Seth Rorabaugh of Tribune-Review Sports has reported that Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jake Guentzel will miss the upcoming IIHF World Championships due to an undisclosed injury. It was also noted that Guentzel is not necessarily physically unable to play, but the move is precautionary.
During the Penguins’ exit interviews on April 15 at the conclusion of the season, Guentzel did note that he expected to play for Team USA during this year’s World Championships. As recently as Tuesday, during a podcast with Craig Custance of The Athletic, the head coach of the USA team, David Quinn, also expected Guentzel to be a part of the team as well.
For the fifth year in a row, Guentzel once again hovered close to a point-per-game pace, scoring 36 goals and 37 assists in 78 games. Pittsburgh finished 16th in the NHL in Goals For with a total of 261. Scoring 13.8% of all Penguins goals this season, Guentzel is leaned on in a huge way as a big part of Pittsburgh’s offense.
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