Pittsburgh Penguins get crushing injury news on Erik Karlsson

The Pittsburgh Penguins came into 2025/26 as an unknown, with many people believing they would be a lottery team come the 2026 NHL Draft, but thus far, they've shocked many critics, posting a record of 21-14-9 on the season.

That run puts them just one point back of a Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference, but after the latest news, the team will need to fight hard to keep themselves in this spot.

On Tuesday, the team took to social media to officially announced that Erik Karlsson will be heading to Injured Reserve, with the team recalling Ryan Graves from the AHL's Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins as a result.

According to reports, this means that Karlsson will be missing 'multiple weeks', and as of right now, it's unclear whether he will return ahead of the Olympic break that takes place early in February, as he is set to be re-evaluated in two weeks.

This season, Karlsson sits third on the team in scoring with 4 goals and 33 points across 42 games played, and while he's not the Norris Trophy caliber defenseman we've seen in the past anymore, he remains incredibly valuable to this team.

Now, this becomes a major test for Kris Letang and the rest of this blue line as they aim to pick up the slack for Karlsson while he's out, and if they can remain in the hunt, when he returns, this is a team that's still full of belief that they can be a Stanley Cup threat in the Eastern Conference.

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