The status of injured Pittsburgh Penguins forward Tommy Novak remains uncertain with eight games remaining in the regular season.
An undisclosed injury has sidelined Novak for the past eight contests and has even limited his time on the ice to rehabilitate.
On Saturday, Novak worked out off the ice according to coach Mike Sullivan, who indicated the off-ice/on-ice nature of his rehabilitation is part of a plan to get the center back in the lineup.
But with only an octet of contests remaining in the regular season, the window for Novak to play again in 2024-25 is closing.
“I don’t know that I can answer that question,” Sullivan said when asked if there was concern Novak could return before the regular season concludes. “Obviously, there’s only a few weeks here but he is making progress. We’re hopeful that we’ll get him back. But at this point, he is where he is at. Until we get him on the ice consistently — and obviously, part of that return-to-play process is joining the team, which is the last stage of it — until he gets there, it’s not imminent that he’s going to be in the lineup.”
Novak’s status was originally labeled as “day to day.”
The Penguins acquired Novak in a trade with the Nashville Predators on March 5. In two games with the Penguins, Novak has no points while averaging 13:01 of ice time.
Including his time with the Predators, Novak has played in 54 games this season and has scored 22 points (13 goals, nine assists) while clocking an average of 13:14 of ice time per contest.
Notes:
• Injured Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin and defenseman P.O Joseph skated before practice in Cranberry on Saturday according to Sullivan.
An undisclosed injury has sidelined Malkin for the past two games. As for Joseph, he is currently designated to injured reserve due to an unspecified ailment that has cost him the past 12 games.
• Penguins forward Boko Imama will miss the remainder of the season following surgery for a bicep injury. The recovery period for that is four to six months.
• With forward prospects Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty each recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League on Friday, the Penguins displayed some considerably different lines and pairings during practice.
2 Rutger McGroarty - 87 Sidney Crosby - 17 Bryan Rust
19 Connor Dewar - 67 Rickard Rakell - 41 Ville Koivunen
55 Noel Acciari - 13 Kevin Hayes - 53 Philip Tomasino
43 Danton Heinen - 46 Blake Lizotte - 52 Emil Bemstrom
24 Matt Grzelcyk - 58 Kris Letang
65 Erik Karlsson - 20 Conor Timmins
27 Ryan Graves/5 Ryan Shea - 23 Vladislav Kolyachonok
• The top power-play unit included Crosby, Grzelcyk, Koivunen, Rakell and Rust. The second power-play unit involved Hayes, Karlsson, Letang, McGroarty and Tomasino.