Penguins add to staff after injury-plagued season

The Pittsburgh Penguins hired Andy O'Brien as director of sport science and performance and Andres Huppi as sports massage therapist on Tuesday.

O'Brien, who has trained professional athletes including Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and New York Islanders captain John Tavares, was Florida Panthers strength and conditioning coach from 2005-09.

"We are excited to add such highly regarded specialists as Andy O'Brien and Andreas Huppi to our staff," Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford said. "We want to look at all aspects of how we train and prepare our players, how we can maximize performance and hopefully minimize injuries. We want to make sure they receive the best information available regarding training, nutrition, rehab and getting proper amounts of rest during a long season."

The Penguins ranked near the top of the NHL with 343 man-games lost to injury last season. According to mangameslost.com, the Penguins rank fourth since the 2009-10 season with 1,845 man-games lost to injury.

Among players who missed time because of injury for Pittsburgh last season were forwards Pascal Dupuis (66 games) and Evgeni Malkin (13 games), and defenseman Olli Maatta (62 games), Christian Ehrhoff (33 games) and Kris Letang (13 games).