The Penguins have acquired veteran forward Patrick Marleau from the San Jose Sharks for a conditional third-round pick in the 2021 Entry Draft. The pick will convert to a second-round pick in 2022 if the Pens win the Stanley Cup this season.
A 22-year NHL vet, Marleau stands 6’2” and weighs 218 pounds. An excellent skater for a player his size, the 40-year-old’s tallied 561 goals and 1186 points in 1715 NHL contests. This season he has 10 goals and 20 points in 58 games with the Sharks.
He can play left wing or center and has a career face-off percentage of 51.4 dating back to 2007-08. Although his possession numbers have declined in recent seasons, his Corsi’s a highly respectable 52.2 for his career.
“Patrick is a player who can play anywhere in our lineup,” said GM Jim Rutherford when announcing the trade. “He’s a good two-way player, provides leadership and will be a good fit with our team.”
In a minor transaction, Anaheim claimed forward Andrew Agozzino on waivers.
UPDATE
The Penguins have acquired forwards Conor Sheary and Evan Rodrigues from Buffalo for forward Dominik Kahun. A head-scratcher if there ever was one.
Personally, I thought Kahun did a really nice job for us (10 goals and 27 points in 50 games) following a slow start. He was fast, versatile, creative and very involved at both ends of the ice. Affordable, too, at $925,000. I truly don’t know why he was deemed expendable.
I don’t dislike Sheary. The speedy former Pen scored 41 goals for us over a two-season span, and he does a nice job of finding the seams. He just doesn’t finish as well as I’d like given the chances he generates. Tends to disappear in the playoffs, too.
With the Caps muscling up at the trade deadline, the last thing we needed was to get smaller.
I know next to nothing about Rodrigues, an undersized (there’s that word again) 26-year-old who can play all three forward positions. He’s a right-handed shot and perhaps that influenced the trade.
As a general rule, the team that gets the best player wins the deal. Well, in my eyes, Buffalo got the best player in the exchange.
Hope Sheary and Rodrigues prove me wrong.
Rick
I have no idea what JR was thinking when he made these trades. i’m totally
baffled. While Boston, Wash & Islanders improved their teams the Pen’s
took a step backwards. I shouldn’t leave the Flyers out they made two
solid moves.
IMO theirs no way in hell we can win a seven game series against either
Boston or the Caps with “zero” toughness – I don’t know how Pen’s management can sit and watch a game while our star players are forced to defend themselves “it’s a joke”.
Not trying to be a negative Nelly but JR just threw in the towel on any chance
the Pen’s had to compete for the Cup. For me it’s not about who they picked
up but who they didn’t.
Beyond frustrated!!
Hey Mike,
I hear ya. The Bruins are fast, skilled and tough. Ditto the Caps and to a lesser extent in the toughness department…Tampa Bay. The Pens are fast, skilled and … Wait, what’s missing?
It dawned on me what Rutherford, I’m sure with Sullivan’s approval, is trying to do. He’s basically trying to recreate the 2015-16 Cup winner, which relied heavily on wearing other teams down with their speed. Right down to acquiring a “Team Dad” (Marleau).
I’m all for being fast. But as constructed, they’ve stripped virtually all of the sand out of the lineup, and we didn’t have much to begin with. I’m afraid that during the cauldron of the playoffs when refs tend to put their whistles in their hip pockets, that we’re going to take a physical beating.
I pin this on our coach. Every time Rutherford tries to reinforce the lineup with toughness, Sullivan weeds the guy out. In the days leading up to the deadline there were apparently split factions in the organization lobbying for and against Wayne Simmonds, who went to Buffalo.
Not too hard to figure out who was in which camp.
Yes, Marleau will be a better fit for our style. And fighting virtually ceases in the playoffs. But physical play ramps up and again, we’re ill-equipped to respond.
Rick
Rick,
I agree with the sentiment on everything said by you and the others on this blog.
Tough players are like the Infantry and speed is like the AIr Force.
Difficult to win a war with just the Air Force.
But as George Marshall said “When a thing is done, it’s done. Don’t look back. Look forward to your next objective.”
In that spirit….if the Pens decide to roll 4 lines and win with speed to wear down the opposing team, there are a couple of essential elements to that strategy that have to happen , in my opinion, to make that work.
1) Substantially improve the power play. Teams are less likely to be over aggressive and overly physical if it results in a goal against them. So the Pens have to target something like a 5% or more improvement (like going 1 for 3 or 2 for 5 type games)…. and hope the refs call a bit more. If they don’t look for guys like Tom Wilson and even TJ Oshie to light them up like cheap Christmas trees.
2) GREAT Goal tending. Not good. GREAT. I don’t care about spectacular saves, I care about the number of goals. 2 goals is a good night, 3 goals is mediocre and 4 goals is probably a guaranteed loss.
3) At least two other lightning rods on the ice besides Hornquist. Patric Hornquist (God bless him) will not survive the beatings if he’s the only lightning rod out there. E.g. anytime Angello can get into a fight with a better player and they both sit in the box to make it 4 v 4 for 2 mins …that’s a win. But he needs to really fight to make sure they both go to the box. That’s not an “emotional ” fight…its a “strategic” fight. Speed favors less men on the ice. Jack Johnson needs to get nasty too …. Even McCann can be that for a game or two. I’m also hoping Marleau can take some pressure off Hornquist too so he’s not cheap shotted into IR
4) Get an early goal / early lead to try and dictate the game and don’t do AHL level dumb things (LeTang in particular on defense). Angello took a shot on goal the other night from the right wing goal when he had two PENS (Center and left wing) available for a cross ice pass or for him to take a hard shot low hoping for a pad save kickout. Instead he does a milk toast high wrister into the waiting glove hand of the opposing goalie.
5) Pray for the best and some timely luck.
Hello PensFanBoy17.
Before I begin, I just want to say I always enjoy your comments. They’re colorful, insightful and well-written … 🙂
Sometimes I simply don’t have time to respond to every comment. But I wanted you to know it’s not for a lack of appreciating and looking forward to reading what you have to say. Quite the opposite, in fact.
I like your five points and my guess is, it’s part of Mike Sullivan’s grand plan. All except three perhaps. It isn’t that I don’t agree with you, but I don’t look for Angello to play unless injuries force Sully’s hand.
While I personally like the kid, he’s not the best fighter in the world. Kind of from the Penguins school of fisticuffs, i.e.; lean forward into the other guys punches and let him light you up. So, unfortunately, if Angello did fight it would be for moral victory purposes only.
I agree that Sullivan wants to wear down the opposition with speed and score on the power-play when they take penalties. And I’m all for speed. I just wish we had a couple of guys in the lineup who could force opponents to take notice if they strayed across the boundaries of decorum and good taste.
Cue Simon & Garfunkel. Where have you gone Ryan Reaves (and Jamie Oleksiak and Erik Gudbranson)?
Rick
Rick
Thanks for the reply. Just about everyone I speak with brings up the
Cup winning teams saying we didn’t have a tough / enforcer type on
either team. That may be true. When the Pen’s went to the skill /
speed game it caught a lot of teams by surprise – IMO
Major league sports for the most part try to copy a winning formula. Teams
started to adjust their rosters by adding more speed. When doing this
they began to add speed w/skill, size and toughness. This is an area where
the Pen’s never adjusted. You don’t have to be 5’8 or 5’9 to be a good
skater.
Just off the top of my head Malkin is the only forward they have with any
kind of legit size. Fans come at me by saying the Pen’s were first in hits last season – my response is would you rather get hit by Jake Guentzel at 170lbs or Tom Wilson (240) “huge difference”. These guys force
opposing Defenseman to be a little more tentative when chasing the puck in
their own end. I love Tanev and Guentzel but teams don’t fear getting hit
by either player.
Go Pen’s – I’m moving on – LOL
Hey Mike,
Hits? That can be one of the most misleading stat. Think about it. In the NHL, by the rules, you are not allowed to hit someone who doesn’t have the puck. You are only allowed to hit the puck carry. If a team leads the league in hits, logically, that would mean that they are at least in the bottom of the league in puck possession.
If the bulk of the hits are in the offensive zone, that could mean the team is playing dump and chase, which could be a good thing, but your point comes seriously into play here, getting hit by a bunch of Dominik Simon and Conor Sheary fleas really doesn’t do much. I have seen both of those 2 get hurt more from the hits they have given out than the player they hit. Even though he isn’t that much bigger of a player, Patric Hornqvist separates a defender from the puck when he hits them, the fleas our Penguins desire for their circus just bounce off of the defender.
I have heard several people now try and defend the return of Conor Sheary because he won 2 Cups. Ah, he was on a team that won 2 Cups, he didn’t win 2 Cups in 57 playoff games he scored 6 goals and 19 points and was a -8. He did nothing to win those Cups. He just happened to be there.
Moving on? PensFanBoy17, a scenario where the Pens don’t make the playoffs is hard to imagine. The team is 5th in the league right now. Falling out of the playoffs would be an epic fail; especially with the return of Dumoulin and Marino on the horizon.
However, unless NYI screwed their team chemistry up with Green and Pageau, or Was by adding Dillon and Kovalchuk, or Car with Torcheck, I am not sure our Pens will get out of the 1st round. I not confident they will last long enough for help to be summoned from WBS or elsewhere.
Seems to me the best and strongest version of this team was in Dec and Jan when it was populated with players like Lafferty, Kahun, and as much as I wasn’t a fan, Blandisi.
Rick,
I can’t imagine the Pens not making the playoffs either and my post was more about looking forward at this point and what I think they need to do to be successful. Certainly not giving up until the Fat Lady Sings.
With Dumo and Marino maybe coming back and the new players , it’ll certainly get interesting. I’ve got a bar full of Tequila in case in goes south.
Saw they sent Angello back down to Scranton. So much for my strategy of offering him up via “Strategic” fights.
Hey guys,
Adding a little to the conversation, I was texting a bunch of people back and forth yesterday and Champ Kind who used to do stuff for PPoop about 8 years ago texted me this: “I sat next to the Buffalo bench one game last year and watched Evan Rodriguez loaf back after every shift. He also seemed to do a lot of bitching and moaning. Enough that made me notice someone that was otherwise unnoticeable. Plus, for some reason, he changed his gloves every shift”
So Rodriguez may be a bad apple Buffalo was just trying to get rid of. That and he may have sweaty hand syndrome which is apparently a real thing. I saw a commercial. lol.
Basically, if you see Sulli toss Rodriguez to the curb real fast, you will know why.
Oooops sorry RodrigueS not RodrigueZ. I keep pronouncing him like Les Nesman pronounced “Chi Chi Rodriguez”.
Phil
That’s a scary observation. If you noticed this as a fan what the hell
is the Pen’s scouting staff watching. “SMH”
Hey all,
We’re all pretty familiar with what Sheary does and doesn’t bring to the table.
On the plus side, great speed and tenacity, the ability to find the seams and skate with top-six guys. Then there’s what he doesn’t do especially well…namely finish the myriad quality chances he gets and win puck battles…although not for a lack of effort or heart.
I’ve been trying to get a little more of a read on Rodrigues. I guess he can fly (so could Jim McGeough) and is very good defensively. He’s actually skated in the top-six a bit in the past (although his production doesn’t seem to merit it). Apparently Buffalo coach Ralph Krueger wasn’t a fan, which led to Rodrigues requesting a trade.
Still, maybe he isn’t the cardboard cut-out I first envisioned when I saw his stats.
I guess Marleau can still skate and so can Sheary and Rodrigues. So we haven’t really lost anything in the speed department.
Wish we had someone…anyone…to provide some push back. Especially with the Caps getting Brendan Dillon and Boston picking up Nick Ritchie…very tough.
Of course we sent the only two guys who even remotely provide that element…Sam Lafferty and Anthony Angello…to the minors.
Of course… 🙁
Rick
Pens just got Sheary & Rodiguez from Buffalo for Kahun. My guess is Rutherford and Kahun were way off on contract negotiations. Sheary & Rodiguez $3mil & $2mil to $1mil Kahun. All contracts are up next season.
I’m guessing Simon is now off Crosby’s line like everyone wanted.
Still doing some head shaking on this Kahun/Sheary trade.
I wonder if Pens were thinking about Kahun’s concussion problems and Buffalo was just looking to salary dump before the end of the season.
Kahun is in a salary year and just came off a concussion, guys like that tend to play soft and worry more about salary than winning. Buffalo dumped $4 million in salary minus pro-ration for the season.
Sheary was a full time roster player on the last two Cup wins, about 14 minutes a game in the playoffs.
Now the Penguins have to guys that can share in tOR hatred. LOL.
You and me both … 🙁
I really like Kahun. Dear Lord, this is both disappointing and depressing … 🙁
Rick
PS–It’s unfortunate that JR got his dander up this weekend. When that happens he doesn’t always use the soundest of judgement.
On a smaller scale this feels like the Brassard trade … 🙁
This trade now makes the Maatta trade a loss. I thought that trade was a win, but to dump him for Sheary?
And Phil, I won’t argue with you when say Sheary can be somewhat effective in the regular season, but let’s remember he was bench in the last 2 playoff years because he was too soft. He was not able to play Hockey when the whistles were put away for the season. He got tossed around like a rag doll.
And no, I doubt Simon is off Crosby’s line, I fear Zucker will be. The new look Penguins will feature Sheary-Crosby-Simon on their top line.
The hope I was feeling is extremely fleeting at this moment.
I really wish JR had been marooned on some deserted island with no phone or internet access so he would not have done something as stupid as this.
LOL, If they start that line against the Kings.
They couldn’t have benched Sheary that much, he played 45 of the 49 playoff games over those two winning seasons.
I wouldn’t mind seeing a speed checking 4th line with Sheary, Marleau and Simon in the playoffs used sparingly. When teams try to play just 4 defenseman, a 4th line with speed tires them out real fast.
I commented on Rick’s article earlier that I believe that Marino is way more important to the Penguins defense this season than anyone has imagined. Him being out is one of if not the reason for the Penguins current woes.
Also, the Capitals picked up your Sprong guy for defenseman Djoos and Caps twitter people are very excited. I wanted to tell them they could’ve had him for free off of waivers probably 3 times, rather than trade one of the guys that defended them to a Stanley Cup, but I was all caught up in their excitement.
I love Sheary’s heart, but he is way to little and light. He tries but once the cro magnon referees put their whistles away for the Playoffs, he gets plowed under. During his first season, teams didn’t know what to do with his speed, then they figured out; just knock him down and tire him out from having to constantly get back up on his skates.
I don’t mind Marleau, in fact I could see him maybe becoming a Matt Cullen.
Sheary and Simon, if those 2 see any appreciable ice time, I would not be surprised by a one and done.
As for Marino, I wrote something similar earlier today. Unless the team goes on a tear before Marino gets back, the fact they played their best hockey when he was in the line up makes him my MVP candidate (as if I get a vote).
Spron? not sure if he gets playing time. The Caps also picked up Kovalchuk.
I’m hoping Marino doesn’t win a MVP or anything before the Pens can sign him long term.