Penguins Defenseman Rejoins Team After Being Out With Injury

Ryan Shea last played on March 9th, a 3-1 win over the Minnesota Wild.

The 28-year-old logged over 24 minutes in the game and seemed no worse for wear.

However, he has been out of the lineup since as he has been dealing with an upper-body injury.

The blueliner has been skating with his injured teammates before and after team practices though.

Now it appears as though he is close to making a return. Penguins reporter Wes Crosby revealed this morning that Shea will be traveling with the team on their upcoming road trip.

The Penguins make just three stops on the roadie before returning home on the 30th, so it would seem that Shea is very close to making a return.

After all, if the team expected him to remain out for longer than a week he likely would be staying in Pittsburgh.

Shea, a 4th round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks in 2015, has appeared in 30 games for the Penguins this season and has put up 2 goals and 5 points.

He made his NHL debut with the Penguins last season, scoring a single goal in 31 appearances to give him 3 goals and 6 points in 61 career matches.

He has already signed a one-year extension with the team and will make 900k dollars against the salary cap next season.

Thanks to their recent hot streak, the Penguins are back in the playoff race, albeit by a thread.

This road trip could make or break the season as they have two very tough matchups against the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning before heading to New York to face the Buffalo Sabres.

If they can go three-for-three the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference could suddenly look very different, so it will be quite interesting to see if Shea plays a role in any of these upcoming games.