final appearance of the campaign against the Bruins on Sunday was a season-low and the first time he’d logged under 20 minutes in a game since Jan. 8, 2024.

As the 2023 Masterton Trophy winner crosses into the second half of the six-year, $36.6MM extension he signed in 2022, his offensive production has begun to decline significantly. He posted 9-21–30 in 74 games this year for a 0.41 points per game rate, his worst since the 2009-10 campaign. The drop-off in point totals this season was accompanied by the worst possession metrics of his career, including a 48.6 CF% at even strength that was 3.1% worse relative to his teammates. His 47.4% expected goals share at even strength was also his worst since the stat was tracked in 2008.

Yet with few impact options on this summer’s free agent market and the future of Erik Karlsson in Pittsburgh in question, Letang will likely again open training camp in the fall as the Pens’ unquestioned No. 1 defender, at least in terms of deployment. Letang has averaged over 21 minutes per game for the last 17 seasons.

Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.

Penguins Reassign Emil Bemström

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The Penguins reassigned winger Emil Bemström to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton earlier today, per a team announcement. Pittsburgh recalled Bemström on Thursday under emergency conditions, and he entered the lineup to play 8:23 against the Devils yesterday while recording one shot on goal. If they don’t recall him tomorrow before their afternoon matchup against the Bruins, they’ll roll 11 forwards and seven defensemen. It could also be an indication that winger Philip Tomasino is ready to return after missing three games with a concussion. Every other injured Penguin is out for the season. Bemström, 25, has just one assist in 14 games with the Pens this year despite recording over a point per game in the minors.

Penguins Shut Down Five For The Final Few Games

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  • The Penguins announced (Twitter link) that forwards Noel Acciari, Blake Lizotte, Rutger McGroarty, Matthew Nieto, and Thomas Novak are all being shut down for the final few games of the season. Those players being out provide the context for the three players Pittsburgh recalled earlier today.  Of the absences, McGroarty is the most notable as he had been given a bigger role since being recalled late last month, logging over 16 minutes a night while playing on the top line as the Penguins hoped to give one of their top prospects a good look down the stretch but that look winds up being shorter than expected.

Kyle Dubas Named Team Canada GM For 2025 World Championship

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Hockey Canada has announced that Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas will fill their role of general manager for the upcoming World Championship. The tournament is set to take place from May 9th to May 25th in Sweden and Denmark. Dubas will be supported by former Anaheim Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf and Team Canada’s senior vice president of hockey operations Scott Salmond.

The management team will be joined in their evaluation of NHL talent by a selection committee featuring four NHL executives and former players. They are Dennis Bonvie (Boston Bruins Director of Professional Scouting), Gregory Campbell (Florida Panthers assistant general manager), Andrew Cogliano (Colorado Avalanche special assistant), and Jason Spezza (Penguins assistant general manager). The management team and selection committee were selected by Doug Armstrong, executive director of Canada’s National Men’s team.

Much of the management team was also part of Team Canada’s gold medal win at the recent 4-Nations Face-Off tournament, the first in-season international competition featuring NHL talent since 2014. The winning Canadian squad was dominated by talent headed for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Only Sidney Crosby, Travis Konecny, and Travis Sanheim will be available to return to the World Championship lineup when the 2024-25 season ends. Additional players could become eligible as teams are eliminated from the postseason. Crosby notably hasn’t taken part in a World Championship since 2015, when he scored 11 points in nine games while captaining Canada.

Dubas and his team will begin making decisions on their coaching staff and roster immediately, with a full announcement expected in the coming weeks. Canada kicks off the tournament with an early morning game against Team Slovenia on May 10th.

Penguins Recall Emil Bemström, Vasiliy Ponomarev, Valtteri Puustinen

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The Penguins announced today they’ve recalled forwards Emil Bemström, Vasiliy Ponomarev, and Valtteri Puustinen from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on an emergency basis. Their roster size now stands at 28 ahead of tomorrow’s game against the Devils, including a remarkable 19 forwards.

Recalling three players indicates they’re dealing with more new injuries on offense than just rookie Rutger McGroarty, who did not return to Tuesday’s win over the Penguins after blocking a shot with his left foot in the second period. He was in a walking boot postgame, per Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The team has yet to update his status, but Vensel adds that McGroarty is absent from today’s practice. Veteran winger Matthew Nieto was also not practicing today after being promoted from WBS on an emergency basis Tuesday and suiting up against the Blackhawks. It’s unclear if he sustained an injury in the win or was returned to the minors in a corresponding transaction.

Injuries are taking a significant toll on the Penguins, who are mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, in the season’s final weeks. In addition to McGroarty and Nieto, they’re also without Bokondji Imama (biceps surgery, out for the season), Blake Lizotte (lower body, day-to-day), Thomas Novak (lower body, indefinite), and Philip Tomasino (concussion, day-to-day).

Up comes reinforcements from the Baby Pens, who have already clinched their place in the Calder Cup Playoffs. The 25-year-old Bemström has been a key part of their success, checking in as the only WBS player with over a point per game (21-25–46 in 45 GP). His availability has been limited due to a few late-season NHL call-ups, resulting in him posting one assist in 13 games for Pittsburgh since making his season debut in February.

The former Blue Jacket continues to serve as a dominant minor-league force without being able to force his way into a consistent NHL role. While he posted 10 goals and 20 points in only 56 games for his rookie season in Columbus back in 2019-20, his offense has been spotty since – especially since Pittsburgh acquired him last season. He’s posted just 3-3–6 in 37 NHL appearances since the swap.

Ponomarev, 23, was a key piece of the return from the Hurricanes when Carolina acquired Jake Guentzel at last year’s trade deadline (along with Ville Koivunen, who has three assists in his first five NHL games since being called up late last month). He’s appeared in four games for Pittsburgh this year across a pair of call-ups in November and February but has yet to record a point while averaging 9:13 per game. His lone career goal and assist came during his NHL debut with the Hurricanes in January 2024. The Russian pivot ranks fourth on WBS in scoring, posting 15-25–40 in 54 games with a plus-six rating.

Puustinen splits the difference between Bemström and Ponomarev in terms of big-league experience. The 25-year-old frequently participated in NHL matchups for the Penguins last year, recording 5-15–20 in 52 games in a primarily bottom-six role. However, he’s not commanded the same deployment this year and has spent most of the campaign in the minors. He has a goal and an assist in 10 showings, all of which came in the season’s first two months. He’s done well in Wilkes-Barre, posting 16-19–35 in 47 games, but he’s undoubtedly disappointed not to see more NHL minutes after signing a two-year, one-way extension worth $1.55MM last May.

Ray Shero Passes Away

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Wild senior advisor and longtime Penguins and Devils general manager Ray Shero has passed away, Minnesota’s public relations department said Wednesday. He was 62 years old.

Shero, a St. Paul native, got his start as a player at St. Lawrence University in upstate New York after attending the New Hampton School in New Hampshire. He played four seasons for the Saints as a center from 1980 to 1985, scoring 58-77–135 in 125 games while serving as captain in his senior season. While drafted by the Kings midway through his collegiate tenure, he never turned pro.

Eight years later, Shero made the NHL in a front-office role. Hired by the Senators as an assistant general manager for the 1993-94 season, their second in franchise history, that move kicked off a lifetime’s worth of executive work at the game’s highest level. The son of Stanley Cup-winning head coach Fred Shero remained in Ottawa until the expansion Predators plucked him to serve in an AGM role in 1998. Working under David Poile in Nashville, the league’s all-time leader in wins overseen by a GM, he got a chance to lead his own staff nearly a decade later when the Penguins named him GM and executive VP of hockey operations ahead of the 2006-07 season.

His task: take a young core in Pittsburgh led by Sidney Crosby, Marc-André Fleury, and Evgeni Malkin to the next level. He accomplished that feat within just two years, swinging a blockbuster deal for star winger Marián Hossa at the 2008 trade deadline to help guide the Pens to the 2008 Stanley Cup Final. While they fell to the Red Wings, they set themselves up for a rematch the year later and emerged victorious. Three years after taking over a team that posted a 22-46-14 record in the season preceding his hiring, Shero was a Stanley Cup champion.

Shero remained in his post through the 2013-14 season, helping the Penguins extend their championship contention window. He was named the league’s General Manager of the Year in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign after helping Pittsburgh capture a regular season conference title and was also an AGM for the United States at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

While the Pens fired Shero following a first-round elimination in the 2014 playoffs, he emerged a year later with the Devils. They brought him in ahead of the 2015-16 season to replace longtime GM Lou Lamoriello. He immediately began one of the most aggressive retools of the 2010s, signing or trading for names like Taylor Hall, Kyle Palmieri, and P.K. Subban while drafting New Jersey’s current core three forwards in Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier, and Jack Hughes. He was replaced by current GM Tom Fitzgerald midway through the 2019-20 campaign.

Shero had served as a senior advisor to Wild GM Bill Guerin, who he picked up from the Islanders at the 2009 deadline to help the Pens to a Cup, since the 2021-22 season. “Whenever we ran into each other at a rink when he was scouting, it was clear he loved what he was doing and I always marveled at his infectious enthusiasm,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement. “The entire National Hockey League family mourns his passing and sends our deepest condolences to the Shero family and Ray’s many friends throughout the hockey world.”

All of us at PHR extend our condolences to the Shero family and his numerous friends and colleagues throughout the league.

Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire-USPRESSWIRE.

Tomasino Out With A Concussion, Lizotte Out With Undisclosed Injury

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  • Earlier today, Seth Rorabaugh of The Tribune Review contextualized Matthew Nieto’s emergency recall last night. Rorabaugh reports that forward Philip Tomasino has been diagnosed with a concussion, and forward Blake Lizotte is considered day-to-day with an undisclosed injury. Unfortunately, the concussion will likely result in the end of Tomasino’s 2024-25 season. Still, he’s had a promising run with the Penguins since being acquired from the Predators earlier in the year, scoring 10 goals and 20 points in 48 contests with the new organization.

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Penguins Recall Matthew Nieto Under Emergency Conditions

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have recalled forward Matthew Nieto from the minor leagues under emergency conditions. Pittsburgh continues to face injuries to forwards Tommy Novak, Philip Tomasino, and Bokondji Imama; as well as defenseman Pierre-Olivier Joseph. Nieto will rejoin the NHL ranks to help push the team through their final four games of the season.

Nieto’s season began a month late as he recovered from a pair of knee surgeries last season. He initially returned with a pair of AHL games, but earned a call-up in mid November that glued him to the NHL roster. Serving as Pittsburgh’s extra forward, Nieto stepped into 31 games through the return of the 4-Natiosn Face-Off Break, but only managed a measly three points. That low production earned Nieto a waiver placement and assignment to the minors in late February. The move has proven to be a helpful spark. Intercut with routine call-ups to the top flight, Nieto has managed three goals and seven points in 15 AHL games – productive scoring in his first games since the 2013-14 season.

Nieto will likely serve as Pittsburgh’s extra man in Tuesday’s matchup against the Chicago Blackhawks. The Penguins could also opt to push him into the lineup over a player like Joona Koppanen, who has just one goal in seven games this season, or Connor Dewar, who has one point in his last seven games.

Penguins Reassign Joona Koppanen

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  • The Pittsburgh Penguins have reassigned Joona Koppanen to the AHL, per Seth Rorabaugh of the Tribune-Review. Koppanen was recalled on April 3 and suited up in Pittsburgh’s 5-4 overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues, registering 11:24 of ice time. While he has made appearances in three separate NHL seasons between the Boston Bruins and Pens, Koppanen, 27, has suited up for just 15 career NHL games. With Pittsburgh all but out of the playoff race this season, he seemed primed a larger opportunity to showcase his talents. However, with Pittsburgh recently calling up prospects Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty, and with fellow youngsters like Vasili Ponomaryov, Sam Poulin, and Tristan Broz awaiting their turn, Koppanen’s chances may have once again taken a hit.

Filip Hållander Could Join Penguins Next Season

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  • Former second-round pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Filip Hållander, could return to the team for the 2025-26 season. After an impressive season with the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in 2022-23, Hållander returned to his native Sweden to join the SHL’s Timrå IK. The organization recently announced that Hållander has departed the team after scoring 26 goals and 53 points in 51 contests, finishing second in the league in scoring.

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