Pittsburgh Penguins’ Jake Guentzel to miss start of season with ankle injury

The Pittsburgh Penguins have confirmed that forward Jake Guentzel will miss the start of the 2023-24 season after undergoing right ankle surgery on August 2.

The team said they’ll re-evaluate the American winger in 12 weeks.

Guentzel has made his mark as one of the most important players for the Penguins, scoring 36 goals and 73 points in 78 games. It was the third-highest output of his career, with his 40-goal, 84-point run in 2021-22 being at the top. Guentzel is a two-time 40-goal scorer, and Sidney Crosby’s left-hand man for the better part of a decade.

Drafted 77th overall in 2013, Guentzel has 197 and 414 points in 453 games, while recording at least 70 point three times in his career. He also had over a point per game in 2019-20 and 2020-21, seasons that were limited, game-wise, due to injuries and COVID-19, respectively.

Guentzel is set to enter the final year of a five-season contract worth $6 million per season. The team will be able to put his cap hit on long-term injured reserve to start the season. But as CapFriendly points out, it’s only a short-term injury, so it won’t solve the team’s cap issues.

The team is currently $3.216 million over the cap, but CapFriendly has the team being at $2.783 million with Guentzel on LTIR. Assuming everyone else is healthy once Guentzel returns, new GM Kyle Dubas will still need to make moves to make the team cap compliant.

The Penguins missed the playoffs in 2022-23, with Ron Hextall and Brian Burke leading the management team. The club released both and brought in former Toronto Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas to serve as the team’s president of hockey operations. On Thursday, Dubas hired himself for the role as GM and will hold both jobs simultaneously.