Pittsburgh Penguins Must Boost Their Forward Lines to Stay Among NHL Leaders

How quickly things can change in the NHL.

Injuries are a fact of life, but since Patric Hornqvist left the Pittsburgh Penguins' game against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday with an injury, the Penguins' top six has been effectively wiped clean of skilled wingers.

The team announced that Hornqvist was being evaluated on Friday.

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are extraordinary players, but they can't work alone.

Penguins fans have been asking for a trade to enhance the forward ranks. General manager Jim Rutherford obliged on Friday, sending defensive prospect Philip Samuelsson to the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for utility winger Rob Klinkhammer and a conditional draft pick, per NHL.com.

The deal is far from earth-shattering, but it helps to fill a need.

Dejan Kovaceviic of DK on Pittsburgh Sports reports that Klinkhammer was about to be put on waivers by the Coyotes, who sit 13th out of 14 teams in the Western Conference and rank 12th in goals. The left winger had three goals in 19 games with Arizona and was averaging 11 minutes and 55seconds  of ice time per game.

Klinkhammer's also a bargain, with a salary-cap hit of just $625,000 this season. He'll be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year.

With 36 points in 129 career NHL games, Klinkhammer likely slots in as Pittsburgh's current No. 3 winger behind Blake Comeau and Steve Downie.

Andy Devlin/Getty Images

Over the past two seasons, Klinkhammer has been used almost exclusively at five-on-five by coach Dave Tippett in Arizona. Don't be surprised to see him get a look on the once-formidable power play on Saturday when the Ottawa Senators come to town.

Klinkhammer should be able to contribute some useful minutes, but the Penguins will need to rely on improved defense and goaltending to stay on the winning track through this spate of injuries.

Already, their shot at the Montreal Canadiens' all-time power-play record of 31.88 percent is in jeopardy. Early in the season, Pittsburgh was connecting on nearly half its chances with the man advantage, but the 3-0 shutout loss to Vancouver on Thursday marked the fourth straight game that the power play has failed to connect.

We have to go all the way back to the 6-1 win over Buffalo on November 8 to find the last time the Penguins scored more than one power-play goal in a game.

With a 3-for-25 record in the 12 games since then, Pittsburgh's efficiency rate has now dropped to 29.6 percent—just over 2 percent better than the second-place Washington Capitals.

Last week, I sung Blake Comeau's praises as a replacement for Pascal Dupuis in the top six after his hat trick against Toronto. The scene up front now looks much different with Chris Kunitz and Hornqvist also on the sidelines.

Kunitz is only expected to be out for a couple of weeks, according to NHL.com, but if Hornqvist is sidelined for any period of time, Rutherford should try to acquire another skilled winger to help out Crosby and Malkin.

Role players like Comeau can carry the load for short periods of time, but they won't be able to contribute long-term without the right support.

If Crosby and Malkin are expected to generate all the offense, they leave themselves vulnerable to getting run down and exposed to injuries.

They've played brilliantly this season, but neither was 100 percent during training camp and Crosby missed the morning skate before his team's game against the New Jersey Devils earlier this week due to illness.

During a press conference on Friday, the beleaguered Edmonton Oilers announced that they plan to stick with their core players, but they have a tasty menu of talented wingers on their roster as well as a need for help on defense.

Darren Dreger of TSN suggested on November 23 that Edmonton was willing to trade David Perron for help at center. Perron could be a No. 1 winger in Pittsburgh right now.

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Perhaps Edmonton general manager Craig MacTavish would be willing to consider dealing Perron for a young defenseman or impending free agent Paul Martin, who could provide immediate help in Oil Country.

The Penguins could use some immediate help themselves.

Contract information courtesy of CapGeek.com.