Derrick Pouliot to IR, going to be out "a while"

The Penguins young defenseman suffers a tough injury in his first game of the season.

Tough news for Derrick Pouliot and the Penguins, his injury last night will have him out an extended period of time. Pouliot's been moved to the injured reserve and the team has recalled defenseman David Warsofsky from Wilkes-Barre.

Here's Pouliot's last shift, and as you can see Joe Pavelski awkwardly finishes a check on him and they both fall with Pouliot's leg bending in an unnatural way. This would be his last shift of the game.

Apparently this is what may have hurt Pouliot: https://t.co/Kmu9kO1GRV

— m g (@kikkerlaika) October 21, 2016

Per Seth at DK$

"It’s going to be a while," Jim Rutherford said via phone in reference to Pouliot. "I don’t know if they’ve put an actual projection on it as we speak but it’s going to be a while."

Rutherford believes Pouliot’s injury could land him on long-term injured reserve. That designation requires players to be inactive for 10 games as well as 24 days on the NHL calendar and allows teams to remove a player’s salary cap hit for the duration of his absence. According to Cap Friendly, Pouliot is in the final year of an entry-level contract with a salary cap hit of $863,333.

It's an unfortunate turn for Pouliot, who was playing well in his first game in the lineup of the regular season after struggling in the preseason and earning the 7th and last spot in the NHL roster.

In happier news though, Olli Maatta (who also missed the second half of last game as well with an injury) has been cleared to play tomorrow night. Kris Letang remains day-to-day, if he can play tomorrow, Warsofsky wouldn't have to, but if Letang is still injured Warsofky would be the team's 6th healthy defenseman.