- Evgeni Malkin and Kaedan Korczak are day-to-day with lower-body injuries
- Elmer Soderblom was downgraded to week-to-week as Pittsburgh stumbles at 5-7-2
- Read below for Malkin’s numbers and what the injury means for the trade chatter
Evgeni Malkin is day-to-day with a lower-body injury, the Penguins announced Monday.
Defenseman Kaedan Korczak is in the same boat, also day-to-day with a lower-body issue. Forward Elmer Soderblom (upper body) went the other direction and is now week-to-week. Pittsburgh hasn’t said what knocked Malkin out of action, and neither he nor Korczak practiced Monday.
Malkin played 17:54 in Saturday’s 5-4 loss at Montreal, which is right around his season average of 17:03. He has missed just one game this year and has six goals and five assists in 13 appearances. That ties him with Nick Robertson for the team lead in goals and puts him second in scoring behind Erik Karlsson.
Korczak has played all 14 games and logs 18:21 a night in the top four. The 25-year-old has six assists but no goals and carries a minus-3 rating. Soderblom has one assist in six games and has been on injured reserve since last Wednesday. He was eligible to come off it Saturday but won’t.
The Penguins (5-7-2) host the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday night. Bryan Rust is already on injured reserve, so the forward group keeps getting thinner.
The injury lands in the middle of trade chatter. TSN’s Darren Dreger said late last week he thinks Malkin’s no-trade list gets trimmed in January, which could put the 40-year-old in the trade conversation. We broke down what Dreger said about a Malkin trade. Here’s the clip:
A short absence won’t change much there. A longer one would give a contender less to look at, and Kyle Dubas is already listening on his veterans.
Whether Malkin suits up against Vegas on Tuesday will tell us how serious this is.
