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Kris Letang

Penguins’ Kris Letang Day-To-Day With Lower-Body Injury

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have announced that defenseman Kris Letang will miss Sunday’s practice due to a lower-body injury. He has been designated as day-to-day, though the specifics of his injury haven’t been revealed. Letang only played a couple of shifts in the third period of Pittsburgh’s Saturday loss to the New York Rangers. Head coach Dan Muse told the media, including Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, that Letang is being evaluated further to find the extent of his injury.

Letang kicked off his 20th season in the NHL last week. He has yet to score through three games played, but has managed a plus-three and one penalty, while receiving over 21 minutes of average ice time once again. Letang is certainly far psat his prime years, but he’s stayed a productive piece of Pittsburgh’s blue-line well through his 30s. He scored nine goals and 30 points in 74 games last season, though that line was marred by a minus-15. His 2023-24 campaign was more well-rounded, with 51 points and a plus-13 in 82 games played.

Pittsburgh will face a tough question if Letang isn’t ready for their next game on Tuesday. He has operated directly behind fellow future-Hall-of-Famer Erik Karlsson, helping the Penguins hold down a blue-line that also features Parker Wotherspoon and Ryan Shea in the top-four. Top prospect Harrison Brunicke has played well behind Letang on the depth chart, and could be due a chance to shine should the veteran need to sit out.

Pittsburgh is also carrying Matt Dumba and Connor Clifton as healthy scratches through the early season. Dumba scored 10 points in 63 games with the Dallas Stars last season, while Clifton managed 16 points in 73 games with the Boston Bruins. Both players are right-shot defenders, putting them in the right spot to battle for bottom-pair minutes should Letang step out.

East Notes: Letang, Soucy, Lorentz, Livingstone

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Only having one shift in the third period of tonight’s contest against the New York Rangers, many began to wonder if Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang was dealing with an injury. That is indeed the case. According to Seth Rorabaugh of The Tribune-Review, Letang is being evaluated for an undisclosed injury.

Despite missing a few games last year due to injuries, Letang hasn’t dealt with any serious issues since suffering a stroke early in the 2022-23 campaign. Since returning, he’s appeared in 95.2% of all potential contests for the Penguins.

In the offseason, the Penguins indicated that they’d like to limit Letang’s usage this season. However, before tonight’s game against the Rangers, in which he played 15:29, Letang has averaged nearly 25 minutes a game, leading the team by a significant margin.

Other notes from the Eastern Conference:

  • On the other side of tonight’s contest between the Penguins and Rangers, the winning team is dealing with a defenseman injury of its own. After only appearing in 6:35 of tonight’s game, the Rangers announced that blueliner Carson Soucy left the game due to an upper-body injury. There could be cause for concern given the nature of the injury. Attempting to hit Penguins forward Rickard Rakell, Soucy missed the body check completely, flying awkwardly into the boards.
  • In a separate Eastern Conference matchup, this time in the Atlantic Division, the Toronto Maple Leafs lost forward Steven Lorentz to an upper-body injury. Lorentz’s departure from tonight’s game came early in the first period after being hit by Detroit Red Wings defenseman Ben Chiarot. He skated in 1:17 of tonight’s game, and the Maple Leafs added no further comments on the severity of his injury.
  • According to a team announcement, the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers, the main affiliate of the Florida Panthers, have signed defenseman Jake Livingstone to a contract for the 2025-26 season. The Minnesota State University alumnus has spent the last two years with the Milwaukee Admirals after debuting with the Nashville Predators in the 2022-23 season. In that two-year stint with the Admirals, Livingstone scored nine goals and 33 points in 127 games.

Can Kris Letang Rediscover His Game?

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Kris Letang has been a polarizing figure amongst Penguins fans since breaking into the NHL in October of 2006. Now, Letang wouldn’t become a full-time NHLer until the following season and didn’t become a number one defenseman until the 2010-11 season. But since that time, he has held on firmly to a spot on the right side of the Penguins’ top defensive pairing, and that role has never been in doubt until the 2023-24 season, when Erik Karlsson arrived via trade. Now, the questions surrounding Letang’s role on the top unit have less to do with Karlsson’s arrival and more to do with the fact that Letang’s game has slipped in recent seasons, and it is fair to ask if he should be on the Penguins’ first defensive unit.

Letang’s 2024-25 performance was below his career norms, as he scored just nine goals and 21 assists in 74 games. His -15 plus/minus was a significant drop from the previous year, along with the 100 turnovers he committed, marking the first time he reached triple digits in that category. The 100 turnovers are a glaring problem and highlight a significant issue for Letang, as his once-elite skating seemed to falter last season. He wasn’t able to create the space he was used to and often found himself carrying the puck under pressure more than in previous years. Throughout his career, Letang has been prone to defensive lapses, even at his peak. He also has a history of making questionable decisions with the puck, which has become even more evident now that his decision-making window has narrowed due to his difficulty in creating space for himself.

Now, that aging curve is undefeated, and it’s unfair to expect Letang to defy his age forever. However, his decline in play might not have been solely due to age, as the Montreal, Quebec native faced several health issues once again last season. Letang has battled a wild amount of injuries and health conditions throughout his NHL career, and he underwent heart surgery in mid-April to close a small hole in his heart that had previously caused strokes. Letang is expected to recover in time to start the upcoming season, and it is hoped that he will be fully healthy by then.

Letang has been prone to defensive lapses throughout his career, even at the peak of his abilities. In recent years, there has been a general decline in his defensive performance, partly due to aging and partly because the Penguins have overused and overextended him, especially since the arrival of Karlsson. Some might think that Karlsson’s addition would reduce some of the pressure on Letang. However, in reality, it changed his role, expecting him to be more of a defensive defenseman, which doesn’t suit his skill set, particularly given his age.

So, what can Penguins fans expect from Letang? Well, it’s fair to wonder how far north of 20 minutes per game he can play on a nightly basis. The 38-year-old has been a workhorse throughout his career, but given his age, health, and declining skills, he shouldn’t be playing as often as he currently does. He will undoubtedly try to condition himself to reach those minutes, but if the Penguins want to get the most out of Letang, they need to ease his workload. Letang probably wouldn’t love a reduced role, but if he wants to extend his career and make a greater impact, he might need to delegate some responsibilities to other members of the Penguins’ defense core.

The Penguins lack a strong defensive core; in fact, it might be the weakest in the entire league. However, they do have considerable depth on the right side, having acquired Connor Clifton and Matt Dumba this summer, and drafting Harrison Brunicke last year, who could be ready for the NHL. Now, none of those players can replace Letang when he is at his best, but Letang’s prime is behind him now, and it’s fair to wonder if any of those men can replace a worn-out Letang in part when exhaustion catches up to him.

There are some signs that Letang could bounce back. He still trains harder than perhaps anyone in the NHL and can skate well, logging significant minutes. How effective those minutes will be remains to be seen, but Letang can handle a decent amount of ice time. His speed should continue to help him be a major part of Pittsburgh’s transition game, especially if he spends a lot of time with the Penguins’ top line of Sidney Crosby, Bryan Rust, and Rickard Rakell. Letang also remains an excellent passer and should continue to produce offense, even if other aspects of his game are more limited.

There will be challenges with Letang, and they are the same concerns the Penguins have faced in recent years. Letang has missed numerous games throughout his career due to illness and injury. There is always a risk that he could suffer another injury and miss significant time again. The Penguins have no direct replacement for Letang and need to have him in the lineup if they hope to be even average in the Eastern Conference.

Letang’s on-ice play has also become a concern as it has declined and he no longer shows the same consistency he demonstrated earlier in his career. This is expected, but since he has three years remaining on his contract, Pittsburgh is likely hoping he can improve his play again for at least another year or two. At the end of the day, Letang will be valuable to Pittsburgh. His hockey IQ should help mentor some of the younger players that the team will use this season, much like Sergei Gonchar mentored Letang early in his career. However, if Letang can adjust his game to his new reality and skill set, he could make the necessary changes to extend his career and remain in the Penguins’ top six for the next year or two. Letang has faced tough years before, battling major health hurdles, and he has always found a way to bounce back; however, this will be his biggest challenge yet.

Photo by Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

Penguins Aiming To Reduce Kris Letang’s Minutes

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The Penguins’ retool is in full swing. While the up-and-coming forward group benefits from having a still-effective Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust, and Rickard Rakell to build and develop around, the same can’t be said for the defense corps.

Pittsburgh’s depth issues on the blue line are compounded by the fact that neither of their top two rearguards is expected to return in their current roles next season. In addition to trade talks involving Erik Karlsson likely serving as the dominant storyline of the Penguins’ offseason, the organization is looking to have right-side mainstay Kris Letang slot lower on the depth chart next year as he enters his age-38 campaign, Josh Yohe of The Athletic reports.

As Yohe writes, the Penguins’ front office believes a role reduction is the best way to get value out of the aging defender, who still has three seasons remaining on his contract at a $6.1MM price tag. This season marked Letang’s least effective performance in well over a decade. The lifelong Penguin, known primarily for his elite offensive ceiling, only managed a 9-21–30 scoring line in 74 games. That works out to 0.41 points per game, his worst offensive showing since the 2009-10 season. He only had 14 points in 39 games in the back half of the season, a 0.35 per-game rate.

His point production had already taken somewhat of a hit after the Karlsson pickup, since the latter superseded him on the top power play. That means most of his nosediving point totals had to do with a lack of even-strength output, a more concerning and less variable long-term factor. Letang recorded just 13 even-strength assists in 2024-25 after notching 35 of them, the second-highest mark of his career, the year before.

A reduction in minutes also makes sense for physical reasons. Letang is already fully recovered from the minor heart procedure he underwent in April to address the underlying cause of his two documented strokes, but it’s unrealistic to continue expecting him to shoulder such a high workload.

As Letang’s ice time decreased slightly for the third year in a row, there could be a more dramatic dropoff from the 23-minute range to the 20s next season as a result. He’s already entered the negative value stage that most knew was coming when he signed his six-year, $36.6MM extension in 2022. What wasn’t clear at the time was how the rest of the Penguins’ roster would look when that happened and how they would opt to move forward.

Nearly every scenario still involves Letang finishing his contract in Pittsburgh, Yohe writes. A buyout would be feasible if Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas decided he really needed the roster spot and additional cap space, but that’s rarely an avenue he takes. The negative reputational impact of paying the best defenseman in franchise history to not play for them likely outweighs any positives.

A trade is also out of the question. Letang’s no-movement clause notwithstanding, “it’s believed that no NHL teams are interested in Letang’s services” even if he decides to green-light a deal, according to Yohe.

Assuming Karlsson is moved, their plan for Letang only increases their desperate need for bodies on defense. That could increase their urgency to re-sign pending unrestricted free agent Matt Grzelcyk or put their names in the ring for one of the better free-agent blue-liners on a shorter-term deal while giving prospects like 2022 first-rounder Owen Pickering and 2024 second-rounder Harrison Brunicke a long leash to begin what could be an extremely difficult 2025-26 campaign defensively in Pittsburgh.

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 And Predators To Face-Off In 2025 Global Series

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The Pittsburgh Penguins will return to Stockholm next season to face-off against the Nashville Predators in the 2025 NHL Global Series in Sweden, per an NHL announcement.

The games are slated for Nov. 14 and Nov. 16 and will be played at Avicii Arena. The Penguins are returning to Sweden after taking part in the 2008 NHL Premiere Series. It will represent the second time leaders Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang will take part in games overseas.

The series will represent a homecoming for players on both sides. For the Penguins, Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson, as well as 30-goal winger Rickard Rakell will participate (barring injury of course), while the Peds will be represented by forward Filip Forsberg and defenders Adam Wilsby and Andreas Englund.

The NHL Global Series, started in 2017 in games between the Ottawa Senators and Colorado Avalanche in Stockholm, continues a long history of international competition for NHLers. This includes the 1938 European Tour between Red Wings and Canadians (a seven-game series that the Canadians won 4-3), the 1979–80 Super Series between Russian teams and NHL squads, and most recently the NHL Premiere Series, which ran from 2007 to 2011.

Rakell and Karlsson both expressed their excitement in playing in the series. Karlsson said the series will be a “great experience” and noted how fun it will be to play before family and friends in his home country. There is speculation surrounding Karlsson’s long-term future in Pittsburgh, so it’s not exactly a certainty he’ll be a Penguin next November.

Swedish-born Predators also expressed their excitement surrounding the series, including Forsberg who noted, “It’s obviously going to be a great time, a great opportunity for me.”

While it’s the first time Nashville will play in Sweden, it’s the organization’s third international trip. They played the Sharks in the 2022 Global Series in Prague, as well as a series against Pittsburgh at the GAME One Japan series in 2000.

In the 2008 Global Series, the Penguins split two games with the Senators. In those games, Crosby registered two assists, Malkin had a goal and an assist, and Letang registered nearly 50 minutes of total ice time between the two contests.

Latest On The Pittsburgh Penguins

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Josh Yohe of The Athletic writes that the Pittsburgh Penguins never came close to dealing forward Rickard Rakell prior to the NHL Trade Deadline. The Penguins reportedly didn’t care to deal Rakell and were happy to hold onto him, despite receiving several offers for his services. Pittsburgh general manager Kyle Dubas doesn’t want the Penguins to tank over the next few years and instead hopes to mirror the retool that the Washington Capitals recently went through.

Dubas did make plenty of moves leading up to the deadline, but didn’t move any of the bigger names such as Rakell or Erik Karlsson. Yohe believes that the Penguins would like to move Karlsson in the summer and are willing to retain as much as $3MM to facilitate a move. Karlsson hasn’t been terrible in Pittsburgh, but his style of play has not meshed well, and he has not been the Norris Trophy defenseman that Pittsburgh thought they were trading for in the summer of 2023.

If the Penguins move on from Karlsson, it will put more pressure on defenseman Kris Letang. Although it’s questionable as to whether he will stick around. Yohe speculates that Dubas will approach Letang to see if he still has interest in remaining in Pittsburgh during their roster turnover. Letang has a full no trade clause and three years remaining on his contract at a $6.1MM AAV. His actual salary in those three years will be $4.8MM per year, which could be appealing for teams on an internal budget. Letang is having arguably the worst season of his professional career but remains a top four NHL defenseman. He hasn’t publicly expressed any interest in moving on from the Penguins.

Yohe expects teams to call Pittsburgh this summer about forward Bryan Rust as his full no movement clause expires. While teams will be interested, Yohe doesn’t believe the Penguins want to move the veteran, who is playing some of the best hockey of his career with 21 goals and 26 assists in 55 games this season.

Given the nature of the Penguins’ deadline, and a desire to keep high character veterans in the fold, it looks as though the Penguins intend to turn things around quickly rather than enduring a five-year rebuild. Yohe acknowledges that next year will be tough for Pittsburgh, but the Penguins are hoping to contend for a playoff spot again in the next two years.

Metropolitan Notes: Kovacevic, Yegorov, Blue Jackets, Letang

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The Devils are discussing the idea of potentially trying to re-sign defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic, reports Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli (video link).  Acquired for a fourth-round pick from Montreal in the summer to add defensive depth, the 27-year-old is logging nearly 20 minutes a game for New Jersey and has become an important piece of their back end.  His presence helped push Simon Nemec to the minors, something the youngster recently voiced some frustration about; keeping Kovacevic could make it a bit harder for Nemec to get back to the NHL.  Signed to a cap hit below the league minimum this season, Kovacevic could push for $3MM or more on the open market if his second half play is similar to how things went in the first few months.

More from the Metropolitan:

  • Still with the Devils, prospect Mikhail Yegorov has found a new place to play. USHL Omaha announced that the goaltender has transferred to play at Boston University, effective immediately, a rare midseason enrolment.  The 18-year-old was a second-round pick by New Jersey last June, going 49th overall.  Yegorov improved his save percentage with the Lancers by 20 points this year, going from .892 to .912 but won just three of his 19 outings.  He’ll now get his feet wet at the college level and becomes the 14th NHL-drafted player on the Terriers.
  • Earlier this week, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reported (Twitter link) that the Blue Jackets are open to the idea of holding onto their pending unrestricted free agents. Widely expected to be near the bottom of the division this season, Columbus instead has been on a nice run as of late to get into a Wild Card spot.  The sustainability of that position will be challenged over the next couple of months but given the value of a young core playing meaningful games down the stretch, it seems it might not be a given that their rentals will move if they slide back in the standings over the coming weeks.
  • The Penguins announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Kris Letang was scratched from tonight’s game due to illness. The 37-year-old had a quiet first half of the season by his standards, collecting seven goals and 10 assists in 40 games while still logging over 23 minutes a night of playing time.  That comes on the heels of putting up 51 points just last season.

Penguins Activate Kris Letang, Place Philip Tomasino On IR

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The Pittsburgh Penguins are making a few roster moves before their game against the Carolina Hurricanes tonight. Pittsburgh announced they’ve placed forward Philip Tomasino on injured reserve while later adding they’ve activated defenseman Kris Letang in a corresponding move.

Considering the Penguins had a full 23-man roster before tonight’s game, this transaction was expected. Wes Crosby of NHL.com reported earlier that the Penguins expect Tomasino to miss the next week or two with a lower-body injury while Letang became a game-time decision.

Tomasino’s injury dampens the young forward’s hopes for the 2024-25 season. The former 24th overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft was traded from the Nashville Predators to the Penguins for a 2027 fourth-round pick earlier in the season appearing to turn a corner with the second organization of his career.

He scored three goals and four points in his first five games as a Penguin averaging 15 minutes of ice time per game, nearly two minutes more than his season-high with the Predators. Unfortunately, Tomasino’s production has cooled off dramatically with one goal and three points in the next 11 contests. Thanks to Pittsburgh’s 10-5-2 record in their last 17 games, Tomasino should rejoin a team on the hunt for a spot in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs which is more than what could be said of his former teammates in Nashville.

At the cost of some forward depth up front, the Penguins will get an addition to their defensive core in the form of Letang. Unfortunately, it won’t be quite the addition as it would have been in years past.

Letang is squarely in the middle of the worst statistical output of his lengthy NHL career. Assuming he plays in Pittsburgh’s remaining 42 games and continues his current offensive production, he’ll finish with 35 points in 76 games this season which would be the lowest since his tertiary campaign in the 2008-09 season.

Things don’t get any better on the defensive side of the puck. Letang is averaging a career-low 47.8% CorsiFor% and 87.5% on-ice save percentage while at even strength. Additionally, Letang is averaging an expected +/- in the negatives for the first time since the 2020-21 season.

Still, the Penguins are contractually committed to Letang for three years beyond this one and he still represents one of their better defensive options. He’s expected to play alongside rookie defenseman Owen Pickering on the team’s top-pairing tonight.

Penguins Activate Marcus Pettersson, Place Kris Letang On IR

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have swapped defenders on injured reserve, activating Marcus Pettersson (lower-body) and shelving Kris Letang (lower-body). Pettersson suffered his injury from an awkward hit into the boards during Pittsburgh’s December 14th loss to the Ottawa Senators. He’s since missed the Penguins’ last six games. Where Letang was injured is less clear. He was a late scratch for Sunday’s game against the New York Islanders, and has been designated as day-to-day per Hailey Hunter of SportsNet Pittsburgh. The Penguins will have the ability to make Letang’s IR placement retroactive to December 29th, making him eligible to return as soon as January 5th against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Pittsburgh swaps two of their most utilized defenders with this move. Letang leads the team’s skaters in ice time, averaging 23:24 through 34 games this season. Despite that, he’s been unusually unproductive, with 16 points marking his lowest scoring pace since 2009-10. Pettersson is working to catch Letang in scoring, with 13 points in 32 games while averaging 21:47 in ice time. His scoring pace puts him on track just narrowly beat out his career-high of 30 points set last season. Pettersson also brings a healthy wave of defense back to the Penguins lineup, leading the Penguins defense in Corsi For (52.93 percent) and ranked second in plus-minus (-4). That’ll be a welcome addition to a Penguins roster that’s averaged both 3.29 goals-for and goals-against in seven games without Pettersson, including the game he was injured in.

Pettersson’s return will bump Nathan Clurman out of the lineup. Clurman made his NHL debut on Monday, recording one penalty and no scoring in 11 minutes of ice time. Letang’s move to IR allows Pittsburgh to keep Clurman as their seventh defenseman, while Pettersson lines up to Pierre-Olivier Joseph on the second pair.

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