The Pittsburgh Penguins recently defeated the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night 5-1, but the victory unfortunately comes with a cost. The Penguins will now be without defenseman Caleb Jones for 8 weeks with a lower body injury that he suffered in the victory.
Defenseman Caleb Jones has been placed on Injured Reserve and is expected to miss approximately eight weeks with a lower-body injury. pic.twitter.com/xaCry5vt3z
— Penguins PR (@PenguinsPR) October 25, 2025
Jones had been primarily playing on the left side of the Penguins third defensive pairing with a rotation of Harrison Brunicke, Matt Dumba, and Connor Clifton. But now the Penguins and head coach Dan Muse will have to do some shuffling on the third defensive pairing for a little bit.
Jones had been on the Penguins third defensive pairing since the Penguins opened their season at Madison Square Garden against the Rangers. But now that changes and Dan Muse will have to slot Dumba or Clifton in for the time being and see how well they do with Brunicke.
The Penguins should look to Wilkes-Barre for Brunicke's defense partner
The name that Penguins fans will be calling out for in terms of Brunicke's defensive replacement now that Jones is out for a bit, is a common one. Fans will be calling for general manager Kyle Dubas to recall Owen Pickering and play him next to Brunicke.
Brunicke and Pickering played together during pretty much all of training camp and really looked like a stable pairing on the backend for the Penguins. But calling up Pickering is difficult because forward Kevin Hayes is on his way back from an injury and there just aren't enough roster spots.
But if the Penguins really wanted to get crazy and go for gold with Jones being out for a while, Pickering should be the call-up. It would be a tricky move and trying to maneuver things around to find a roster spot, but it would be the right thing to do.
But for now, the Penguins will just rotate with Dumba, Clifton, and Brunicke on the bottom pairing for the Penguins for the time being. Eight weeks will be quite a while to try to navigate subbing players in-and-out but Muse will have that decision to make with each passing game and as the season goes on.