So we have some not so great news on the Pascal Dupuis injury front. It isn't going to be a one week thing
Bad news for the Penguins: Pascal Dupuis will miss 4-5 weeks with a lower-body injury unrelated to blood clots/prior health issues.
— Jason Mackey (@Mackey_Trib) October 6, 2015
I can't think of another team in this league that goes without its full deployment of players more often than the Pittsburgh Penguins. It really is quite ridiculous.
Potential top 12? 14-87-81 61-71-72 57-13-19 24-7-41 Makes flipping 57 or 19 for a top-four defenseman much tougher to consider.
— Jason Mackey (@Mackey_Trib) October 6, 2015
Losing Dupuis for this length of time is going to have some ramifications in both the day to day lineup as well as the overall roster management strategy. Dupuis is a player who is capable of playing both wings as well as possessing the capability of moving up and down the lineup. That kind of flexibility is ideal when constructing a roster in the salary cap era.
This injury is going to open up a forward spot for ~14 games which is almost 20% of the regular season. In the short term that spot will probably be given to Bobby Farnham, but over the course of time I imagine the Penguins will look to other options currently in WB/S (Rust, Wilson, Sundqvist, Sheary). Farnham as a 13th forward used sparingly is a whatever situation. Giving him a regular spot in the game day lineup is intentionally not icing your best lineup.
Dupuis' injury will impact the Penguins ability to make a trade for a defenseman in the short term
Without Dupuis the idea of trading David Perron will need to be put on hold, at least until Eric Fehr's health situation is cleared up (which might be around same time Dupuis comes back).
Beau Bennett has no value on the trade market. His value being on the Pittsburgh Penguins is way higher than whatever they would get back in a trade.
The Dupuis injury could potentially impact the Penguins decision making process with Daniel Sprong. If Sprong plays decent during his 9 games tryout the absence of Dupuis might make the decision to keep him up the full year all the more enticing. I'm personally not worried about burning an ELC year off his contract so this could be a positive development. Again, it depends on how Sprong plays. He might not play good enough to merit that full-time promotion. Personally, I think he can play well enough.
The focus on replacing Pascal Dupuis should not be about the penalty killing aspect of his role it should be about the even-strength part of his role. Pittsburgh should not fall into the old trap of creating a role on the team that solely focus on the penalty kill. Just give a good even-strength player some more minutes in Dupuis' penalty killing role.
While Talbot's return would make for fantastic theatre -- and car commercials -- it isn't something being seriously discussed, I'm told.
— Jason Mackey (@Mackey_Trib) October 6, 2015
This is good because Max Talbot is a bad NHL player these days and has been for a while.
The good news is that this forward group should still be a quality group even with the Dupuis injury. That is what proper NHL depth can do for you. You can never replace a super star who is injured but you can still function properly when replacing somebody who does not fit that description. Losing Dupuis hurts the team but not as much as it could have.
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BREAKING FASHION NEWS: .@68Jagr says he's growing his hair, bringing back the mullet. 'I have to.' #FlaPanthers pic.twitter.com/hkMhbG7b40
— George Richards (@GeorgeRichards) October 5, 2015
You read that correctly. The legendary mullet is coming back. It is a great day for hockey.
Thanks for reading!