Penguins' Jake Guentzel will play in season opener

As speculated in the last few days, Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jake Guentzel is healthy and will play in tonight’s home opener against the Chicago Blackhawks, the team confirmed today.

Guentzel, 29, was initially expected to miss at least three months after undergoing ankle surgery at the beginning of August. That timeline put him borderline-LTIR eligible to start the season, which at the time was viewed as a crucial step to help the Penguins alleviate their salary cap concerns. Many transactions later, however, the Penguins are ready to go with Guentzel in the lineup and a nearly full roster of 12 forwards, eight defensemen and two goalies.

Pittsburgh’s top winger aggravated the lingering right ankle injury playing summer league hockey in Minnesota and decided to undergo surgery when it became clear it wasn’t healing on its own as hoped. The Nebraska native is coming off another strong goal-scoring showing for the Penguins, notching 36 goals and 37 assists for 73 points in 78 contests last season. Sidney Crosby’s right-hand (or left-hand?) man on the team’s top unit has eclipsed the point-per-game mark three times in the last four seasons and will look to do so again this year.

His name often gets lost in the shuffle among Pittsburgh’s star power, now more than ever after the team’s highly-publicized addition of Erik Karlsson to the blue line. However, Guentzel is an incredibly important player to this Penguins squad and sits among the top pending free agents available on the 2024 market – especially after the Winnipeg Jets locked in center Mark Scheifele for an additional seven seasons yesterday.

Guentzel is projected to line up alongside Crosby and Bryan Rust in tonight’s game, potentially matched up against 2023 first-overall pick Connor Bedard in his NHL regular-season debut for the Blackhawks.