Pittsburgh Penguins defenceman Kris Letang has been cleared to participate in the club’s training camp, according to general manager Jim Rutherford.
“Letang is healthy now,” Rutherford told NHL.com on Saturday. “And he makes up for a lot, even with the loss of (Trevor) Daley and (Ron) Hainsey.”
The veteran defender missed Pittsburgh’s entire 2017 post-season run after enduring a herniated disk in his neck, which required surgery in April. It appears he’ll soon be able to resume contributing as the club’s No. 1 option on the back end, however.
“I would expect a regular workload and I’m sure that’s what he expects,” Rutherford said. “He wants to play 40 minutes a game, but I think the coaches will just take it a day or a week or a game at a time and see where it goes. I would suspect that he would probably ease his way into the pre-season and then go from there.”
Letang posted 34 points through 41 games in 2016-17, one year removed from a career-best 67-point effort 2015-16. He logged an average of 28:53 minutes of ice time during the first of Pittsburgh’s back-to-back championships, posting 15 points through 23 playoff games.
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