Kris Letang Injury: Updates on Penguins Star's Status and Return

The Pittsburgh Penguins will be forced to close out the season without star defenseman Kris Letang, who is out for the season after sustaining a concussion.

Continue for updates.  

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Letting Out for Season

Friday, April 10

Dejan Kovacevic of DKonPittsburghSports.com provided comments from Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford:

"Kris Letang will not play again for the Penguins this season, 'even if we make a deep run in the playoffs.'"

Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review previously reported Rutherford said Letang wasn't likely to return “based on his present condition.”

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Letang Diagnosed with Concussion, Released from Hospital

Sunday, March 29

Johnston, per the team's official Twitter, stated Letang officially has a concussion after being evaluated Sunday:

Per Adam Gretz of CBSSports.com, Letang was injured after taking a late hit from Shane Doan in the second period. He was quickly taken to the hospital during Pittsburgh's 3-2 win over Arizona.

SportsNet Canada showed the hit on YouTube:

After the game on the Coyotes website, Doan commented on the hit (h/t Dhiren Mahiban of Pro Hockey Talk):

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"It’s awful. When it happened, I could tell the way he went into the boards…awkward. It’s just one of those…he’s so good, we talk about it, we’ve got to make sure he doesn’t jump by," said Doan. "I just went to make sure I got a piece of him so he couldn’t jump by me. He obviously went into the boards awkwardly.

"We have to finish our checks on him. I didn’t mean to hit him in that…you know hit him to stop him from jumping by. You never ever want to see a guy like that, especially of his caliber. Obviously, everything that he’s went through the last couple years, you never want to see that so you feel awful as a player when something like that happens."

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Letang is Pittsburgh's third-leading scorer with 54 points and is tied for second with a plus-12 plus/minus rating. The Penguins haven't been able to keep their top players healthy recently, with Evgeni Malkin returning Saturday after missing the previous six games. 

This is a crushing blow for the Penguins, who suffer a significant setback with the loss of Letang.