Penguins' depth among left-handed defensemen being tested

Pittsburgh Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas traded for defenseman P.O Joseph on Wednesday and brought him back to the team for a simple reason.

Perhaps the most simple of reasons in hockey.

They needed a defenseman.

With Marcus Pettersson suffering an undisclosed injury during a 3-2 overtime road loss to the Ottawa Senators on Dec. 14, the Penguins had a considerable hole on their blue line as Pettersson arguably has been their best defensive presence, regardless of position this season.

Add in the injuries — at the time — to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins defensemen Sebastian Aho and Jack St. Ivany, and the Penguins had some lean numbers among their healthy defensemen.

“We just didn’t feel we were putting our group in a good enough position to perform or develop, in some cases, and needed to shore up our depth there,” Dubas wrote in an e-mail to Pittsburgh-based outlets the night of the trade. “There’s a familiarity with P.O — the person and the player with most of our coaches’ room and staff — that doesn’t exist with the others on the waiver wire today, so we felt this was the best course of action to bolster our depth with someone that won’t require a lot of lag time to get up to speed with our team.”

The need for depth at that position was strained further Saturday during a 3-0 road loss to the New Jersey Devils when rookie Owen Pickering, a first-round draft pick (No. 21 overall) in 2022, left the contest in the second period because of an undisclosed injury.

No prognosis was offered for Pickering after the game, but the Penguins lost their top two left-handed defensemen — at least based how they were deployed on the pairings — over the course of seven days.

Assuming Pickering isn’t available for the Penguins’ next contest, a home game against the rival Philadelphia Flyers, the Penguins likely will be dressing a patchwork assortment of left-handed defensemen for one game at least.

“It’s not great,” left-handed defenseman Matt Grzelcyk said Dec. 16 in Cranberry. “Especially someone like Pettersson who plays so many important minutes and plays in every situation. So never fun to see a guy go down. But just try to have that next-man-up mentality, and we know we’re going to play a little bit more than normal.”

The most obvious candidate to play a bit more is Ryan Graves. Especially because he was a healthy scratch Saturday.

Graves, who is in the second year of a six-year contract with a salary cap hit of $4.5 million, has been a healthy scratch for nine of the past 16 games and largely has been deployed and sheltered on the third pairing when he has been in the lineup this season.

“That’s part of the season,” Graves said Dec. 16. “Guys get hurt, and there’s injuries. Guys miss games and stuff. You have to take your opportunity. If more time comes along, take advantage of it, hopefully. Injuries are unfortunate. But you’re trying to win games no matter who’s in the lineup. It’s important to pick up the slack.”

The one left-handed defensemen on the roster who probably won’t be impacted that much is Ryan Shea. Of the 16 games he has dressed this season, 14 have seen him start on the right side.

That figures to remain status quo no matter how long Pettersson or Pickering are sidelined.

“I am used to playing left or right,” Shea said Dec. 16. “Whether it’s a lefty or a righty defensemen who goes down, it’s opportunity for everybody. It’s a pretty big role to fill. (Pettersson) does everything so good. He’s probably one of the most well-rounded defensemen that I’ve played with.

“We’ve all got to be ready go to and try to bring our best game forward.”

Note: The Penguins had a scheduled day off Sunday.