The Pittsburgh Penguins opened training camp on Wednesday morning in preparation for the 2024-2025 season. One of the main players who will need to bounce back this season is defenseman Erik Karlsson. However, on the first day of training camp every single year, there are usually reports of players who get injured. It is a tradition unlike any other. Pittsburgh Penguins fans know hockey season has arrived when injury reports occur on the first day of training camp.
Upper-Body Injury For the Star Defenseman
Everyone was waiting for the first injury news to drop on the 2024-2025 season for the Pittsburgh Penguins. According to the PR team, defenseman Erik Karlsson is day-to-day with an Upper-Body Injury. He was the only player to be on the injury report for the first day of training camp. This is a good sign that no one else was injured on the first day of training camp. It will be interesting to see if Erik Karlsson will hit the ice for training camp on Thursday.
If Karlsson is not out on the ice on Thursday, some could speculate it could be long-term. The first game of the 2024-2025 season will be against the New York Rangers on Wednesday, October 9. This will be the home opener for the Pittsburgh Penguins. A season ago, Karlsson played in 82 games with Pittsburgh. He scored 11 goals and recorded 45 assists, along with a plus/minus rating of 4. In 2022-2023 with the San Jose Sharks, he recorded a total of 101 points. The Penguins fanbase is hoping for that kind of performance from him in the 2024-2025 season.
Erik Karlsson is projected to be on the second defensive pairing this season with Ryan Graves. Kris Letang and Matt Grzelcyk are projected to be the first defensive pairing unit. Sebastian Aho and Marcus Pettersson are projected to be on the second defensive pairing unit. A player to watch with Karlsson being sidelined for now is Jack St. Ivany. Ivany played well for the Penguins toward the end of last season where there were injuries on the blue line.
The blue line is going to be a massive question mark entering the 2024-2025 season. They have missed the playoffs for the last two seasons. Pittsburgh is looking to avoid missing the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs for the third consecutive season. Erik Karlsson has to play a big role for this hockey team this season. If he is just good for the team, that may not be good enough for the Pittsburgh Penguins. They need to be great to get back to the playoffs. If Karlsson is injury-prone or doesn’t perform well this season, it will not be a good look for general manager Kyle Dubas.
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