After appearing in just four games with the Penguins, newly acquired Dmitry Kulikov now finds himself out with a lower-body injury suffered on Sunday against the Rangers. He has been placed on long-term injured reserve, retroactive to March 12, it was announced on Wednesday by the team.
The earliest Kulikov can be activated is April 6, a gameday versus the Wild. That falls one week prior to the end of the regular season. In the meantime, the Penguins will be getting salary cap relief on the entirety of his $1.125 million cap hit.
Ryan Poehling is expected to be activated from long-term injured reserve sooner than later, but his $750,000 cap hit is the same as Alex Nylander's, so if the latter is re-assigned when that happens, it won't change the Penguins' cap figure.
As so, they will have enough space to recall a defenseman from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the AHL, if they need to. That might have to happen after both Jan Rutta and Jeff Petry left Tuesday's game against the Canadiens due to injury. They are continuing to be evaluated, and the Penguins did not practice Wednesday, so the next update on their statuses will have to wait until morning skate on Thursday.
If Rutta and Petry miss any time, that would leave the Penguins with five healthy defensemen currently on the NHL roster: Kris Letang, Marcus Pettersson, Brian Dumoulin, P.O Joseph, Chad Ruhwedel.
The most likely defenseman to get the recall is Mark Friedman, who last appeared for the Penguins on Feb. 11 in Los Angeles. He cleared waivers and was re-assigned to the AHL prior to the trade deadline. If he is recalled, the Penguins would not have enough cap space for another recall unless another player goes on long-term injured reserve. He has one goal and no assists in 11 NHL games this season.
