Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson was scratched for Friday’s home game against the Winnipeg Jets due to an undisclosed illness.
The team announced his status via Twitter shortly before the opening faceoff.
In 40 games this season, the left-handed Pettersson — who has primarily been deployed on the left side of the Penguins’ top defensive pairing — has 11 assists while averaging 20 minutes, 43 seconds of ice time per contest.
With the team playing its 41st contest of an 82-game season, Brian Dumoulin and Jan Rutta are the Penguins’ only defensemen who will have played in all of the squad’s games at the halfway point of the 2022-23 campaign.
The team’s top two right-handed defensemen — Kris Letang (family matters) and Jeff Petry (suspected left arm injury) — are currently unavailable.
Earlier in the day, the team recalled defenseman Mark Friedman from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League.
During warmups, the team’s defensive pairings were:
8 Brian Dumoulin — 52 Mark Friedman
24 Ty Smith — 2 Chad Ruhwedel
73 P.O Joseph — 44 Jan Rutta
Reserve defenseman Taylor Fedun is slated to be a healthy scratch.
