Pittsburgh Penguins’ Jake Guentzel leaves game vs. Panthers with upper-body injury

Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan announced that winger Jake Guentzel’s absence in the third period of Wednesday’s game against the Florida Panthers was due to an upper-body injury.

Guentzel, 29, did not play in the final 11:58 of the Penguins 5-2 loss to the Panthers. There didn’t appear to be a specific play that caused the injury, but he did take a few hits which may have caused some kind of issue for him. Barring this being Pittsburgh acting mysterious in the wake of a trade involving Guentzel, we’ll have to await further word on how severe the injury is and what his timeline for return is.

Guentzel left the game with an assist, three shots and a hit in 18:30 of ice time.

The Nebraska, Omaha product is having another excellent season, as he has 22 goals and 30 assists for 52 points in 50 games for the Penguins. Assuming his injury doesn’t keep him out of the lineup, he’s on pace for 85 points, which would be a career-high for him.

Guentzel was a third-round pick of the Penguins in the 2013 NHL Draft, and after making his NHL debut in the 2016-17 season, he’s spent the entirety of his eight-season NHL career in Pittsburgh.

Guentzel is currently in the final year of a five-year contract with a $6 million cap hit, and will be an unrestricted free agent in the 2024 offseason, a big reason why he’s a potential trade target for teams at the 2024 trade deadline.

The Penguins currently sits in seventh in the Metropolitan Division with a 23-20-7 record, which is seven points behind the Detroit Red Wings for the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. Pittsburgh will look to end their three-game losing streak when they visit Chicago to take on the Blackhawks on Thursday at 8:30 p.m. EST.