Head coach Mike Sullivan said Schultz is sidelined "longer term" with a lower-body injury, while Bjugstad will miss at least eight weeks after surgery on a core muscle.
Schultz has appeared in 21 games in 2019-20, recording two goals and six assists across 20:57 of ice time per contest. Bjugstad has been limited to 10 games in his second season with the Penguins, notching just a single goal.
Despite the onslaught of injuries, Pittsburgh sits in the top wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with an 11-7-3 record entering Thursday's clash with the New York Islanders.
Keefe had the opportunity to run his first practice with his new club Thursday morning and is looking to breathe some new life into the team.
"The first thing is trying to educate myself on exactly what's been happening ... Really getting to know the players and getting their thoughts and working with the coaching staff in terms of what have they identified as the issues," Keefe said to the assembled media, per TSN.
"We have a lot of work to do, a lot of things to really just renew the spirit of the team, that's really the main focus," Keefe added. "If we can tweak a couple of things that can inspire some confidence then we can hopefully build on that."
Keefe is in familiar territory with the Leafs, having coached 11 players on their NHL roster during his five-year stint with the Toronto Marlies.
"A big help for me, in particular, in these circumstances, coming in midstream ... is knowing the faces," Keefe added, per Sportsnet. "Just some familiarity. It's a lot easier for me coming into the room today and being around the guys and talking with them."
Keefe is set to make his debut behind the bench Thursday against the Arizona Coyotes.
Edmonton Oilers defenseman Adam Larsson has been activated off injured reserve and will play against the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday, the team announced.
Larsson suffered a broken foot in the club's season opener and has missed the last 22 games. He was expected to be sidelined for six-to-eight weeks.
The 27-year-old has played an important role on the Oilers' blue line since being acquired from the New Jersey Devils in June 2016. Last season, Larsson finished third among Oilers defensemen with 21:37 of ice time per game, chipping in three goals and 20 points in 82 contests.
Edmonton has started off strong in his absence, posting a 14-6-3 record to sit atop the Pacific Division entering Thursday's action.
Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas is holding himself accountable for the departure of former head coach Mike Babcock.
"I'm disappointed in myself ... that coming into the job, knowing Mike was the coach, you certainly want everything to work out," Dubas told assembled media, including TSN, on Thursday.
" ... I tried to do as best I could ... and I'm disappointed in myself and only myself that it didn't work out, that we couldn't become simpatico on every single topic."
The Maple Leafs fired Babcock on Wednesday, replacing him with former Toronto Marlies bench boss Sheldon Keefe following a 9-10-4 start that has threatened what was supposed to be the club's most promising campaign in recent memory.
"Our major way of looking at it was, 'Is this best for the long term of the group?'" Dubas said. "Not to sit here at the end of the weekend and say was this a success or not but in the long run was this the best thing to do for our program?
"And (Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan and I) both agreed that it absolutely was."
Babcock led the team through a rebuilding season in 2015-16 before helping the Maple Leafs reach the playoffs in three straight campaigns. The club failed to advance out of the first round in each of those postseason appearances, however, and a regressive start in 2019-20 signaled to Dubas it was time to make a change.
" ... Our ups and downs, our inconsistency a little bit, and just kind of reading off the players and watching them and how they were reacting to different things that it was time to potentially go down this path," Dubas said.
Tuesday's loss to the Vegas Golden Knights pushed the Leafs' losing streak to six contests, the longest such slide of the Auston Matthews-Babcock era.
Asked if Babcock had lost the room, Shanahan dismissed the notion but admitted there has been something amiss with the club.
"Certainly from a player's perspective you could see the frustration in their eyes and I really thought even in our last game that the players were working hard but there was a sort of a belief missing in them," Shanahan said.
Keefe will coach his first NHL game Thursday against the Arizona Coyotes as the Maple Leafs look to turn their season around.
It had to happen. It was merely a matter of when, where, and in which fashion.
The Toronto Maple Leafsfired head coach Mike Babcock on Wednesday, and though it registered as a relative bombshell, it really came as no surprise to anyone with their finger on the pulse of the sport.
What started as a season of great hope in Toronto has been derailed through one-quarter of the schedule - punctuated by a six-game losing streak - and someone had to pay. The coach almost always goes first.
The timing - the team is in the middle of a road trip and there are 59 games remaining in the regular season - isn't especially eyebrow-raising, either. Babcock's seat had gotten increasingly hot, and while it appeared process-driven general manager Kyle Dubas might ride out the storm a little longer, particularly following a solid effort Tuesday in Vegas, he had clearly seen enough. By the end, it was glaringly obvious that club president Brendan Shanahan, not Dubas, hired Babcock.
Kevin Sousa / Getty Images
Now, with Babcock gone, finger-pointers have just two targets: the players and Dubas himself.
Injuries and a difficult fall schedule have played a role, but both parties deserve a large portion of the blame alongside Babcock for the Maple Leafs' ghastly start. The players have often looked lifeless and aimless, and at times on a completely different page than their coach. And Dubas assembled an NHL roster that doesn't look worthy of the endless preseason hype.
Babcock departs with a 173-133-41 record in four-plus seasons behind the Maple Leafs' bench. In the end, he ultimately wore out his welcome. He was too stubborn and simply unwilling to take Dubas' hockey philosophies at face value and adjust accordingly.Even during his final few games, when the club's 25th-ranked points percentage sunk below the .500 mark, Babcock failed to experiment in any grand way.
Toronto, which is arguably a top-five team in terms of talent, has won nine of 23 games this year, scoring the first goal in only five of those contests. Its special teams are dreadful, ranking 18th (power play) and 27th (penalty kill) in the NHL. Defensively, the Maple Leafs are a complete mess, relying too much on bailouts from goalie Frederik Andersen.
In an alternate universe in which the squad lived up to expectations, Babcock could have been headed for dismissal this spring, anyway. Three consecutive first-round playoff exits will put any coach on thin ice.
Keep in mind that Babcock's exit doesn't solve the greater problem in Toronto. He was a contributor, not the sole author of a 9-10-4 record. Both the eye test and the underlying numbers suggest something is seriously off with this club. Babcock didn't play the games or acquire players, so others must find the answers before the season is officially lost.
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The promotion of Sheldon Keefe from the AHL Toronto Marlies gives the organization a temporary reprieve, though. This was Year 5 of Babcock's tenure in Toronto and his 17th season overall as an NHL head coach, while Thursday's game against the Arizona Coyotes will be Keefe's debut. There will be some breathing room as the dust settles and the new guy gets comfortable. The 39-year-old has a blank slate and, eventually, can start covering up any systemic flaws.
Keefe is a smart bet, too, and an in-house winner. He and Dubas were successful together in OHL Sault Ste. Marie, and have carried that over to the AHL level. The duo teamed up in 2018 to claim the Calder Cup. Nine current Maple Leafs players suited up for at least one game for Keefe's 2018 Marlies.
There's familiarity and shared values between GM and coach, and Keefe's aggressive, offense-inducing style should blend well with the on-ice personnel at his disposal. Hopefully, he won't try to shove a round peg into a square hole like Babcock attempted for years. Keefe matches the roster.
However, Keefe - while qualified and bursting with potential - isn't flying to Arizona with a new backup goalie or a magical cure for the power-play woes, and he has access to the same defensemen Babcock had - a struggling Morgan Rielly, a beleaguered Tyson Barrie, a much-maligned Cody Ceci, a developing Travis Dermott, an inexperienced Justin Holl, AHL/NHL tweener Martin Marincin, and a frustrated Jake Muzzin.
What he does bring, though, is a new voice, a new face, and a new mind. And that's a start.
Byfuglien was suspended by the team without pay when he didn't attend training camp in September. He was reportedly considering retirement but it was later revealed that the defenseman underwent ankle surgery to repair unresolved issues from an injury he suffered last season.
Jets head coach Paul Maurice said the decision was "absolutely procedural," and that Byfuglien was aware of that. Winnipeg was dealing with minimal cap room and trying to sign restricted free agents Kyle Connor and Patrik Laine.
However, Friedman reported earlier in November that Byfuglien and the Jets are likely headed to arbitration to resolve the ongoing issue.
"It's emotional, it's heated, and it's likely going to arbitration," Friedman reported. "But, from what I understand, (the Jets) feel in the exit physical at the end of last year, Dustin Byfuglien was deemed fit to play. He didn't let anyone know that he had injuries with his ankle all summer, and made it clear at the beginning of the year he was ready to retire.
"However, Byfuglien - his representatives at Octagon and I assume the players' association, too - their position is Byfuglien was hurt going into the playoffs, everybody knew that, he was playing injured, he took all summer off to heal, he went to Winnipeg because he planned to play, his ankle acted up again when he started skating, and they feel it's a legitimate hockey injury."
If Byfuglien was deemed unhealthy due to a hockey-related injury and placed on long-term injured reserve, he could collect his $8-million base salary while recovering.
Byfuglien's recovery from surgery is expected to carry into the new year. His contract expires at the end of the 2020-21 campaign.
The 34-year-old led the Jets in ice time last season and recorded 31 points in 42 games.
