During his season-ending news conference with media Friday in Cranberry, Pittsburgh Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas offered updates on several players who finished the 2023-24 campaign with various injuries.
Most notably, defenseman Kris Letang might require surgery to correct an assortment of various unspecified injuries.
“Kris was going to get a second opinion on all that ails him, which is significant,” Dubas said. “He has played with it the whole year. It’s likely going to head that way. We’ll have an update once he makes a decision one way or another on it.”
Despite his various maladies, Letang appeared in all 82 games this season and posted 51 points (10 goals, 41 assists) while averaging 24 minutes, 41 seconds of ice time, tops on the team among non-goaltenders.
Other injury updates included:
• The future of forward Matt Nieto, who last played on Nov. 30 because of a right knee injury that required surgery in early January, is still unclear.
“Matt Nieto, I don’t know if I’ve ever felt as bad for somebody throughout the year just in terms of the work he put in,” Dubas said. “And every time he put the work in, he would have a setback. Obviously had a successful surgery. Then in coming back, sustained another injury. He’s going to go next week for another and final opinion on what the future is in terms of whether he’s going to rehab or have another operation.”
• Rookie defenseman John Ludvig, who was scratched for the final nine games of the season (including due to an illness for a few contests), is a candidate for surgery.
“John Ludvig is another,” Dubas said. “We’ll have a further update on whether he requires any type of operations to alleviate his issues.”
• Dubas also revealed forward Emil Bemstrom, a scratch for the regular-season finale on Wednesday, was diagnosed with a concussion.
Notes: Dubas was named as associate general manager for Hockey Canada’s team in the upcoming International Ice Hockey Federation’s World Championship tournament that will be in Czechia during May. … Defenseman Ryan Shea cleared waivers Friday and is expected to be assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League.
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