The beginning of the 2024-25 Pittsburgh Penguins season is just 11 days away, but it may be starting without one of the team’s best players.
View the original article to see embedded media.
Questions have emerged regarding the status of top defenseman Erik Karlsson, who has been labeled as day-to-day with an upper-body injury since the onset of training camp. In the earlygoing, he was skating on his own before camp ensued, but over the last three practice days, he did not take the ice beforehand.
Although he did not have any further news to report on Thursday after training camp, head coach Mike Sullivan did offer a bit more Saturday morning, announcing that Karlsson would not skate this weekend.
Mike Sullivan on Erik Karlsson, who has yet to skate with the team during camp due to an upper-body injury:
“He’s scheduled to be off the ice this weekend and then we’ll go from there. That’s just part of the rehab process and where he’s at right now.”
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) September 28, 2024
For most of training camp, right-side defenseman Jack St. Ivany had been paired with left-side defenseman Ryan Graves, seemingly drawing up Pittsburgh’s bottom-pairing for the start of the season. Defenseman Sebastian Aho was, presumably, acting as a “placeholder” for Karlsson alongside Marcus Pettersson in the top-four.
That is, until Thursday’s camp – when St. Ivany was bumped up to the top-four with Pettersson, leaving Graves on the bottom-pairing with Aho. Coincidentally, Thursday was also the first day that Karlsson did not skate before camp began.
At the very least, this is mildly concerning. With the nature of NHL injury reporting, there’s not really any way of knowing what is ailing Karlsson until any official announcement is released by the team.
Related: Here’s What the Final Penguins’ Roster Will Probably Look Like
However, on a surface level, it seems as though the team was prepared to have Karlsson ready for the season until he hit some sort of snag prior to Thursday morning. At that point, pairings got shifted, Karlsson stopped skating, and there has not been any sign of progress since.
If the Penguins begin the season without Karlsson, it leaves a massive hole on their right side. St. Ivany was the only real right defense option left on the roster, and while young and promising, he’s hardly a top-four option at this point. Aho can slot on the right side, but he’s likely a sixth or seventh defenseman at best.
In addition, it leads to…