The Penguins will be without one of their most significant offseason pickups for the foreseeable future.
Reilly Smith will be out “longer term” with an upper-body injury, said coach Mike Sullivan, who briefed the media on the winger’s status after Friday’s practice in Cranberry. Smith, whom the Penguins acquired in June from the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for a third-round pick, is fifth on the team in scoring with eight goals.
He’s also been a frequent contributor on both the Penguins penalty kill and second power-play unit.
“Reilly is a good player and he helps us in so many ways,” Sullivan said. “He's not an easy guy to replace at this particular point.”
Smith exited Thursday night’s loss to the Vancouver Canucks early after absorbing a hard hit into the boards midway through the first period. He winced in pain while skating back to the bench, then grabbed at the left side of his torso. Smith returned for a few shifts but was shut down from the second period onward.
While the loss of Smith, 32, will be felt by the Penguins, his play has taken a dip as of late. After a strong start in which he amassed 11 points in his first 10 games as a Penguin, Smith has totaled just nine in the team’s last 30 contests.
Smith has primarily skated on Evgeni Malkin’s line, but in the last two games, he had dropped down to the third line, centered by Lars Eller. Drew O’Connor, who has five points in the Penguins’ last seven games, filled Smith’s spot at left wing both Monday and Thursday night.
Sullivan noted there have been some “inconsistencies” in Smith’s game through the first half of the season, an observation that extended to the Penguins second line in general.
"I think there's been some inconsistency on his line,” Sullivan said. “That's not necessarily on Reilly himself. But I think when he was playing with [Malkin], I thought they had a great start to the season and then I thought they had games when they were really good and others when they weren't.”
Sullivan said the decision to move Smith down to Eller’s line was in an effort to strike some “competitive balance” throughout the lineup. He’d been pleased with the initial results through a game and change, but Sullivan will have to wait an extended period of time to see what Smith could bring to the bottom six.
“It's unfortunate that Reilly got hurt last night because we would have liked to have seen that develop further,” Sullivan said. “We liked the prospects of that and the balance that it provides for us.”
Instead, the Penguins will have to navigate life without Smith. The Penguins have dealt with their fair share of injuries to forwards this season. Rickard Rakell, Bryan Rust and Matt Nieto have all been out for extended periods of time, with Nieto still residing on long-term injured reserve. Defenseman John Ludvig is also still on long-term injured reserve.
It’ll be curious how the Penguins seek to fill Smith’s void. Radim Zohorna is the lone forward on the roster who has been a regular healthy scratch, failing to crack the starting lineup since Dec. 30.
To immediately address Smith’s absence, the Penguins could slide Zohorna back into the bottom six. Or they could turn to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins for help, where there are a number of forward options previously turned to this season and others that have yet to get called up from the American Hockey League.
Andrew Destin: adestin@post-gazette.com and Twitter @AndrewDestin1
First Published: January 12, 2024, 7:16 p.m.
Updated: January 12, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
