Injured Penguins forward Jake Guentzel rejoins teammates in practice
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If Jake Guentzel is still dealing with any lingering effects from his injured right ankle, they aren’t obvious.
At least through the limited scope of drills during a practice session at the Pittsburgh Penguins’ facility in Cranberry on Tuesday.
As defenseman Ryan Shea skated into the offensive zone on a two-on-two drill, Guentzel, an All-Star left winger, kept with him choppy stride for choppy stride in a defensive posture. When Shea pulled back, Guentzel mirrored his retreating maneuver with the necessary torque from his repaired ankle.
And in an attacking presence, Guentzel, a two-time 40-goal scorer, showed sufficient explosion on an offensive zone entry up the right wing to initiate a designed two-on-one rush with forward Rickard Rakell against defenseman Chad Ruhwedel.
As far as contact went, there wasn’t much of it among any of the players who took to the ice Tuesday. Though the 5-foot-11, 180-pound Guentzel did give a few love taps to 6-6, 220-pound forward Radim Zohorna along the boards.
To the naked eye, there was little evidence Guentzel underwent surgery a little more than two months ago.
“I feel great,” Guentzel said. “It’s obviously nice to be out with the team, the guys again. Just to see their faces and be out with the new guys, it’s always fun. An exciting day, for sure. Just the first step.”
This marked the first time Guentzel took the ice in a full capacity during the team’s ongoing training camp and provided hope his convalescence might allow him to play sooner than the initial forecast provided by president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas, who, in August, suggested Guentzel would be unavailable for the first five games of the regular season.
Guentzel pumped the brakes on any notion he is in line or even ahead of schedule of that estimation.
“Nah, it’s too early to tell,” Guentzel said. “Just kind of wait and see. Obviously, you’ve got to wait and see and see what happens. It’s a day-by-day thing.”
Whatever day Guentzel returns to the Penguins lineup in a full capacity will certainly be an upbeat one. A fixture on the top line who virtually has a covalent bond with franchise center Sidney Crosby, Guentzel is a vital component to the bold aspirations the Penguins possess in being a contender for the Stanley Cup.
“He’s a leader,” defenseman Marcus Pettersson said. “He’s a guy that’s loved around the locker room. He always has a smile on his face. On the ice, he’s such a good goal-scorer. He makes a lot of plays that maybe don’t get recognized a lot. He gets a lot of credit for all the goals he scores and being so good around the net. But small plays around the walls and stuff like that, the plays he makes, he’s such a smart player that way.
“He’s for sure missed.”
Guentzel suffered the injury at an unspecified juncture of the 2022-23 season and finished that campaign hobbled. Despite the impairment, he played in 78 of a possible 82 games and was third on the team with 73 points (36 goals, 37 assists) while averaging 20 minutes, 7 seconds of ice time.
He made attempts to rehabilitate the injury in the offseason with rest as well as a typical off- and on-ice regimen. But when he failed to recuperate at a satisfactory level, surgery was performed in early August.
“Obviously, it didn’t heal properly the way we thought it would,” Guentzel said. “Just kind of decided last minute to go this route. Now, we’re here. Just kind of hoping for the best.”
Since camp began Sept. 20, Guentzel has primarily skated with other injured players or reserves likely to open the season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League. Until Tuesday.
“We’ve been watching him, even (skating with other injured players), he doesn’t look like he missed a step at all,” Pettersson said. “He looks great out there.”
For Guentzel, just being on the ice with his teammates with few limitations was a great feeling.
“It’s obviously disappointing,” Guentzel said. “You never want to go through something like this. But you realize it’s part of the game, injuries happen. Just decided to (have surgery) in the summer. … Hopefully, we’ll kind of see what happens here the next couple of days.”