Mike Sullivan says is going to take the entire Pittsburgh Penguins defense to replace what Kris Letang brings.
PITTSBURGH - While the sport of hockey takes a backseat when discussing Kris Letang and his recent stroke, the Pittsburgh Penguins still have games to play.
With Letang on the shelf for an indefinite amount of time, the Penguins will have to find ways to replace his presence in the lineup.
The defensive lineup against the Carolina Hurricanes may have been an early indicator of what to expect.
In the first game of Letang’s absence, Brian Dumoulin was pushed all the way back to the first line with Jeff Petry.
Chad Ruhwedel filed back into the lineup on the third pairing and this is the kind of situation he is still on the team for.
If a Penguins defenseman is expected to miss a long period of time, Ruhwedel steps up and plays a steady game usually on the third pairing.
Will other moves need to be made, though? General manager Ron Hextall and head coach Mike Sullivan have faith in their guys that they will be able to successfully cover in Letang’s absence.
“He’s not easy to replace,” Sullivan said. “He’s an elite player. We rely on him in so many situations. I don’t think we’ll replace him with any one guy. It’s going to be by committee.”
Heading into the season, one of the biggest topics surrounding the Penguins was their surplus of NHL ready defenders.
It’s an unfortunate circumstance, but a few new names might be getting utilized.
“We got a good team,” Hextall said. “We got a deep team. We like out defense. We’ve got a couple of guys in the minors so we feel good about where we’re at.”
It’s interesting Hextall brought up the AHL team because there are some options there.
Mark Friedman is most likely the first choice to get a call-up, but you can’t forget about Ty Smith.
Without Letang in the lineup, the Penguins lose a sense of offense from the blue line, and that’s something Smith could bring to help fill that missing piece.
Friedman is a fun player, but doesn’t bring the same type of offensive firepower.
At the moment, though, the Penguins haven’t made a roster move to bring up an AHL player; they are yet to even move Letang from the active roster.
Surely, those changes are coming, but the Penguins are likely to look from within and play as a team to replace Letang.
Without a timeline or full update on Letang, it doesn’t seem a trade or ground breaking move is in the cards.
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