Thanks to the good work of GM Ron Hextall, who signed all of the Penguins’ high-profile free agents this summer, our favorite hockey team returns largely intact from the previous season. A season when we were perhaps a healthy goalie away from advancing to the second round…or farther.
The one area that saw significant change?
Defense.
With an eye toward giving us a bit more size and net-front presence, GMRH signed a key free agent and swung a pair of blockbuster deals. Making us nine-deep on the blue line.
Our defense sure looks different. But is it better?
First let’s look at who went out the door. Speedy Mike Matheson, who resurrected his career in the ‘Burgh, was arguably our second-best defenseman last season. He led all blueliners (including Kris Letang) with a career-high 11 goals and added 20 assists for 31 points, also career-bests. A striking individual talent, Matheson possesses the speed and a God-given gift to just take the puck and go, often skating through the opposition like so many orange construction pylons. A little iffy in his own zone at times but excellent on transitions due to his wheels.
A game-changer.
The other departure, John Marino was mostly solid to very good during his three seasons with the black and gold, although he fell off a bit last season. His strengths? Smarts, poise, good mobility and excellent gap control.
In other words, we lost two pretty darn good defensemen.
Among the newcomers, veteran Jeff Petry is the prize catch. A puck-mover with four recent double-digit goal seasons to his credit, the 34-year-old Petry projects to plug the offensive void created by Matheson’s departure…and then some. He’s a better puck distributor and a natural quarterback for the power play. Although not a banger in an overtly physical sense, the 6’3” 209-pounder is no shrinking violet, as his 140 hits last season will attest.
Thus far in the preseason, he’s been slotted next to Marcus Pettersson. A combination that, in my mind, could be a good one, given Pettersson’s reasonably steady play in his own end and the fact that Petry could take some of the physical load off him. Something the more finesse-oriented Marino wasn’t able to do.
The two other defensive adds, Jan Rutta and Ty Smith, are looking more and more like they’ll comprise our third pairing. It’s an intriguing combo. Signed as a free agent following three-plus seasons in Tampa Bay, Rutta’s an even-keel, no-frills defensive defenseman. Smith, acquired from New Jersey for Marino, can skate and isn’t shy about attacking with the puck and joining or even leading the rush. Mike Sullivan’s kind of player.
Together, Rutta and Smith comprise the classic combination of a puck-mover paired with a stay-at-home partner. In fact, all three of our prospective tandems appear to be built that way.
Among the others vying for regular duty? Although it isn’t set in stone, perennial prospect Pierre-Olivier Joseph appears to have lagged behind Smith on the depth chart. No longer waiver exempt, POJ could be claimed by another club should we try to send him to the Baby Pens.
Ditto feisty Mark Friedman, who in my humble opinion would make an ideal No. 7 d-man given his speed, sand and ability to play either side. (FYI: Toronto has suffered a spate of early injuries to their defense and will no doubt be looking to plug gaps.)
Which would leave veteran Chad Ruhwedel as our spare defenseman. A role he’s filled quite ably throughout his career before earning regular duty last season.
Back to the point of this article. Will our defense be improved this season? There’s one more element I’ve yet to mention. Perhaps the most important member of the defense, the one so much hinges on.
No, not Letang, but rather his partner Brian Dumoulin. Our long-time defensive bulwark endured a difficult 2021-22 campaign. Based on his initial preseason outing (minus-2), struggles that may continue.
If Dumo can rebound and recover his old form? Then, yes, I believe, our defense will be improved.
If not…?
Roster Reduced
Nine players were pared from the roster today, including forwards Ty Glover, Brooklyn Kalmikov, Sam Houde, Jordan Frasca and Lukas Svejkovsky and defensemen Josh Maniscalco, Chris Ortiz, Jon Lizotte and Mitch Reinke. They’ll join goalies Taylor Gauthier and Tommy Nappier, who were sent to the Baby Pens on Wednesday.
Our roster presently sits at 45 players, including 26 forwards, 15 defensemen and 4 goalies.
Hey Rick,
Interesting article, and we will soon see if GMRH’s changes to the blue line bear fruit.
You and I have talked about this, so you know my feelings, even though I was no fan of the Hornqvist-Matheson trade, I too think he was the 2nd best D man on the squad last season. Not saying he was great, our Penguins blue-line has been paper thin for several seasons now. Therefore, saying Matheson was the 2nd best rear guard means nothing.
I understand the concept of needing to give up something to get something, so to get Petry, the Penguins had to give up something. Petry is a good player. However, GMRH traded what little he had on the LHD to strengthen the RHD. Effectively, he robbed Peter to pay Paul.
Signing Rutta also helped strengthen the starboard side of our defense.
The problem I see here though is that there is more than 1 question mark on the LHD. Dumo isn’t the only potential hole on the port side. You may think that Pettersson has at least solidified his game skating with Petry but the jury is still out. Columbus and Detroit are hardly benchmark teams with which to gauge anything. And as you mentioned earlier this summer Boyle had his way with Tyler Smith overpowering him and scoring a goal from in front.
Now add into this mix the lack of LHD if the injury bug hits this understaffed corps. Columbus bullied POJ around in his preseason appearance. That shouldn’t give anyone any confidence in POJ stepping up to fill in for an injured LHD. After POJ it appears that GMRH and HCMS would prefer to use a RHD on their off side in case of an injury. There are so few RHD in the league and a glut of LHD. Therefore, LHD often have to learn how to play their off side while RHD never find themselves being pressed, in times of need to play their off side.
HCMS tried flipping Marino to his off side in his sophomore season and that failed. Any protracted use of Rutta, Friedman, or Ruhwedel on their off side will hurt their seasons as well.
One further concern I have with our Defense goes to your opening statement. You suggest that our Penguins were 1 healthy Goalie shy of getting out of the first round. Perhaps that is true, but we will never know. The sad state of our team is that they have no backbone. Chances are that if our favorite flightless fowl would have done more than wave their purses at opponents crashing the crease over that 82 game marathon, we do go into the playoff series with a healthy number 1. Petry and Rutta have the size to fill that role, but every player coming to this team is defanged rather quickly. Their is a culture of Smurfdom here in the ‘burgh. Until the coaching staff embraces a change of Culture, it will be status quo.