Penguins Update: Some Things I Think (I Think)

I started this piece as a blanket comment to my previous feature and decided to turn it into a full-blown article. Bear with me as I empty my brain pan.

I’ll start with Jim Rutherford’s most recent move…signing free-agent Brandon Tanev.

I like getting Tanev…or at least a Tanev-type player. At several junctures last season I lamented the fact that I wished the Pens could find a guy or two who combined speed, aggression and energy. As frequent commenter Mike is fond of saying, a WIT (Whatever It Takes) guy.

By all appearances Tanev is exactly that kind of skater. It sounds like he’d plow through the end boards…or anything else you put in front of him…if it meant grabbing two points. A real heart-and-soul guy.

It’s an element the Pens desperately (and I mean desperately) need. They appeared to have grown way too comfortable and happy with themselves last season. At least until JR swung the deal with Florida and brought in Nick Bjugstad and Jared McCann, who really seemed to care. I’ll add Teddy Blueger and late-season acquisition Erik Gudbranson to that mix as well.

As I’ve written before, some of this is human nature. It’s awfully difficult…if not darned-near impossible…to stay hungry after you’ve feasted. That’s part of the reason champions fade out over time. It’s a rare bird (Sidney Crosby) who can maintain that level of focus and passion year-in and year-out.

Back to Tanev. He could prove to be a nice “Swiss-army knife” player who does a lot of things well…kind of like Bryan Rust. In addition to his feisty and forceful nature, he’s good defensively, kills penalties and must possess at least some degree of skill to score 14 goals…12 at even strength and two shorties.

He also notched a hat trick against the Bruins on March 27. That’s something you generally don’t do if you’re a stiff.

I think the Pens got a good player here.

The objectionable part, of course, is the length of the contract and the $3.5 million AAV. Both seem exorbitant for a player of Tanev’s ilk. Unfortunately, overpaying for talent in free agency is a fact of life, and Rutherford does have a track record for being one of the leading offenders (a three-year deal for Matt Hunwick; a five-year deal for Jack Johnson).

Too, there’s always the chance a signee will become an albatross over time through injury or ineffectiveness or both. A risk you take for splashing around in the shark-infested NHL free-agent pool.

I’m going to switch tracks. Actually more like jump them. I think JR had no choice but to shake the team up. They’d grown stale and lifeless. Hearkening back to the early ’90s, last year’s group reminded me very much of the 1993-94 team. A squad loaded with future Hall of Famers, but well past its shelf life. They got beat…manhandled really…in the first round of the playoffs by a vastly inferior Washington team. They looked old and slow and tired…almost to the point of exhaustion. Worse yet, it seemed as if they didn’t care.

I hadn’t seen another team look that flat and utterly unprepared for the rigors of postseason play until I watched us get swept by the Islanders this past spring. Our once-mighty Pens were totally inept. Frankly, it was embarrassing.

Changes had to come.

Following another season where he tried to bolster a fading former champion, then-Pens GM Craig Patrick cleaned house prior to the 1995-96 season. He traded away a virtual Who’s Who of stars…Luc Robitaille, Kevin Stevens, Larry Murphy, Ulf Samuelsson and Shawn McEachern…and imported relatively faceless guys like Glenn Murray and Brian Smolinski (Alex Galchenyuk?).

On paper, we didn’t appear to receive equal value. Yet we displayed considerably more chemistry and energy and hop and made it all the way to the conference finals that year.

Are Tanev and Galchenyuk and earlier acquisition Dominik Kahun the answer to our woes? I surely don’t know. But I give Rutherford credit for trying to change the mix…a mix that simply wasn’t going to win any more titles.

No, we won’t be as star-laden, or top-heavy for that matter. But I do think we’ll have better depth up front, especially at left wing, and infinitely more speed. I once again can see us rolling four good lines, a must if you’re going to compete for a Cup. With Phil Kessel gone, there should be less distraction and drama.

Hopefully, we’ll be more successful, too.