Penguins confirm two major injuries in first week of training camp.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have had a pretty awful start to training camp this week with a pair of major injuries that are sure to have an impact on the upcoming 2025-26 National Hockey League regular season.

First, the Penguins announced that 2022 first round pick (14th overall) Rutger McGroarty was being ruled out indefinitely due to what Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas described as an upper-body injury. McGroarty is among the younger Penguins at just 21 years of age and it sounds like this injury is one that will cost him quite a bit of time.

"It's going to be a little more of an indefinite timeline because of his age and the potential he has, just have to be very patient with Rutger on that one," said Dubas.

McGroarty has only appeared in 8 NHL games for the Penguins so far after being acquired in a trade with the Winnipeg Jets last year, and by the sounds of this announcement fans will have to wait a little longer before they get the chance to see him hit the ice again.

Unfortunately that was only the beginning of the Penguins troubles with veteran forward Kevin Hayes also suffering an injury, on the very first day of training camp no less. Hayes was injured after a collision with much-maligned Penguins defenseman Ryan Graves, and it sounds like Hayes is going to miss significant time as well.

On Friday, Penguins head coach Dan Muse confirmed that Hayes would be reevaluated in a month's time, which means that he will be out of the lineup for at least that long. That means that Hayes, who is 33 years old, will get off to a much slower start than he would have liked this season and will miss regular season games as a result of this training camp injury.

Two major injuries of this nature would be a tough blow to any team entering NHL training camps this week, but it is especially tough for a Penguins team that most had already predicted would land somewhere near the bottom of the NHL's standings this upcoming season.