Tim Benz: Jason Zucker's injury may provide peek into mindset of new Penguins brass

The injury to Penguins wing Jason Zucker is a blow to the roster at a time when things have been going well. Head coach Mike Sullivan’s team has won five of six and has another important game looming against the Washington Capitals Thursday night.

Plus, with Evgeni Malkin finally showing a rare sign of life in recent games (four points in the last three contests), I don’t like the thought of taking away anything that may make him feel comfortable. Namely, Zucker on his left wing.

Then again, it’s not like Zucker has been setting the world on fire himself, with no points in six of his last seven contests.

Now is that because Malkin is dragging down the whole line this year? Or did Malkin need better help on his left side?

We may get a long sample size to answer that question.

There is no clear injury report out yet on what happened to Zucker. But his bad tumble into the boards in Washington Tuesday sure looked like a significant lower-leg injury.

Although some comments from Sullivan seemed to mollify the concern.

“Zuck is a real resilient guy,” Sullivan said Wednesday. “He’s a good pro. He understands the game. And regardless of what kind of news we get, we know he’s going to work his tail off to get back as soon as he can.”

The players gave mixed signals after practice Wednesday with Zach Aston-Reese saying losing Zucker is a “pretty big blow” and “he will be missed greatly.” But defenseman Cody Ceci came off sounding less ominous stating, “We are definitely going to miss him in the lineup for a little bit.”

If the news that Sullivan gets is worse than “a little bit” and Zucker has to be put on long-term injured reserve, at least the balance of his $5.5 million salary can be stashed. Then that creates the potential of new general manager Ron Hextall making his first big move and perhaps trading for a top-six wing off another team.

“There is a benefit of what you can do with his salary and long-term injured reserve,” TribLive Penguins beat writer Seth Rorabaugh told me on Thursday’s “Breakfast With Benz” podcast. “At 5.5 million — or the equivalent thereof — that’s a lot of money Ron Hextall and (president of hockey operations) Brian Burke can use to tinker or adjust their roster going into the stretch.”

Elevating Aston-Reese or going with Jared McCann once he is healthy (presumably soon) are potential short-term fixes. But they were on the team last year, and the organization felt the need to acquire Zucker at a healthy cost anyway (Alex Galchenyuk, Calen Addison and a first-round pick).

Given that, what about Brandon Tanev getting a bump in role?

“I know he is listed at left wing. But I’ve rarely seen him at left wing. With the Penguins, he’s always been a right winger here,” Rorabaugh said. “Bryan Rust can always flip over. But I don’t think they are interested in that. Rust can play a lot of positions for you. But it seems like his greatest success over the last 18 months has been as right winger on Evgeni Malkin’s line. I don’t see a lot of willingness to tinker with that.”

Agreed. So if the extent of Zucker’s injury ends up being as grim as it looked on the ice, we may get an early look into the window of Hextall’s mind in his new job.

And it’ll be even more revealing of how this newly formed Penguins management team — featuring the never-patient Burke — genuinely feels about the franchise’s chances of competing the rest of the season.

If Burke’s “win now” nature rules the day and Zucker is laid up for an extended stretch, look for the Pens to trade some of their few worthwhile picks or promising minor league prospects to get a quality offensive replacement.

If Hextall’s reputation of holding on to prospects and picks presents itself, look for the Pens to get by with what is currently on the roster. Or maybe he makes a smaller move of acquiring a bottom-six player to offset the promotion of Aston-Reese, McCann or Tanev.

Granted, that’s a very black-and-white scenario I’ve painted. It doesn’t have to be as binary as “Burke’s way” versus “Hextall’s way.”

But if the spoken organizational credo of getting as much championship-level competitiveness as possible out of the current era holds true, the team may lean toward making some sort of impact trade to make sure it can stay in the top four of the incredibly jam-packed Eastern Division.

If it’s me and Zucker’s injury is deemed severe, I commit hard one way or the other. And quickly.

I’d act immediately and make a deal. Or I’d ride out some sort of reconfiguring of the wingers we previously discussed until the trade deadline on Apr. 4. Then let the standings decide what should be done.

Splitting it down the middle doesn’t make much sense.

In the end, though, the team has at least accomplished what it has so far without Zucker contributing very much anyway. And the Penguins are long odds to advance out of the division even if the team makes the playoffs in the first place.

So selling off future assets for a perceived short-term fix doesn’t seem worth it to me.

Also, in our podcast, Rorabaugh and I talk about the addition of new defenseman Mark Friedman, what that means for Pierre-Olivier Joseph, some improved goaltending and whether Seth is on board with those new alternative Pens jerseys yet.