Penguins place Sam Girard on injured reserve

The Pittsburgh Penguins will continue to be without one of their veteran defensemen for the time being, as the team announced on Saturday that it has placed Sam Girard on injured reserve.

Girard has been out of the lineup since he suffered an injury during Pittsburgh’s loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Oct. 17 when he was injured while trying to get back to make a play on defense.

The veteran puck-mover is in his second year in the Steel City after coming over last season in a trade with the Colorado Avalanche, the team with which he had spent his entire career after the Avs chose him in the second round of the 2016 NHL Draft.

Girard, who posted a career-high 37 points in 2022-23 in Denver, is off to a strong start offensively this year. Through just nine games, he’s already matched his post-trade output with the Pens last year in 20 games with seven points. Girard has skated to a minus-4 rating while playing an average of 18:44 of time on ice per game.

For the entirety of his NHL career, Girard has racked up 38 goals and 211 assists for 249 points in 617 career games. In 2022, Girard had three points in seven games as he helped the Avalanche win the Stanley Cup.

The Penguins, who are looking to replicate their effort from last season that saw them surprise the hockey world en route to a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, are off to a rocky start to their 2026-27 campaign.

After a 2-0-0 start, Pittsburgh dropped seven of its next eight games before waking up in a big way in a 4-0 victory over the Florida Panthers on Thursday. The Penguins host the Nashville Predators on Saturday night and will wrap up a three-game homestand against the Utah Mammoth next Thursday.