Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan shared that defenseman Marcus Pettersson will be out week-to-week with an undisclosed injury, per Seth Rorabaugh of Tribune-Review Sports. Pettersson left the team’s Saturday loss to Ottawa late in the first period after a collision with Senators forward Drake Batherson sent him awkwardly into the boards. He only played in six minutes of ice time.
Pettersson has continued to serve as a core piece of the Penguins lineup this season. He’s recorded 11 assists and 13 points in 32 games this season while averaging 22 minutes of ice time — making him the third-most utilized player on the Penguins roster. Pettersson also leads Pittsburgh in blocked shots (56) and ranks third among defenders in hits (36). He’s a top-unit, shutdown defender — a role he stamped when he played in all 82 of Pittsburgh’s games last season. A full year helped Pettersson solidify his spot on the top pair — averaging nearly 23 minutes of ice time — and led him to career-highs in assists (26) and points (30). With his momentum carrying into this season, Pettersson has become an unquestioned piece of the daily lineup — and one that will be tough to replace for an extended time.
Pittsburgh is currently carrying top prospect Owen Pickering and depth option Ryan Shea as their extra defenders. The former seems best set for a boost in ice time with Pettersson out. Pickering received the first 11 games of his NHL career earlier this season. He scored two points, split evenly, and added five shots on goal and 10 blocked shots — leading Pittsburgh in blocks-per-game. He’s so far defaulted to Pittsburgh’s third pair but could be a reasonable upside bet with Pettersson standing as a potential IR candidate. If not Pickering, Pittsburgh could turn towards Shea or call-up Sebastian Aho from the minor leagues.
The St. Louis Blues made a surprising acquisition Saturday by trading for Cam Fowler from the Anaheim Ducks. According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the organization isn’t done making moves just yet.
Friedman reports that the Blues are looking to move on from veteran winger Brandon Saad after making him a healthy scratch Saturday night.
Any Saad trade would involve some hurdles. He’s not performing up to his $4.5M salary for this year and next, not to mention a full no-trade clause for this season that turns into a 12-team no-trade list next year.
Based on Friedman’s description of the environment, Saad appears willing to amend his no-trade protection to facilitate a deal. Still, that doesn’t make other teams more interested in adding an aging winger struggling to score.
Saad rebounded from a disappointing 2022-23 season with a 26-goal, 42-point effort last year. He played in all 82 regular season games for the first time since the 2017-18 season and posted the strongest possession numbers of his career as a member of the Blues organization.
His play hasn’t been as promising this year. Saad has scored four goals and 10 points in 27 games for St. Louis this season, which would be his lowest goal-per-game pace since his sophomore campaign in the 2012-13 season.
This is likely the main contributing factor to St. Louis’s inability to move Saad at this point in the regular season. Many competitive teams don’t have the cap space necessary to acquire Saad, and they’d likely want to use it on a player projecting higher than 12 goals on the campaign.
