Penguins defenseman Kris Letang undergoes successful surgery to close a hole in his heart
The Penguins have announced that defenseman and alternate captain Kris Letang has undergone successful surgery.
According to the team, Letang had surgery to close a patent foramen ovale, also known as a PFO, a small hole in the heart, and the surgery was performed at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital by Dr. Conrad Smith.
Letang's recovery time is expected to be four to six weeks. He will miss the team's final regular season game against the Washington Capitals Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena.
The Penguins' defenseman has suffered two strokes in his career, most recently in 2022. The team has said that the small hole in the heart was the cause of both strokes. Medical experts have said that while in most people, that hole closes on its own after birth, for Letang, the small hole in the wall of his heart never closed.
When Letang had his second stroke in 2022, he said he was not feeling any lingering effects and returned 12 days later. He went on to play in 64 games during that season, and was awarded the 2023 Bill Masterson Memorial Trophy, given in recognition of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.
Letang's teammates happy he's on the mend
A day after the procedure, Letang visited his teammates as they were practicing at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry, and his teammates said he was in good spirits.
"He's doing well," said head coach Mike Sullivan. "He's on the mend at this point. I think it's a four to six week recovery time and I think he's pleased that he ultimately made the decision to do [the surgery] and move by it, so he's doing pretty well under the circumstances."
"Given his history, I think you just want him to be healthy and that's the main thing," said Penguins captain and longtime teammate Sidney Crosby. "It seems like it's something that's fairly common. It's something that he's happy that he got done and it hopefully helps him."
Sullivan said the surgery was the result of an ongoing conversation Letang and the team's medical staff were having, and the opportunity presented itself.
"He's dealing with a lot of bumps and bruises," Sullivan said. "Collectively, as a group, we thought it made the most sense to have the procedure done at this particular time, so it isn't anything that caused it."
Letang "wants to play for a long time," Crosby says
This season, Letang has played 74 games and has recorded nine goals, 21 assists, and 30 points. Letang is already the team's all-time leader in games played (1,161), goals (175), assists (597) and points (772) by a defenseman. His teammates said they expect him to be back in training soon after recovery, and they agree he probably has a lot more hockey to play.
"I think he wants to play until he's 50," Crosby said with a laugh, "So he makes it known that he wants to play for a long time."
"I don't know if he'll change his mind or not, but that's been his stance for a long time."
"It's easy to say that if it happened to me I don't know what I would do and if I would be willing to move forward, but kudos to him and the doctors and everyone that's helped him along the way," said defenseman Erik Karlsson, who said he had a conversation with Letang via text message soon after the surgery.
"I've been around him for two years now and if I didn't know what he'd been through before, I would've never known," Karlsson said.
For the third consecutive year, the Penguins will not qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
