ESPN: Gonchar to miss 4-6 months

ESPN is reporting Penguins defenseman Sergei Gonchar will undergo surgery on his dislocated left shoulder and will miss 4-6 months.

EN Says: Well that's certainly not good. Combine that with Ryan Whitney's injury, the Penguins are missing out on a lot of offense from the blue line. But the Penguins have a ton of depth at the position. Even with Whitney and Gonchar out for extended periods of time, the Penguins still have seven NHL caliber defensemen in Mark Eaton, Hal Gill, Alex Goligoski, Kris Letang, Brooks Orpik, Rob Scuderi and Darryl Sydor.

We're not saying any of those seven are on par with Gonchar or Whitney in terms of offensive output. The Penguins are definitely a lesser team without both of them. The power play will probably suffer the most with Gonchar's absence. There's no question. But the Penguins' depth will help offset the loss somewhat.

If this were the 2006-07 Penguins with Josef Melichar and Alain Nasreddine getting top six minutes, this would be a much larger problem.

(Photo: Dave Sanford/Getty Images)