The Penguins will open training camp without their first-line right winger.
Kasperi Kapanen, acquired from Toronto after last season to play on the right side with Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel, will not be present when the Penguins convene Sunday because of immigration issues, Jim Rutherford said Friday.
What's more, when Kapanen, who is in Finland, does finally make it to town, Rutherford said "I believe" he will have to go through a quarantine period because of the coronavirus pandemic.
"He'll be late for camp," Rutherford said. "We don't know exactly when he gets here. For some reason, his appointment with Immigration got delayed."
He added that he does not know when that appointment will take place and acknowledged that the Penguins will "probably not" have Kapanen for a significant portion of the camp that will lead up to the regular-season opener Jan. 13 in Philadelphia..
It is not known how Mike Sullivan and his staff will reconfigure their forward lines until Kapanen arrives; Rutherford said he has "no sense" of how that will be handled, but added that he doesn't necessarily fear that a short-term problem will become a serious one.
"We feel we have some forwards who can move up and down the lineup," he said. "As long as we don't get other players out of the lineup, too many others, we should be able to adjust to it."