Penguins have talked to the Islanders about a trade for Josh Ho-Sang.

It has been a very rough start to the 2019 - 2020 National Hockey League regular season for the Pittsburgh Penguins and it is starting to look like Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford is going to be forced to make some adjustments to his roster due to the sheer number of injuries that have plagued his roster. 

There has been rampant speculation for several days now that has suggested the Penguins would look to move one of their top 9 defensemen in an effort to strengthen their group of forwards, and that speculation has continued to gain steam as more and more members of the Penguins top 9 forwards have gone down to injury. Things started out badly for the Penguins when Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust and Nick Bjugstad all went down with significant injuries to start the regular season, and that problem was quickly compounded earlier this week. With the Penguins already badly shorthanded at the forward position they saw both Alex Galchenyuk, acquired in the trade that sent Phil Kessel to the Arizona Coyotes this summer, and veteran Penguins forward Patric Hornqvist go down to injuries as well. In the case of Alex Galchenyuk Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan informed the media that his was actually the aggravation of an already existing injury, needless to say a very rough start to the season for the Penguins and their fans.

Just last night Sportsnet NHL insider Chris Johnston revealed that Malkin's injury could keep him out for much longer than the initial predictions have suggested depending on how well he recovers from the soft tissue injury that has sidelined him early in the season.

"The Pittsburgh Penguins are a team that don't like to give injury timelines... and I think there is a good reason for it in this case," said Johnston on Saturday night. "It sounds as though it is a bit of an uncertain timeline for when Malkin will return. We are hearing it is at least a month as he comes back from a soft tissue injury but it could be a much longer term injury than that depending on how he heals and recovers on his treatment. As a result of that the Penguins are in a bit of a crisis mode."

Now it sounds like general manager Jim Rutherford is already making some calls in an effort to find a way to strengthen his depleted group of forwards, and according to Penguins insider Dan Kingerski one of those calls was made to the New York Islanders. Kingerski reports that an NHL source familiar with the Islanders side of the equation has informed him that the Penguins have checked it on the availability of much-maligned Islanders forward Josh Ho-Sang, a player that has formally requested a trade out of New York after once again failing to make it through training camp.

Ho-Sang has been a major source of frustration for the Islanders and it seems clear now that both Ho-Sang and the Islanders would prefer to part ways at this juncture, whether or not the Penguins will be the team that provides a solution to that problem however remains to be seen. This likely would be one of the lower-risk options for Rutherford at this time though, so do not be surprised if we here more about this potential deal in the coming days.