2026-27 has been an injury-riddled season for the Penguins. Ten players have dressed for all 19 of the team’s games so far, several others have shuttled in and out of the lineup. Four players are currently on the IR and there’s been some recent news about how they’re doing, so let’s take a look.
For players a bit longer out, there was some positive news today in that Bryan Rust and Elmer Soderblom skated prior to practice.
Rust, who was injured back on October 19th, was said to be re-evaluated in six weeks time back on October 22nd due to an undisclosed lower body injury. By that timeline, he would be about in the middle of his recovery with that re-evaluation coming in late November or early December. Muse did indicate there is no change in Rust’s status, so presumably he’s still weeks away from getting final clearance to return to game action. It sounds like it’s a positive to have him back in any capacity even though there’s not yet confirmation of a change in the initial time expected to be needed in his situation.
Soderblom last played on October 24th, he was said to have a day-to-day injury that was revised into a week-to-week one once more evaluation was done. Unlike Rust, there wasn’t a specific window given for Soderblom. Again, with the no status change, Soderblom appears to be in the early stages of his process to eventually return to full team practice and eventually game readiness, though presumably his return could happen ahead of Rust.
A case where it sounds like it is much closer to the end of the recovery process is Trevor van Riemsdyk. van Riemsdyk is “moving in the right direction” according to coach Dan Muse, after taking part in a couple of practices with the team and having recently been cleared for contact.
van Riemsdyk, however, was not practicing in a position today that suggests he will return to the lineup tomorrow night against Ottawa on the extra pair with Ilya Solovyov with the team working with the same groupings they’ve used in recent games.
van Riemsdyk has only played five games this season, and the veteran may well be able to provide the team a lift on their penalty kill that has been shaky at times in recent weeks. Since van Riemsdyk’s injury, the Penguins have picked up Spencer Stastney via trade, which could make it a more difficult decision on just exactly where to fit the right shooting van Riemsdyk back into the lineup with that side of the ice looking as solid as any position currently on the team’s depth chart.
The fourth player on IR was not mentioned today, and hasn’t been in some time in Ryan Graves. Graves was set to have surgery on one knee and rehab it a little before having more surgical action on the other knee, a plan disclosed back at the start of the season. It didn’t sound like team was in a rush to get to seeing the struggling player back on the ice at all this season, and to this point not much has changed to alter expectations that Graves will be shelved all year due to addressing his health.
Another interesting practice twist is the flip of Tommy Novak back to wing and readying Hendrix Lapierre to get back in the lineup after being healthy scratched last game. That’s bad news for Ville Koivunen, who could make way as a healthy scratch after Lapierre also replaced Koivunen in power play work at practice today.
All this practice time will become a regular occurrence in the near future, Pittsburgh gets four days off from games after Saturday night’s matchup before the schedule heats back up and have them play seven times in the last 12 days of the month of November.
