Earlier today, Penguins’ head coach Mike Sullivan shared with Wes Crosby of NHL.com, that Pittsburgh forwards Evgeni Malkin and Nick Bjugstad are expected to miss a significant amount of time after suffering lower-body injuries during their game versus the Columbus Blue Jackets last Saturday night. The two collided during their eventual 7-2 win over Columbus, with Malkin then awkwardly hitting the boards, causing further injury.
The Penguins acquired Nick Bjugstad from the Florida Panthers last season in a trade involving team mate Jared McCann, in exchange for Derick Brassard, Riley Sheahan, and future draft picks. It is unclear to what extent Bjugstad’s injury will impact his play this season.
Prior to the start of the season, Evgeni Malkin expressed considerable optimism regarding a ‘bounce-back year’ after a disappointing 2018-19 showing. Malkin scored just 21 goals last season, half of his previous years’ 42 goals, and ended the season with a -21 rating (NHL). Although the injury does not seem to be season-ending, it is of concern to Pens staff and fans. According to Josh Wegman of theScore, the 33-year old center has only played more than 70 games once in the last seven seasons.
*UPDATE*
As an update to our earlier report, per Darren Dreger, Pittsburgh forward Evgeni Malkin suffered a soft tissue injury during the Pens’ recent game versus the Columbus Blue Jackets (Coulson). As stated earlier, Malkin is expected to miss a ‘significant amount’ of time, and that prognosis has been updated to the Russian missing at least 4 weeks.
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Kasan, S. (2019). Malkin, Bjugstad out “longer term”. Retrieved from https://www.nhl.com/penguins/news/malkin-bjugstad-out-longer-term/c-309844706.
NHL.com. (2019). Evgeni Malkin Stats and News. Retrieved from https://www.nhl.com/player/evgeni-malkin-8471215?stats=career-r-nhl&season=null.
Wegman, J. (2019). Penguins’ Malkin, Bjugstad out long term with lower-body injuries. Retrieved from https://www.thescore.com/nhl/news/1847939/penguins-malkin-bjugstad-out-long-term-with-lower-body-injuries.
Coulson, K. (2019). Malkin, Bjugstad out long term for Penguins. Retrieved from https://txhthockey.com/2019/10/07/malkin-bjugstad-out-long-term-for-penguins/
DarrenDreger. (2019). Malkin suffered a soft tissue injury to his leg. Expected to be out at least a month. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/DarrenDreger/status/1181311833665347584.
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