The Pittsburgh Penguins have positioned star Evgeni Malkin on injured reserve with an upper-body damage. Malkin has already missed Pittsburgh’s final three video games and can now be compelled out of not less than 4 extra video games. He had beforehand performed in Pittsburgh’s first 41 video games of the season and was red-hot within the winter months. Malkin had seven factors in 9 video games main as much as his damage.
In a corresponding transfer, Pittsburgh has additionally activated Philip Tomasino off of injured reserve, returning him from a four-game absence because of a lower-body damage. Tomasino has been one of many brightest spots of Pittsburgh’s middling yr. Acquired for a fourth-round choose in a late-November commerce with Nashville, Tomasino has since posted 4 targets and 7 factors in 16 video games with the Penguins — the best scoring tempo of his profession. He’s regarded correctly alive within the Penguins lineup, filling a much-needed top-six function after 4 up-and-down seasons in Nashville. Tomasino was a first-round draft choose in 2019 and made the soar right into a full-time NHL function two seasons later. He scored 11 targets and 32 factors in 76 video games as a rookie — a really encouraging begin for the then-20-year-old ahead. However Tomasino struggled to keep up that into his sophomore yr, and would solely attain 20 factors another time — in 41 video games of the 2023-24 marketing campaign — throughout his time in Nashville.
Malkin’s absence will go away a obvious gap within the Pittsburgh lineup. The long run Corridor-of-Famer has, as soon as once more, been one in every of Pittsburgh’s most utilized forwards at each even-strength and on the power-play. The necessity for one more top-unit ahead might pave a golden path for Tomasino upon his return, giving the younger heart one more probability to indicate Pittsburgh what he can do with a correct function. Pittsburgh has turned in direction of Anthony Beauvillier to fill the top-six emptiness over the past three video games, although he hasn’t managed any scoring within the boosted function.
In different Penguins information, ahead Michael Bunting will even miss the workforce’s Sunday recreation after being concerned in a automotive accident exterior PPG Paints Area per Seth Rorabaugh of Tribune-Review Sports. Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan instructed Rorabaugh that Bunting isn’t anticipated to overlook prolonged time. Bunting has been one other red-hot Penguin, with 4 factors in his final 5 video games.
