It was the very first move Jim Rutherford made when he took over as Penguins general manager back in 2014. Sensing his new team was badly in need of a culture change, he shipped high-scoring but prickly forward James Neal to Nashville for forwards Patric Hornqvist and Nick Spaling.
While Spaling became part of an even larger trade for Phil Kessel the following summer, Hornqvist was everything Rutherford hoped he would be and more. The heart-and-soul winger with a penchant for driving opposing goalies and defensemen nuts with his maniacal play around the net also altered the Pens’ pulse while becoming the team’s emotional power plant.
It safe to say the black and gold has never had a player like Hornqvist, nor are ever likely to again. He’s that unique…that special.
A veritable Tasmanian Devil on skates, Hornqvist did everything you could possibly ask of a player. He hit, he battled in the traffic areas, he crashed the net with pit-bull intensity. And he scored…132 goals during his six-year stay in the ‘Burgh and 22 more during the cauldron of postseason play. All the while absorbing more whacks and hacks than prime timber in logging country.
I’ll never forget his Cup-winning goal in Game 6 of the 2017 Final. It was Hornqvist at his gritty, grimy best, digging the puck out the netting and swatting it in off Pekka Rinne’s arm. Ugly and beautiful all at the same time.
And now he’s gone…traded to Florida for defenseman Mike Matheson and center Colton Sceviour. In the end, a casualty of age, his hard-earned $5.3 million salary and his own hell-for-leather style of play.
Goodbye “Horny.” I’ll miss you dearly. So will the team.
So What Are We Getting?
By all accounts, a diamond in the very deep rough in Matheson and a veteran defensive forward and penalty killer in Sceviour.
Since he’s the focal point of the deal, I’ll focus on Matheson. Forgive me if I go over ground I’ve previously covered. I’m still trying to get my brain around this trade and, frankly, am having a difficult time of it.
From what I can gather, the tools are there for the 26-year-old Matheson to be an effective NHL defenseman. He has talent. He can skate. He can shoot the puck (33 goals over four seasons…including a career-best 10 in 2017-18). From the limited clips I’ve seen of him on YouTube, the Quebec native doesn’t shy away from using the body and is capable of dishing out some pretty solid hits. And he’s got decent size (6’2” 188 pounds).
The bad? He’s extremely error-prone as a league-high 135 giveaways in 2018-19 will attest, although to be fair he trimmed that number to a still shaky but infinitely more palatable 54 in 59 games this past season. He’s also susceptible to making mistakes on even the most fundamental of defensive plays.
Indeed, Matheson played so poorly during Florida’s Qualifying Round loss to the Islanders that he was a healthy scratch for the last two games of the series.
Worst of all? A ghastly contract that runs through 2025-26 at an average annual value of $4.875. It’s even more ruinous than it sounds. You see, Matheson will receive $6.5 million per season over the final three years of the deal, not including an annual signing bonus of $2.5 for each of those seasons.
In other words, he’ll make more than Sidney Crosby.
Let that sink in for a moment.
A helluva price to pay for what by all accounts is a broken hockey player. Dear Lord, were the Pens really that desperate to unload Hornqvist?
Apparently so.
If there’s a sliver of a silver lining, it’s the hope that new/old black-and-gold defensemen coach Todd Reirden can help Matheson reclaim the promise that made him a 23rd overall pick in the 2012 Entry Draft. Ex-Pens blueliner Matt Niskanen credits Reirden for rebuilding his confidence and turning his career around.
Let’s hope and pray Reirden can do a similar restoration job with Matheson.
If not?
The outcome is far too painful to ponder.
Hey all,
I meant to do a little more follow-up on Matheson but got sidetracked.
I’ve been watching as many video clips of him as I can, good and bad. As I’ve already noted, he can really skate and carry the puck and he’s got a great shot. Quick release and he can pick his spots.
His downfall appears to be a penchant for over-carrying the puck. Rather than passing it, Matheson seems to skate himself into trouble…then cough it up. Hence the abnormally high number of turnovers.
Other Rick, I think you’re right to an extent. His good zone-entry/exit numbers stem in part from him carrying the puck. Then he’ll lose it once he enters/exits the zone…which obviously mitigates his effectiveness.
His tendency to try and do it all himself would also account for his relatively low assist totals, given his skill level.
Sullivan likes his defensemen to move the puck to his forwards at the earliest opportunity. It’ll be interesting to see how Matheson adjusts and what kind of effect it may have on his overall game.
Rick
Hey all,
There’s a really interesting and extremely well thought piece over on “Pensburgh” written by Hooks Orpik. It’s titled, “Ignoring the elephant in the room, Mike Matheson might add more to the Pens than anticipated.”
Hooks looks beyond the onerous contract to what Matheson might bring to the Pens as a player. He also cites some very favorable stats regarding zone entries and exits and winning puck battles, areas of definite need on the Pens.
He, too, mentions the Reirden-Niskanen dynamic and the hope that Matheson can experience a similar turnaround under the Pens’ new d-coach.
Anyway…it gives a different perspective on things and is well worth the read.
Rick
Hey Rick,
Like Fox Mulder, I really want to believe.
I have read those stats on zone entries and exits,
and the discussions on Matheson’s shoot mentality and ability.
All of That looks good on paper.
And would surely love to see the kid turn his game around, now that there is nothing to be done about it, he is in the Black and Gold (with a long and hefty contract that has a mNTC)
What is not shown in those zone entry and exit stats is how many times after he
exited or entered a zone did one of those 135 Gv occur a couple of seasons ago and the 54 Gv in 59 games last season, occur, negating the entry or exit.
I promise you I will be very hopeful come the start of the next season, whenever that will be, but I certainly won’t be holding my breath in anticipation of a rebirth.
Maybe there is a plan, maybe.
I do appreciate trying to look on the bright side but not if it obscures reason. While we keep making excuses the team morphs more and more into the early 2000s
Complain, complain, complain. What do YOU think the Penguins should have done? Kept Hornqvist and come back with essentially the same team as last year? Yeah, it’s a huge risk. I wouldn’t have done it but at least I understand why the did it.
The big problem is that they think the window is open when it clearly is not. They shouldn’t be taking on any long term contracts at this point. They also seem think that they can win with speed alone when it’s clear that it is no longer the case.
Kept Hornqvist? If Matheson was the best, they could come up with – YES!!!!!
Not only is Matheson a huge risk but unless they can turn him around (Divine Intervention maybe) they are stuck with him for 6 years and paying $6.5 million the final 3 seasons. Failure will have extremely long term repercussion.
I understand why they did it too;
1) as you say “they think the window is still open”
2) again as you say, “they think they can win with speed alone”, which you correctly add “when it’s clear that it is no longer the case.”
What would I have done? I have said it many times now
Trade
1) Letang for what ever I could get – Hopefully draft picks mainly to clear Cap Space making sure what ever salary had to take in return was lower.
2) Try to trade either Hornqvist or Zucker to Carolina for Pesce.
3) Throw Simon’s RFA rights in what ever trade I could put them in to deny Sullivan a chance to play him.
4) Trade Pettersson for what I could get for him, maybe a legit bottom 6 FWD, again making sure I take back less salary than I sent out. I would rather Johnson, but I can’t imagine any trading partners there.
5) I would rather not trade Murray but the writings on the wall so I would seriously think about the Bennett trade or look for another D man.
6)Sign Jarry and the rest of the RFAs
7) use $$$ I saved with all of the above salary dumps to get a legit Backup Goalie DeSmith will not cut it
8) Try and sign John Lethemon a college FA to add depth to the Goalie position.
9) Trade DeSmith for what I could get, hopefully prospects but maybe insurance against some of the bottom 6.
Sorry I didn’t have time to complete my thoughts;
Matheson is 26 and has shown up until now a pattern of futility.
The laws of probability are more in favor of Poulin, Legare, and O’Connor improving enough to contribute to the team. The odds are even more in favor for Bellerive to recover enough from his burns to regain his scoring touch and contribute to the team than Matheson to turn his train around.
Poulin, Legare, O’Connor, and Bellerive are all younger and without a fairly sizable history of failure already.
When teams are winning, sites like this are for fans to celebrate and relive victories. When teams are losing, sites like this are for fans to vent their frustrations at failures.
But you choose to call it complaining, and that what you are doing, complaining about my complaining? That is called hypocrisy.
Hey Rick,
We have to hope and pray for divine intervention, buddy.
Here is a scary stat for you Rick, at his worst during 5 on 5 play Letang who I recently described as a defensive calamity, only averaged 2.92 Gv/60 on his worst season (last year). At his very best, newcomer Mike Matheson averaged 2.27, and that was a serious anomaly, his other 3 seasons 3.03, 3.27, 5.03. In Letang’s 13 seasons he had 8 seasons better than Matheson’s best season. and none worse than Matheson’s 2nd best season. If Penguins fans were frustrated before, to quote BTO, “B-b-b-baby, you just ain’t seen n-n-nothin’ yet”.
Ok, I get it, Hornqvist’s contract was too, too long and he plays too hard every shift to not worry about his longevity, but seriously, JR traded down. The team didn’t need to get rid of him this badly.
I said before and I am going to say it again, JR needs 302ed. He is no longer in the here and now.
Can you just see it, Letang and Matheson on the ice at the same time, I pity Jarry and whatever scrub they scrounge up to backup the soon to be target in a shooting gallery.
Mike, I pray I am wrong, I pray I am just being a reactionary. I don’t want a return to the early 2000s. I don’t want to see another Dick Tarnstrom. I don’t want to see another -37 defensemen (or worse) in a penguin uniform. However, I don’t see this trade ending anything but badly.
Maybe JR traded for Matheson so that Letang wouldn’t look so bad and we would stop complaining so much about the RHD catostrophe by finding perhaps the only player defensively worse.
The Other Rick
Like you I’m not sure how Matheson will do next season but
I disagree with you on keeping Horny. Theirs no way hanging onto him for another year would of beneficial and his value after next year would of been zero. A key ingredient to being a good GM is to know when it’s time to move one of your star players.
I think your also taking the negative approach on this deal with Matheson – the 135 giveaways was from 2yrs ago which you correctly stated but I prefer to look at the positive – if in 2019-2020 they would of completed a full season Matheson would of been cutting his giveaways by
50%.
Look JR moved Kessel at the right now and if yo believe the reports floating around the Coyotes are currently trying to send him packing. It was the right time for him to go and the same could be said for Horny.
Hey Mike,
I am not saying that the team should have kept Hornqvist at all costs. I actually wanted the team to trade him at the trade deadline several years back as he was approaching UFA, when they could have racked a team across the coals for him. And I didn’t want them to resign him to a long term deal in the first place. I never would have begrudged Hornqvist the money, I just didn’t want the Pens to pay it.
However, last season, Hornqvist did have his highest G/60 and 2nd highest Pnts/60 at 5 on 5 during his career (1.22 and 2.17 respectively). He was hardly washed up.
His possession numbers took a hit, but so did the whole teams and his health could start becoming a factor, but on long term IR he doesn’t affect the Cap.
The time to move Horny was actually a while ago. Moving him this year would still have been a good idea but JR got robbed again. Horny is a better player with a better contract than what JR bought.
No one can argue that Matheson cut his Gv in half; that is a matter of record, and so is the fact that even though he cut his Gv in half, he still averaged 3.27 Gv/60 or 0.35 more Gv/60 than Letang did in his worst season. Part of the reason his Gv were down was because he was playing over 4 minutes less per game last season than the previous season (18:00 vs 22:19).
Unless Reirdon can fix Matheson, JR significantly crippled this team. Matheson will cost the team $6.5 million in real money over the last 3 seasons of his mNTC. However, as I wrote elsewhere, the odds of Matheson fnally getting are a lot less at age 26 than Poulin, Legare, O’Connor, and even Bellerive making this coming roster. Matheson already has a tract somewhat long record of failure, Poulin, Legare, O’Connor don’t and Bellerive has extenuating circumstances contributing to his struggles.
That doesn’t mean I won’t be rooting for him to make a turn around, since the deed is done, I have no recourse than to pray for a miracle. I want to see more Stanley Cup playoff hockey in the ‘burgh. I just don’t see it. I would love to see Matheson cut his Gv/60 to 2.5 (still high but maybe not crippling), I am just not holding my breath.