Five forwards to miss rest of season
Pittsburgh Penguins forwards Noel Acciari, Blake Lizotte, Rutger McGroarty, Tommy Novak and Matt Nieto will miss the final three games of the regular season due to undisclosed injuries.
Pittsburgh Penguins forwards Noel Acciari, Blake Lizotte, Rutger McGroarty, Tommy Novak and Matt Nieto will miss the final three games of the regular season due to undisclosed injuries.
Coach Mike Sullivan announced their statuses following a practice session in Cranberry on Thursday.
Sullivan noted there is hope McGroarty, a rookie, will be able to recuperate in time to participate in the American Hockey League’s (AHL) postseason with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
McGroarty appeared to suffer a left foot injury during a 5-0 home win against the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday. He left the arena following the game with a walking boot.
In eight NHL games this season, McGroarty, one of the organization’s top prospects, has scored three points (one goal, two assists) while averaging 14:37 of ice time per contest.
With Wilkes-Barre/Scranton,
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McGroarty had appeared in 60 games and posted 39 points (14 goals, 25 assists).
Acciari, one of three players to appear in all 79 games of the Penguins’ season to this point, has primarily been deployed in a role on the team’s bottom two lines and has scored 12 points (five goals, seven assists) while averaging 13:46 of ice time.
Lizotte, who has primarily skated on a line with Acciari, missed Wednesday’s game due to his ailment. In 59 games, he has scored 20 points (11 goals, nine assists) while averaging 12:43 of ice time.
Novak has not played since March 9 and has missed the past 13 contests. Acquired in a trade with the Nashville Predators on March 5, Novak played in two games for the Penguins and did not record a point while averaging 13:01 of ice time before being injured.
Nieto has bounced between the NHL and AHL rosters this season. With Pittsburgh, he has largely inhabited a bottom-six role and posted three points (one goal, two assists) in 32 games while clocking an average of 12:15 in ice time.
At the AHL level, Nieto has skated in 15 games and scored seven points (three goals, four assists).
With those players sidelined, the Penguins recalled forwards Emil Bemstrom, Vasily Ponomarev and Valtteri Puustinen from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League under emergency roster conditions Thursday morning.
