As was expected after the horror show in Montreal on Saturday night, the Penguins announced today the specifics of the Justin Schultz injury:
Justin Schultz underwent successful surgery at UPMC Presbyterian to repair a fracture of his lower left leg on Sunday. Schultz is expected to miss the next four months.
More info: https://t.co/wdEeCObyvk pic.twitter.com/UhncXhf9uM
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 15, 2018
All things considered, this is probably best case scenario after seeing how ugly the injury looked:
https://twitter.com/G_Off817/status/1051254678611202048
Surgery to repair ligament damage probably would’ve cost him his season, one suspects. The four month timeline gets him back into the lineup right around February, just in time to work himself back into game shape and gear up for the playoff run.
According to the Bobfather, the Pens appear poised to just let this all play out from within rather than rush to the trade market.
PIT plan to replace Schultz, certainly for now anyway, is to fill from within. Possible pairings:
Dumoulin-Letang
Johnson- Oleksiak
Maatta-Riikola
Penguins need Maatta to play a lot better than he has and want to see Riikola in a top-six role.— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) October 15, 2018
Ruhwedel is still hanging around, too, if any of the above 6 can’t hack it. Zach Trotman is still in existence as well in case of emergency.
If Maatta can return to last season’s form to eat some bigger minutes with Riikola so HCMS can reliably shelter Jack Johnson effectively, there’s not a whole lot to worry about here.
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