There’s never a good time for a hockey player to sustain an injury, but for Caleb Jones — in his first season with the Pittsburgh Penguins organization — suffering a long-term injury at the start of the season derailed his plans for re-establishing himself at the NHL level this fall.

Instead, Jones spent the better part of the past three months rehabbing and working his way back onto the ice from a lower body injury he suffered in a game against the Florida Panthers on Oct. 23 — joining Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on a conditioning loan this week and playing in his first game with the Penguins on Wednesday night in Providence.

“Yeah, it’s part of sports. Obviously, I’ve had a few two-, three- and four-week injuries. This one’s coming up on like two and a half months,” Jones said. “So this is definitely the longest one of my career, and probably the hardest one that I’ve been having to rehab from. But I’m just excited to be playing again and have some fun.”

Jones, 28, made Pittsburgh’s roster out of training camp — appearing in seven of the Penguins’ first eight games before an awkward collision with Florida Panthers forward Brad Marchand resulted in him missing the past 12 weeks.

“It’s been tough. Some dark days for sure,” Jones said to local media in Pittsburgh earlier this month.

Throughout his pro career, Jones had to adapt to a variety of roles and situations after being drafted by the Edmonton Oilers in the fourth round of the 2015 NHL Entry Draft.

He’s been traded twice in his nine seasons of pro hockey — once from Edmonton to Chicago in July 2021 and again in October 2023 from Carolina to Colorado just twomonths after the Hurricanes signed him to a one-year contract.

He’s spent a majority of his pro career bouncing between the NHL and AHL, appearing in NHL games in each of the last eight seasons with the Edmonton Oilers, Chicago Blackhawks, Colorado Avalanche, Los Angeles Kings and now, the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Jones joined Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for practice this week with 255 NHL games under his belt, in addition to 181 AHL games.

Jones also felt the annual heat of impending free agency, signing one-year contracts with Chicago, Carolina and Los Angeles before joining Pittsburgh this summer on a two-year deal.

“Yeah, I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you that helps when you get an injury like that,” Jones said. “You know, having a little bit of security there helps you stay a little bit more balanced — (your mind) goes crazy, you know? You know you have some time to get back and make sure you get right and establish yourself again. So, I think that stability has also been a huge factor in helping me get through it.”

Now that he made it through rehab and returned to game action, Jones said an injury absence as long as his only reinforces his love for the game.

“(I’m) just excited to have fun and play again. When you’re playing consistently, there’s a lot of moving parts and sometimes you forget how much you just have fun and love thegame,” Jones said. “And when it gets taken away from you for that long, you start to realize, like, wow, it’s obviously serious and it’s a job, but you want to have fun doing it and being around the team and trying to win games and competing with the guys.”

Friday’s game

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins fell in the first half of a weekend doubleheader with Hartford.

The Wolfpack scored three times in the second period and held on late in the third for a 4-3 win over the Penguins on Friday night at Mohegan Arena. The two teams will hit the ice again Saturday night at the arena.

WBS still leads the season series, 3-2, and remains tied with Providence at the top of the Atlantic with 51 points.

The Penguins got off on the right foot as Gabe Klassen scored not even four minutes into the game for a 1-0 lead before Hartford’s Jaroslav Chmelar lit the lamp on a power play to knot the game at 1 after one.

Klassen’s second goal of the game gave WBS a 2-1 lead midway through the second before the Wolfpack scored three straight goals for the 4-2 lead after two.

Aidan McDonough cut it to 4-3 with 11 minutes left, but that was the last goal for the Penguins, outshot, 32-24, on the night.

Sergei Murashov got the loss in goal, stopping 28 of 34 shots.