Anatomy of Frustration – The 2018-2019 Penguins Review: Part Four

If you have been following this series of posts and you think that today I will be reviewing our Penguins’ Defense you would be right. Thinking about the Penguins’ Defense I can’t help but think of Miracle Max from the Princess Bride talking about Wesley/the Dread Pirate Roberts “He is only mostly dead”, well the Penguins’ Defense wasn’t all bad, just mostly bad. One Defenseman actually had a pretty good season, some made rookie mistakes, some had below average seasons, and still others had their traditional Jekyll and Hyde seasons.

We have discussed defense ad nauseum here on these boards and how it just doesn’t involve the defensive players. defense is a team concept from Forwards to Defensemen to the Coaches and their strategies and ability to adjust. If I wanted to encompass all of that I would launch into a tirade about their 5 on 5 team Corsi which was well out of range of the league average but even just looking at the Defensemen themselves they barely managed passing grade. The only reason I give them a passing grade is that the team still hit the 100 point mark in the standings. For the position as a whole I give the defense a C for the regular season but an F for the playoffs with the playoff F really due the player who played over 27 minutes per game in the playoffs but who made the most egregious errors.

Brian Dumoulin was hands down the best defenseman on the team. He had career highs in Assists (A) and Points (Pnts) (20 and 23). He also had his best +/-, Shot Attempts (TSA), Take-aways (Tk) and hits (+31, 226, 39, and 141). In fact Dumoulin’s +31 was 5th best in the league. Unfortunately, he also had his worst Give-aways (Gv) and Corsi Against per 60min (CA/60) at 51 and 58.7. Dumoulin may not be the best in the league, but he was up there and he was the best we had. So I give him a B+ for the regular season. Unfortunately, even he doesn’t get much of a good grade for his playoff performance, D.

Even though Justin Schultz only played 29 games and even if you project his games across a full season, it still was an off year, he easily meant more to this team, defensively than any other Defenseman. His advanced stats of team Goals For per 60 minutes (GF/60) was 3.5 while his team Goals Against per 60 minutes (GA/60) was only 2.3. Perhaps his game struggled a bit as he tried to get back into game shape from a protracted injury, but regardless, I would can’t give him anything better than a C+. In the post season he was the best Defensemen we had getting a Goal (G) and 2 As while posting a -1, therefore his post season grade was a C-.

If you look at my list above you will see that I have a rookie falling in behind Schultz and ahead of Kris Letang. Even though I give them both Cs for their season, I place Marcus Pettersson above the Penguins’ long time Star. Pettersson was technically still a rookie this past season, having only played 22 games prior to this year (You are still considered a rookie if you played less than 25 games), so I can forgive his warts easier. Since this was officially Pettersson’s rookie season, there really wasn’t anything to compare him with against himself, but looking at his GF/60 (3.1) and GA/60 (2.0) he did stack up pretty well against Schultz, so I give him a C for his regular season. Unfortunately he did make some mistakes in the playoffs and at least one of them cost the team.

For Kris Letang, it was his typical feast or famine season. Letang give eth and Letang take eth away. Early in the season, he played well enough to get an All Star invitation and get his name tossed about for the Norris Trophy (at least by local writers). Letang tied his career high of 16 Gs last year and added a healthy 40 As but he posted his 2nd worst Corsi Against per 60 minutes (CA/60) at 57.8 and had the most Giveaways (Gv) of all the Penguins’ Defensemen (76). A nephew of mine, commenting on social media, about the occasion of Letang’s birthday (April 24th), with Letang’s Gv in mind, suggested that the Penguins’ Defenseman may have preferred a turnover to a traditional birthday cake. I guess sarcasm runs in the family.

Considering his pluses and minuses during the regular season, I have to give Letang a C. However, for the second post-season in the row, Letang’s poor decisions and lack of defensive acumen cost the team a deep playoff run. This year rather than dumping the puck into the Islanders’ zone when he was faced with 3 opponents he tried skating through them in Over Time (OT) during the first game, costing the team the opening victory. In game 4, again rather than dumping the puck down the boards when challenged, he chose to try and skate past the defenders costing his team the game and the series. Letang’s post-season grade is an F.

Readers of Penguin Poop seem to be split on Jack Johnson. Some are enthralled by the big Defenseman’s Hits and Blocks (147/233). Some hate his Gv, +/-, and Corsi numbers. To be fair, his Gv were less than half of Letang‘s (32 vs 76) and although is +/- was in the negative, it wasn’t all that far below 0 (-4). However his CA/60 was 65.3. There was a lot of room for improvement here but certainly not as bad as some would prefer to think. Therefore I give him a C-

Once the playoffs started, again he wasn’t the worst player on the team, but as a whole the Defense was abysmal so being just about the same as his compatriots he gets a D-.

The only other Defenseman I will grade for their regular season performance is Olli Määttä. Maybe it was his latest injury and he really never fully recovered, but Määttä had a bad year. His hits and blocks per game were the highest of his career (1.6 and 1.9) but that was in no doubt due to his horrible, horrible Corsi numbers; CF% 46.6%, CF/60 53.0, and CA/60 61.1. The team really never seemed to possess the puck when he was on the ice, giving him ample opportunity to block shots and hit people. To put the Finnish Defenseman’s season in perspective, his career CF% is 50.2% so his 46.6% this year was significantly lower, hence the D that I give him.

Since he only played 1 playoff game, I won’t grade Määttä‘s playoff performance. And for similar reasons I won’t grade Erik Gudbranson’s Juusu Riikola’s, Chad Rhuwedel‘s, and Zach Trotman‘s regular seasons. They really didn’t play that many games.

So where would I go from here on Defense?

Honestly, I don’t fault the Penguins’ defensive players as much as I fault the whole system for their less than average play. I don’t even fault the forwards. I fault the coaching. If the team was made up of Brent Burns, Erik Karlsson, Victor Hedman, Morgan Reilly, Mark Giordano, and Keith Yandle maybe they could have imposed their will on every other team in the league regardless of the fact that the Coaches never changed up their defensive schemes or breakouts. However, the Penguins aren’t that fortunate so the team (goalies) suffered.

And since the team isn’t stocked with the above Defensemen, I would have to make several moves here. No players would truly be safe if the right offer came along, but the only players that would be relatively safe from change for me would be Dumoulin, Schultz, and Gudbranson. I wouldn’t be looking to trade Pettersson or Riikola but they may not earn anything more than a 7th spot.

Before I write any more, let me say, if it were me, I would never have traded Ian Cole or Jamie Oleksiak, nor would I have let Andrey Pedan escape if I could have prevented it. But since I can’t go back in time, I guess I will have to look elsewhere.

I would start by doing my level best to trade Letang, Johnson, and Määttä. For Letang and Johnson, I wouldn’t even care if I had to settle for a bag of pucks and broken sticks just so long as I didn’t have to eat any salary (if I could clear their salaries prior to opening day of Free Agency). For a kid like Määttä I would try and get some value in return.

I know you like him Phil and I do think there still is some upside to the kid, especially if the Mike Sullivan is removed from the picture, but I would love to appropriate his salary for use to other areas.

Help within the Organization?

I would give Pettersson and Riikola every opportunity to make the team as one of their Left Handed Defensemen (LHD) or even their 7th Defenseman, especially considering the lack of NHL ready Defensemen in the system.

On the right side, I would give Ethan Prow and Calen Addison a serious look to see if they could fill Letang’s spot.

Ethan Prow had a great year in the Wilkes Barre – Scranton (WBS). He earned 2nd team All Star honors for his season with his 18 Gs, 32 As, and +26 in 74 Games. Some of you readers will remember that I have already questioned why this kid wasn’t given a call up this past season. He is a FA this off season, so I would probably have to apologize for the lack of respect this current coaching showed him, then I would make my best offer (given that he hasn’t played yet in the NHL) to keep him from following Pedan in giving up on our Penguins.

Calen Addison, a 2nd round pick from last year put up some good numbers in the juniors; 11Gs and 54 As in 67 Games while posting a +2. He followed that up with 3 Games in WBS helping out on 2 goals. He may be able to earn a spot as well.

Looking outside the Organization for Free Agents;

There are some interesting FA names out there but most of them are on the wrong side of 30. Players like Jamie Benn and Ron Hainsey are out there and could make a good insurance policy however, the team may need a little more than insurance policies.

Jake Gardiner of Toronto and Tyler Myers of Winnipeg are still in their 20s (albeit late 20s) and they are FAs.

Gardiner is a LHD, He is 6′-2″ and 203lbs. had 30 Points and was +19 in 67 GP.

Myers is a RHD. He is 6′-8″ 229 lbs and had 31 Pnts in 80 GP and was +11. Myers is, definitely not a Sullivan man however he may be the type of player frequent contributors like Mike and Dee would prefer.

To get either of these players the team would have to shed salary. Both will no doubt be asking for more than $5.5 million which would still be less than the $7+ million Letang is making.

Outside the NHL, I did find a couple of names of interest Oliwer Kaski and Otto Leskinen.

Oliwer Kaski is a 6’-3” 187 lb 23 year old, RHD. His scouting report would liken him to a younger/cheaper Letang. It says he loves to join the rush and create offense. I am not all that thrilled with the idea of Letang 2.0 but the report also suggests that he has a great shot and actually uses it, something the Penguins have lacked for quite some time (A Defenseman with a great shot that actually uses it). But again like Letang, they say his defense leaves a bit to be desired. In his case though, if he is willing to learn and works at it, I would prefer that to a guy who says he will not change his game.

Kaski posted 19 Gs with 32 As last year in 59 Games for the Pelicans of Finnish league Liiga, while posting a +9. In the Playoffs he had 2Gs and 2As in 6 Games and was +1.

Otto Leskinen is only 22 years old and LHD. (No relation to Ville Leskinen who I talked about when discussing Right Wings). He is 5’-11” and 187 lbs. Leskinen posted 8 Gs with 23 As in 57 Games for KalPa of Liiga. He is very young at 22 and smaller than what I would prefer but the team really doesn’t have much on the port side of defense.

To sum it up, at this point of the year, still smarting over the playoff embarrassment without really looking to see about trades, I would go with something like this on Defense.

LHD: Dumoulin, Gardiner, Pettersson
RHD: Schultz, (Prow, Addison,  or Kaski), Gudbranson