The Penguins aren't going to be at full strength tonight. That is kind of an understatement after the injury report was released today
Reminder that Murray (upper body), Letang (lower body), Schultz (lower body) Ruhwedel (upper body) and Rust (upper body) are all ruled out for tonight's game. -MC
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) December 29, 2017
If you are right handed and play defense for the Penguins on a regular basis, you aren't playing hockey tonight for the Penguins. Kris Letang and Justin Schultz are obvious holes in the lineup. Chad Ruhwedel has silently gone about his business this year and has been fine. He's a positive relative possession player and his raw possession is 53.09% which is third best among Penguins defenders. It has been in a bottom pairing role, but so what. That's what he is and he's done what you want somebody in that role to do. So that leaves the following options on defense: Brian Dumoulin, Olli Maatta, Ian Cole, Matt Hunwick, Jamie Oleksiak, and Frank Corrado, and Andrey Pedan. Hope the forwards have their skating legs tonight.
Here are your Kris Letang updates
It's been reported by @FriedgeHNIC & @RealKyper over the past few days, but I can confirm Kris Letang is "definitely" available on the trade market. I dug into the implications on @DKPghSports: https://t.co/tW4CMNZKFL
— Matt Gajtka (@MattGajtka) December 28, 2017
Spoke with a number of people in the organization today. There are currently zero intentions of trading Kris Letang.
— Josh Yohe (@JoshYohe_PGH) December 29, 2017
The Penguins aren't trading Kris Letang: https://t.co/xkQND7L4Af
— Jason Mackey (@JMackeyPG) December 29, 2017
I am not interested in trading Kris Letang. I think his contract is very good and I believe the risk reward of keeping him despite his injury past is still worth it. I'll say the same thing that I've always said about any Evgeni Malkin trade; if you trade Kris Letang, you don't have Kris Letang anymore. Take a look at some of the contract numbers that are being thrown out there for #1 defensemen and compare it to what Letang makes. It's not even close. That's a great contract. Some people will argue because the cap is going up that the team should move Letang out and go hard after the Karlssons and Doughty's of the free agency world. First, you don't know if they are going to make it to the open market. Second, I'd rather keep the #1 guy on a great contract and spend that cap space elsewhere in the lineup.
Trading Kris Letang would be an Oilers kind of move. You don't move proven players when their PDO is in the gutter. In fact, you don't trade proven star players over a short term rough patch. Kris Letang is as committed to his profession as anybody else in the NHL. His workout regiment is well documented. Have some faith in a guy who has a decade long sample of being great.
The good news with Letang (and Schultz) is that they will both be back mid-week per Jim Rutherford. That will help out a lot during the Metro-centric schedule that is coming up.
Thanks for reading!