Injury Report: Community Injury Thread

God, f*** Kessel and his dumb hairline.

 

lol that dude is a disaster so far.

 

You can look up prospect pool rankings from basically anywhere and they all have the Pens are the same spot -- last. If you get lucky, you'll find some that rank us 30th instead of 31st. We have no prospect pool -- they've all been traded away, as well as our draft picks. Our two earliest picks in 2018 (Calen Addison, Filip Hallander) were both traded with 1st rounders for Kapanen and Zucker respectively -- overpayments for both; a little more tolerable with Kapanen given his age. Our top pick the year before was Zachary Lauzon, who's retired due to severe concussion issues. The year before that was Filip Gustavsson, who was part of the Derick Brassard trade (Ian Cole + Filip Gustavsson + 1st + 3rd for Brassard). We also have with no 1st, 3rd, 4th, or 6th round picks for the 2021 entry draft.

The kicker to all this is that we haven't really gotten younger. Crosby, Malkin, and Letang are all in their mid-30s now. Zucker, Tanev, Rust, and Dumoulin are all pushing 30 as well. Our "young" guys are all in their mid-20s and entering their prime years, but it's not going to do anything because our star power is fading and we've got absolutely nothing to replace them with. The moment Crosby and/or Malkin are done, it's going to become almost unbearable -- we don't even have potential top 6 Cs in the system, and trying to replace them via trade or free agency is going to come with a big price tag.

 

OH NO!!! Matheson injured again? how are we going to survive?

 

You say that until the second injury wave hits the D.

Also, if there’s any chance of rehabbing this guy him constantly being hurt doesn’t help that and they’ve got the damn contract regardless. All the best to Mike “I don’t understand what this blue line thing is?!” Matheson.

 

He's better than Czuczman not that that's a high bar

 

Just make him a forward.

 

Again your ramblings have nothing to do with what I posted. Let me say it again so maybe this time you can comprehend it.

Pens have added more than half their starting lineup with players that came up to the Pens 24 or younger in the past 3 seasons. That is a ton of prospect aged players added to one team in such a short time frame. Just on defense alone over those 3 years we added to the big club 2019 Pettersson 22, 2020, Marino 22, and POJ 21 all showing top 4 ability even as rookies. Adding 10 of your 19 starters with players of that age range during that time is incredible work when you consider we had been in win now mode during that time. So again my post said it doesn't matter how you add them as long as you add those prospect aged players to your team whether from trades, college UFA, or the draft.

How many teams added more starters than us with that age range during that same 3 year time frame? I bet not many and our prospect ranking was near the bottom in all those seasons yet we added more prospects to our team that the vast majority of the teams ranked ahead of us. Add to the fact that we also added players in their primes over the years of Rutherford like Kessel, Hagelin, Zucker, and others with those picks and prospects also just adds to the dominance of trading away those picks and prospects for players in their primes or young.

So you say the Kapanen and Zucker deals are overpayments? Well like I pointed out you go back and look at all those 1st, 2nd round picks and prospects the Pens have traded over the Crosby era and then compare how those assets turned out compared to the players we have accumulated during that time and you will see we got the much better group of players. The only pick that ever turned out good was Barzal and he didn't even benefit the team we traded the pick to. The only prospect that ever turned out good was Kapanen and we just got him back. With those picks and prospects we had Hossa, Kessel, Hagelin, Iginla, Dupuis, Zucker, and Kapanen just to name some players off the top of my head. We also went to 4 Finals and 3 Cups with several of those players.

You can't refute the facts.

 

I'm not sure you're wrong.

I'm also not entirely certain that you're right.

Good lord, that's depressing.

 

Yes, they will suck when 87 and 71 retire. I hope they do so they can build a new core of potential superstars. I don't want them becoming the Flyers.

 

Which is why it is much better than completely bottom out for a year or two.

 

Update: McCann downgraded, Pettersson non contact skating, ZAR holding steady

PLAYER	TYPE OF INJURY	DURATION	STATUS	UPDATED
Zach Aston-Reese	Shoulder	day to day	Skated with 3rd line at morning skate 2/10	2/10/21
Zach Trotman	Right Knee	4-6 weeks from 1/15	Recovering from surgery, was placed on season opening IR 1/12	1/28/21
Marcus Pettersson	UBI 1/19	week to week	Non contact during 2/10 morning skate	2/10/21
Juuso Riikola	UBI 1/19	long term	Placed on LTIR 1/28 retro 1/19, going through off-ice rehab	2/8/21
Evan Rodrigues	LBI 1/24	long term	Placed on LTIR 1/28 retro 1/24, going through off-ice rehab	2/8/21
Brian Dumoulin	LBI 1/26	week to week	Placed on LTIR 2/1 retro 1/26, going through off-ice rehab	2/8/21
Jared McCann	LBI 2/6	week to week	Downgraded from day to day 2/9 to week to week 2/10	2/10/21

 

ZAR played and removed from the list

PLAYER	TYPE OF INJURY	DURATION	STATUS	UPDATED
Zach Trotman	Right Knee	4-6 weeks from 1/15	Recovering from surgery, was placed on season opening IR 1/12	1/28/21
Marcus Pettersson	UBI 1/19	week to week	Non contact during 2/10 morning skate	2/10/21
Juuso Riikola	UBI 1/19	long term	Placed on LTIR 1/28 retro 1/19, going through off-ice rehab	2/8/21
Evan Rodrigues	LBI 1/24	long term	Placed on LTIR 1/28 retro 1/24, going through off-ice rehab	2/8/21
Brian Dumoulin	LBI 1/26	week to week	Placed on LTIR 2/1 retro 1/26, going through off-ice rehab	2/8/21
Jared McCann	LBI 2/6	week to week	Downgraded from day to day 2/9 to week to week 2/10	2/10/21

 

Added Desmith for (hopefully short) illness, upgraded Pettersson to day to day

PLAYER	TYPE OF INJURY	DURATION	STATUS	UPDATED
Zach Trotman	Right Knee	4-6 weeks from 1/15	Recovering from surgery, was placed on season opening IR 1/12	1/28/21
Marcus Pettersson	UBI 1/19	day to day	Morning skate 2/16, game time decision	2/16/21
Juuso Riikola	UBI 1/19	long term	Placed on LTIR 1/28 retro 1/19, going through off-ice rehab	2/8/21
Evan Rodrigues	LBI 1/24	long term	Placed on LTIR 1/28 retro 1/24, going through off-ice rehab	2/8/21
Brian Dumoulin	LBI 1/26	week to week	Placed on LTIR 2/1 retro 1/26, going through off-ice rehab	2/8/21
Jared McCann	LBI 2/6	week to week	Downgraded from day to day 2/9 to week to week 2/10	2/10/21
Casey Desmith	Illness 2/14	day to day	Participated in morning skate 2/16, should be backup tonight	2/16/21

 

Petts look back tonight. Now who is the question as to pairings. POJ needs moved into to less exposure pairing so:
Petts Letang
Math Marino
POJ Cici

 

The lines were POJ - Letang - MM - Petts Ceci.

 

That's pretty balanced tbh. POJ can cover be the defensive guy on the line while Letang pinches at times, except when Barzal is coming down the wing. Marino can make slick passes to Matheson and break up plays with his stick, MM can also carry the puck decently. Petts can also cover well defensively for Ceci who actually is good at getting his shots on net and providing a physical presence.

 

Removed Desmith and Pettersson, Dumo/McCann/Rodrigues solo skating, Riikola taxi squad skating

PLAYER	TYPE OF INJURY	DURATION	STATUS	UPDATED
Zach Trotman	Right Knee	4-6 weeks from 1/15	Recovering from surgery, was placed on season opening IR 1/12	1/28/21
Juuso Riikola	UBI 1/19	week to week	Skating with taxi squad 2/18	2/18/21
Evan Rodrigues	LBI 1/24	week to week	Solo skating 2/18	2/18/21
Brian Dumoulin	LBI 1/26	week to week	Solo skating 2/18	2/18/21
Jared McCann	LBI 2/6	week to week	Solo skating 2/18	2/18/21

 

We are about to have one heck of a logjam on D.

POJ - Letang
Pettersson - Marino
Matheson - Ceci
Dumoulin - Ruhwedel
Riikola - Weber

Something's gotta give. Subtracting Weber is pretty simple. I think one more has to go though, and all those guys would likely be lost to waivers.

 

still good for giving up dozen of high quality chances....

 

Injuries will take care of that.

 

Your assessment is so far off I don't know what to address first. First off who cares about prospect rankings. The only thing that really matters is how many prospects aged skaters you are adding to the big club. It doesn't matter if it is through the draft, trades, college UFA's, or any other way you add them.

Let's look at just the past 3 seasons and I bet we had one of the worst rated prospect rankings during those years also. 2019 Pens add McCann 22, Pettersson 22, and ZAR 23. In 2020 Pens add Marino 22, Jarry 24, Blueger 25, and Lafferty 24. This year 2021 Pens add Kapanen 24, POJ 21, and O'Connor 22. So when half your starting lineup are players that started on the Pens in the prospect age range you did very well in the prospect additions. I bet the Pens added much more than many of those teams ranked in front of them.

Plus we just didn't add prospect age players but also players in their primes such as Zucker, Matheson, Ceci, Jankowski, and Tanev added to the roster and all added when they were in the 26-28 age range. Pens are one of the younger teams when it comes to players surrounding the core. All the starters are in their 20's besides Sceviour and he is not even a full time starter and also only 31 and a one year rental.

Lastly all those picks and prospects you mentioned. How many of those are doing anything in the NHL? Nothing like Pettersson, Marino, POJ, Matheson, and Ceci? All young additions on the team now. How many of those picks and prospects traded are doing anything close to Kapanen, Zucker, McCann, or even ZAR? Bottom line is you can go all the way back to the start of the Crosby era and the only pick and prospect that turned out from all those trades was Barzal and he was not even on that team we traded him to. The only prospect than turned out good was Kapanen and we got him back. So two players turned out to be good NHL players while we got players like Hossa, Guerin, Kessel, Hagelin, Iginla, Zucker, Kapanen, McCann, Pettersson, Marino, POJ, and so many others with those picks and prospects that the vast majority turned out to nothing.

So go cry about our future to you mommy. Obviously we are not replacing franchise players like Crosby and Malkin even if we kept those picks. You want players like that you better tank to a top 2 pick and even then most draft years don't have a player like them. All trade picks and prospects any day for good NHL players with term and are young or in primes. Unless it is a top 2 pick you are not getting a franchise player unless you are really lucky. All take the Kapanen types all day long. Give me the sure thing.

 

Poor guy has no chance to crack this lineup unless we get injuries. With Matheson and POJ proving good we have 4 LD's in front of him when all are healthy. Nice depth piece that can play though.