I Can Hear the Penguins’ Cup Window Closing

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.