To count down the days until Penguins training camp, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette beat writers Matt Vensel and Mike DeFabo will dive into a new hockey topic each weekday until the first puck rattles the Plexiglass at PPG Paints Arena. Today we will look at the left wingers.
When Jake Guentzel’s 2019-20 regular season ended with a loud, dangerous crash into the boards on Dec. 30, it left the Penguins searching for top-six wingers.
The Alex Galchenyuk experiment had failed — and failed quite miserably. Dominik Kahun was recovering from a concussion. And the other options were, well, less-than-ideal.
Insert Jason Zucker. The Penguins sent their best defensive prospect in Calen Addison, their 2021 first-round pick and Galchenyuk to Minnesota in exchange for Zucker.
Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford had long-coveted Zucker because of his speed and playmaking ability. Months earlier, he appeared to have a deal in place to acquire Zucker before Phil Kessel nixed it. The second effort and the connection with new Minnesota GM Bill Guerin made the trade happen after all.
During the regular season, Zucker transitioned smoothly to the Penguins. In 15 games, he scored six goals and recorded six assists. His role during the regular season was to mostly fill the void created by Guentzel’s injury and play alongside Sidney Crosby.
Now, with Guentzel healthy after shoulder surgery, the long-term vision of that trade will begin to be realized.
With Guentzel and Zucker, the Penguins have two left wingers to play with their star centers. What looked like such a weakness in the middle of last season should be one of the Penguins' strengths this year. And it could be that way for some time. Zucker is signed through the 2022-23 season on a deal that carries at $5.5 million average annual value, while Guentzel is on contract through 2023-24 with a $6 million average annual value.
Zucker, 28, said when he joined the Penguins that Mike Sullivan’s up-tempo system is like “night and day” different than what he was used to with the Wild. However, in the long term, that should be a good thing. Playing within a system that showcases his best attribute — his speed — should set Zucker up for success as he becomes more comfortable and builds chemistry with his linemates.
Will Guentzel pick back up where he left off?
Scoring 40 goals in a season is no small feat. It takes the perfect confluence of speed, skill, luck, linemates and — as Guentzel found out last year — health.
The 26-year-old winger was right on pace for his second consecutive 40-goal season when his skates collided with Thomas Chabot. Even as Guentzel was flying head-first into the wall, his last touch on the puck in the 2019-20 regular season ended up in the back of the net for his 20th goal of the year.
One could argue Guentzel was the Penguins’ team MVP prior to the injury, as he was leading the club in points (43) and goals (20). Not a huge surprise there. But what stood out was the way he seamlessly transitioned between centers.
Guentzel began the season as expected, skating next to Crosby. By every metric, they were a force, producing 57.69% of the high-danger scoring chances and 55.34% of the expected goals during five-on-five play, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Then Crosby went down. Somehow, Guentzel was even better.
Sans Sid, coach Mike Sullivan basically threw his three best healthy players together on a line: Malkin, Rust and Guentzel. They controlled more than 60% of the high-danger chances and 60% of the expected goals. In the more traditional metrics, Guentzel tallied 12 goals and 17 assists to lead the Penguins to a 14-5-3 record without Crosby.
It was fun to wonder, when Crosby gets back, might Sullivan entertain the idea of keeping that line together? We never got to find out.
While Guentzel flourished with Crosby out, the Penguins’ captain clearly missed his left winger over the back stretch of the season. Crosby got dealt a mashup of wingers when he returned. The Penguins controlled just 45.32% of the high-danger chances and 48.6% of the expected goals with Crosby skating between a rotating cast of wingers. Both of those stats were worse than the Penguins’ team averages with neither Crosby nor Guentzel on the ice.
Odds are, Guentzel will start the season and play the overwhelming majority of the time alongside the Penguins’ captain this year. The other main scoring line is likely to feature Zucker at left wing, Malkin at center and Kasperi Kapanen at right wing.
But maybe, just for fun, we’ll see that Guentzel–Malkin–Rust line at some point this season.
Will McCann settle into a position?
Had you asked Jared McCann two years ago what position he plays, he wouldn’t have hesitated. Center, of course.
From youth hockey and the OHL to the Vancouver Canucks and the Florida Panthers, McCann always made his living in the middle. However, when the Penguins acquired McCann and Nick Bjugstad from Florida during the 2018-19 season, McCann’s job description changed. For the first time in his life, he became a winger.
But what is he now?
It seems the Penguins are still trying to decide exactly where McCann fits best into their system. Last year, he began the year as the third-line winger. That soon changed when the roster was ravaged by injury. With Malkin hurt for most of the first month, Crosby out the next several and then Bjugstad limited to just 13 games, McCann reclaimed his familiar role at center.
He eventually earned the nod in the middle for the postseason, as well, skating between Patrick Marleau and Patric Hornqvist. But when that line struggled in the shortened series, McCann became the player Sullivan sent to the press box as a healthy scratch.
Now, when the season starts, McCann will be one of the great X-factors. He’s scheduled to start out on the left wing with newly acquired center Mark Jankowski and right winger Evan Rodrigues.
Those latter two signed prove-it, one-year, veteran minimum contracts. But McCann may be the one with the most to prove. He was one of the Penguins’ most-productive forwards through the early stretch last season, scoring 14 goals and tallying 14 assists in 44 games. However, he failed to find the back of the net in the final 22 games.
The Penguins inked McCann to a two-year deal this offseason with an average annual value of $2,940,000. At 24 years old, he is still a young man who has yet to reach his ceiling. He’s already been part of three different organizations in his brief career and been asked to change positions.
Finding a way to settle into a role and get comfortable may help McCann recapture the scoring touch he showed early in his Penguins tenure.
Does Aston-Reese’s injury absence open the door?
No Penguins trio stuck together more last season than left winger Zach Aston-Reese, center Teddy Blueger and right winger Brandon Tanev. However, with Aston-Reese recovering from offseason shoulder surgery, a position battle could be brewing — at least in the short term.
The club initially projected Aston-Reese will be sidelined until about mid-February. During that first month, maybe Tanev flips to his natural left side. That would open the door for righties like Sam Lafferty and Colton Sceviour. Or, maybe 2019 first-round pick Sam Poulin can make the team for the first time out of camp to fill one of these holes. Dartmouth product Drew O'Connor is another dark-horse candidate to watch on the roster's fringe.
It will be a story to follow in camp, for sure. Then, when Aston-Reese gets healthy, can any of those players hold him off to keep their spot in the lineup?
Mike DeFabo: mdefabo@post-gazette.com and Twitter @MikeDeFabo.
First Published: December 23, 2020, 3:06 p.m.
