- Bryan Rust is out six weeks with a lower-body injury
- Penguins placed him on injured reserve and recalled Rutger McGroarty and Chase Pietila
- Read below for how Dan Muse is reshuffling the top line
Bryan Rust is going to be gone for a while.
The Penguins placed the winger on injured reserve Thursday, and Josh Yohe reported that Rust will be evaluated in six weeks. Pittsburgh also put Ben Kindel on IR and recalled forward Rutger McGroarty and defenseman Chase Pietila from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
Rust left Monday’s 5-4 loss at Utah at 14:59 of the second period with a lower-body injury and never came back. He had two assists before he went down. Head coach Dan Muse is the one who put the six-week timeline on it.
That points to a return around the start of December. The 34-year-old has three goals and two assists in seven games this season after missing the first three with an upper-body injury from the preseason.
Losing him hurts the top line. Rust had been skating on the right side with Sidney Crosby and Rickard Rakell, and he’s a two-time Stanley Cup champion with 507 points in 717 NHL games.
Muse was asked about filling the hole at Thursday’s morning skate, with Florida in town that night. He didn’t give away the final lineup.
“I won’t confirm anything up until we get to the game, but they’re definitely options,” Muse said. “I think you’ve got two guys, two forwards, that started the last game that are not available, so it does sometimes become a little bit of a shuffle trying to find a good balance.”
The morning skate gave a look at where things are headed. Tommy Novak moved from second-line center to left wing on the first line, with Rakell sliding over to the right side. Hendrix Lapierre took Novak’s spot on the second line, and Blake Lizotte stepped in at third-line center for Kindel.
This is a rough spot for a team that has lost four straight and allowed at least five goals in each one. Rust was also one of the veterans Pittsburgh was reportedly willing to move, so any trade talk involving him now waits until he heals. We covered how Rust got hurt in Utah earlier this week, and the Penguins are also dealing with the Kindel situation.
Pittsburgh is 3-6-1 and sits 27th in the league heading into the Panthers game.
