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Yesterday the Pittsburgh Penguins and Matt D’Agostini reached a 1 year agreement that will pay the winger 550k. D’Agostini is a former member the Montreal Canadiens, St. Louis Blues and most recently the New Jersey Devils.
D’Agostini is a former 20 goal scorer in the league. He scored 21 goals and had 25 assists for the Blues in 2010-2011. In that season he played in all 82 games and is currently the only season in which he has come close to playing a full season.
The reason that D’Agostini has been unable to stay in the lineup has been mostly concussion related.
D’Agostini became available because the New Jersey Devils would have had to qualify him as a restricted free agent for 1.8M. The Devils felt that the cost was too high and did not make the qualifying offer. That opened up the opportunity for the Penguins to come in and sign D’Agostini on the cheap.
I think that this signing is a very good low risk, potentially high/medium reward kind of situation.
D’Agostini is able to play all three forward positions and is able to play on a team’s second power play. Last year D’Agostini played on average 1:13 minutes per game on the power play. He did not play in any shorthanded situations in 2012-2013.
D’Agostini possesses a very good shot and skates well north and south. He is not overly physical. From some people’s accounts he is a bigger and faster Tyler Kennedy (In fact, both Kennedy and D’Agostini are from Sault St. Marie. Ontario). If that indeed turns out to be the case, this will be a very good signing for the Penguins at 550k.
There might be concern that D'Agostini does not bring the stero typical phsyicality that you would expect from a third line player but I don't think that is necessarily a problem. The Penguins didn't get into trouble in the playoffs against the Islanders and Bruins because they were being bullied and pushed around. They got into trouble because they were lacking team speed in the lineups they were using. Penguins strength is speed and skill, they should maximize that. Getting caught up in trying to outhit the opposition has only led to playoff disappointment IE: 2012 Flyers, 2013 Bruins.
I went digging a little deeper into some of his possession numbers. Using a 3 year average from 2010-2013 his Fenwick For % during this time period was.534%. That is good for 67th best among all players who have played in at least 2,000 minutes during that time frame. Only Malkin, Kunitz, and Neal have had better possession numbers by forwards on the Penguins with at least 2,000 minutes (Crosby had less than 2000 minutes played). Adding a positive possession player is never a bad thing.
I took the same 3 year average and looked up D’Agostini’s Goals For %. His GF% was .540. Only Kunitz, Dupuis, Malkin, and Neal were better in that time frame amongst current Penguin forwards.
Over the past 3 years more pucks have gone towards the oppositions net when D’Agostini has been on the ice. More pucks have also gone in the opposition’s net while D’Agostini has been on the ice.
Here are some comments made by Matt D’Agostini about signing in Pittsburgh, courtesy of the
Penguins official website
I’m very excited about joining a team like Pittsburgh. It’s an organization that’s proven itself, a team that’s constantly winning. I will do anything I can to contribute to that.
I’ve always thought I had the ability to score and proved it. I’ve scored in this league. I’ll fit into any kind of role that Pittsburgh wants from me. I’m just trying to round out my game completely.
That’s something I can bring to the table, a little versatility. If they want me to play a checking role and use my speed or I can come in and add offensively, I’m just excited about getting started.
At the end of the day the Penguins are trying to fill out their bottom 6 forward unit without breaking the bank. In Matt D’Agostini they have found a player who fits in with Dan Bylsma’s up tempo puck moving system. D’Agostini will be looking to put his name back on the map as a solid NHL player this year. He will want to prove that he can still provide quality play and that has moved past his previous concussion issues. The one year deal works great for both parties and hopefully each side gets what they need out of the signing.
In other news defenseman Robert Bortuzzo has filed for salary arbitration. Bortuzzo may have filed for arbitration, but it has been extremely rare for Shero to let things get to an actual hearing. I would fully expect that Bortuzzo and the Penguins reach an agreement prior to arbitration.
For those folks that might not have a complete understanding about the arbitration process,
here is a really good article that was done by Jeff Angus. In this article Angus does a mock arbitration hearing with former Team USA/Maple Leafs/Ducks/Canucks general manager Brian Burke. Even though it is a pretty long read I found it very interesting to take a look behind the scenes of how the arbitration process works.
Thanks for reading!
You can find my NON-Penguin related articles over at
HockeyHurts.com
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