Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Ron Hextall did. Not only did he shed salary by fleecing the New Jersey Devils for Ty Smith and a third-round low-scoring defenseman John Marino, but he also gave up dynamic skater Mike Matheson for the best right-back on the trade block. of the NHL. , Jeff Petry.
And on the first day of free agency, Hextall signed right back Jan Rutta to a three-year deal with an affordable AAV of $2.75 million. And he re-signed Kris Letang.
The right side of the Penguins defense, which was Letang-Marino-Chad Ruhwedel, was adequate but is now a team strength. Letang-Petry-Rutta is a significant upgrade as the Penguins added a legitimate 40-point offensive lead with Petry and a solid, heavy, stay-at-home defense with Rutta.
Had the Penguins had Rutta in the playoffs, maybe a couple of those lost rebounds while trailing would have been controlled rather than taken or netted.
As good as Matheson was, Petry is a better defender and puts a few more points on the board.
Rutta is a two-time Stanley Cup winner who will improve the Penguins’ penalty kick, offensive contributions and weight in the third pair.
That is the right side. He’s as good as anyone in the NHL.
The left side is something else.
The Pittsburgh Penguins don’t have a set NHL’er for the left side of the third pair. some combination of Ty SmithPO Jose, and Mark Friedman is in line for the place.
Marcus Pettersson had a better 2021-22 than 2020-21. It was solid if unspectacular. His game has limitations, evidenced by his lack of physicality and 19 points with only two goals.
It will be the second, maybe the third pair of defenders on the left side.
And that brings us to the crux of the penguin defense. The Penguins’ top pair could be just fine, as it has been most days since Brian Dumoulin side-stepped Letang in 2017.
From 2018 through 2021, the Penguins’ top pair, Dumoulin and Letang, had exemplary stats. They had 60% of the goals scored, 52.5% of the expected goals and 55% of the scoring chances.
Last season, goals scored fell by five points. The other stats leaked a few points.
The eye tests were much more an indictment of Dumoulin’s slip. Battles lost, pucks unrecovered and forwards slipped in the second half of last season probably outnumbered the total from the previous three years.
Lower-body injuries brought Dumoulin down in 2021, but he was mostly healthy in 2021-22. He played 76 games and, despite a battle with COVID, was available for most games.
For a few weeks, Dumoulin shuffled the pairs for the first time since his first season with the Penguins in 2016. Matheson moved up to the top pair and the numbers went up.
The numbers fell on the other pairings without Matheson, ultimately prompting head coach Mike Sullivan to more evenly distribute his offensive talent and return Dumoulin to Letang’s side at the end of the season.
The defense can rely on Dumoulin because there is a specific lack of defenders capable of playing Letang in case Dumoulin fails again. If not Dumoulin, who is capable of playing alongside Letang?
Most likely Joseph, Friedman, Smith and Pettersson are not good candidates. Rutta has experience on both sides of the blue line, but that breaks down the dominant right side.
Dumoulin committed the second-most giveaways of his career (46), and his hit total was the lowest (in a full season) since his rookie year in 2015-16. The underlying numbers weren’t great either.
The Penguins’ blue line might be the best it’s had in a decade, returning Sergei Gonchar and Kris Letang in the same unit. That apparently depends on Dumoulin. If he stumbles, he could throw Sullivan and assistant coach Todd Reirden into a constant game of switching defenses.
But if he gets back in shape, the Pittsburgh Penguins are rock solid.
