Jordan Staal could be out longer than expected
Pittsburgh Penguins’ forward Jordan Staal could be out longer than expected after he was cut by the skate of Montreal Canadiens defender P.K. Subban. Staal is said to have undergone five surgeries over the summer to deal with the injury as well as the infection.
Staal sustained the injury in the play-offs and received his surgeries in the off-season. Nevertheless, the young centre is still wearing a protective boot and has yet to skate or practice with the Penguins. The club originally believed that Staal would
only miss up to a month of regular season hockey. However, reports are now indicating that the 22-year-old could be out until mid-season.
Staal is coming off his first Selke Trophy nomination as the League’s best defensive forward and the Penguins were keen on getting him back in time for the start of the year. Moreover, Pittsburgh has struggled finding wingers good enough to play with their
top two centres Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby. The thought heading into the 2010-11 campaign was to move Malkin to the wing and play Staal as the second line centre. This type of change was supposed to boost the Penguins offence, which relied heavily on
Crosby last year.
With Staal out for what could be half the season the Penguins may have to move the newly signed Mike Comrie to the third line centre spot, whereas the club originally acquired the veteran to play up front with Crosby.
Nevertheless, Pittsburgh is going to need to get a great deal of depth scoring from their third and fourth line players if they hope to challenge while Staal is out of the line-up.
Last season with the Penguins Staal notched 21 goals and 28 assists for 49 points to go along with an impressive plus-19 rating.
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