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The injury blues may have the Penguins looking towards St. Louis

January 27, 2021, 10:43 AM ET [113 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Penguins fell short in overtime against the Boston Bruins 3-2 and thus their four game winning streak is over. This game followed a familiar script where the Penguins start slow and trail for most of the contest and then try to claw their way back. Impressively, they did overcome a two goal deficit in the third period and had some chances in overtime to win, but trying to do this literally every game is not a recipe for success.

Instead of breaking down things specific to this game I wanted to talk about some bigger picture issues.

Brian Dumoulin left the game with an injury and did not return. Pierre-Joseph Olivier was bumped up to the top pairing. I’m guessing the Penguins don’t want to have to use Joseph there considering they weren’t willing to put him on the second pairing with John Marino (they should have) and instead forced Marino to play on the left side with Cody Ceci. If Dumoulin’s injury is longer in term I think it will unfortunately force Rutherford’s hand to make a deal. The Penguins don’t have a ton of great trading options and using them on left defense would be a deflating proposition. They have already overinvested into the left side of the defense and needing to use more assets for this area in the lineup would hamper their ability to add their real need which is adding a skilled forward or two.


Mike Matheson traveled with the team and he seems like he will be back a little sooner than the long term diagnosis originally given, but we also know he isn’t very good. With Dumoulin, Pettersson, and Riikola all injured you are either going to play someone like Marino on their left side or lean into using Kevin Czuczman for a stretch of time while using Joseph in a highly elevated role. This assumes Matheson will be back soon.

So what can the Penguins do? What should they do?

Best case scenario is Brian Dumoulin is dinged up and maybe miss a couple games give or take so the Penguins can put Kevin Czuczman on the bottom pairing and ride things out. They did just take nine out of ten points in the standings so things aren’t as desperate as they could have been if not for the good stretch of results. Those points buy a little bit of time that otherwise wouldn’t have existed.

If Dumoulin is out for a while I did see the Blues have put Vince Dunn on the trading block. He only makes 1.8M and he has an expiring RFA contract. He is 24 years old.



He is what the Penguins think Matheson is. If the Penguins *have* to go out and get help they could do way worse than looking at Dunn. I would rather they go strong at Dunn than go down the Ron Hainseyesque route where the team adds yet another ineffective defender to eat up assets and cap. Dunn’s skillsets should help the Penguins forwards do their offensive related jobs easier.

As far as what the Blues want for Dunn I’m not really sure because on the surface it really looks like a player they should want to keep. Although, they did just give Justin Faulk a ton of money and he isn’t very good. This also had a direct impact on the team losing their Stanley Cup winning Captain so the Blues aren’t exactly hitting it out of the park on defense evaluations recently. The Blues don’t appear to have a bevy of right shot defenders as they are using Carl Gunnarsson on the right side in the bottom pairing, he is a left handed shot. I can’t imagine Cody Ceci is enticing, but you never know with NHL GM’s. Jack Johnson found a team who wanted him this year. At the very least Dunn should be on the Penguins radar now.

All the Penguins can do for now is hope for the best that Brian Dumoulin is not seriously injured and if he is then they need to quickly evaluate if they want to further invest into the left defense position. If they do want outside help due to the mounting injuries a Plan B for someone like Vince Dunn might be the best they can do.

UPDATE


The Penguins just signed Yannick Weber. He needs to clear waivers, but will most definitely do so. This probably isn't great news about Brian Dumoulin. Beggars can't be choosers, but... oof




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