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Meltzer's Musings: Rinaldo's Role |
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Flyers forward Zac Rinaldo is one of the most polarizing players on the roster. Supporters believe that he is a valuable "energy" forward who gets under the skin of opposing players. Detractors feel that he is more of a liability than an asset.
Pound for pound, Rinaldo is one of the NHL's best bodycheckers. He is an above-average skater with good balance and can bowl over much bigger players. Averaging just 7:41 of ice time per game and dressing in 67 regular season games this season, Rinaldo ranked 14th in the NHL with 31 credited hits. In last season's lockout shortened campaign, Rinaldo ranked 16th while dressing in 32 of 48 games.
Rinaldo, who was second in NHL in penalty minutes during his rookie season of 2011-12, was fifth in the League this year with 153 PIM. To some degree, Rinaldo is susceptible to receiving "reputation penalties" on otherwise clean hits but he still brings much of it on himself. The four-game suspension Rinaldo drew late in the season for a needless high hit that concussed Buffalo Sabres defenseman Chad Ruhwedel was a setback in the player's efforts to erase an image of being a player who could not be trusted on the ice.
One of the most important measurements for Rinaldo's value to the Flyers is how many penalties he draws on the opposition versus how many times he leaves the team shorthanded. Rinaldo actually took a step backward in that area in 2013-14.
Last season, Rinaldo took an average of 2.3 penalties per 60 minutes of ice time. He drew 3.2 penalties on the opposition per 60 minutes of ice time. That ranked 2nd in the NHL among players who dressed in at least half of their team's games.
This season, Rinaldo's penalties taken per 60 minutes creeped up to 3.0. Among all NHL players who dressed in at least 40 games, only Buffalo's John Scott was more heavily penalized relative to his ice time. In the meantime, Rinaldo's rate of penalties drawn on the opposition dropped to 1.7 per game.
For several years, Rinaldo has expressed an interest in improving as a defensive forward and becoming part of the Flyers penalty killing rotation.
During the Peter Laviolette coaching regime, the coach would often say during training camp that he'd consider giving Rinaldo the opportunity he craved. Nevertheless the player very rarely got on the ice in those situations (and, even then, usually at the tail end of a kill with an offensive zone faceoff). Rinaldo did get a bit of penalty killing time for Terry Murray's Phantoms in Adirondack during the lockout last season but remained solely an even strength energy player for the Flyers after the lockout ended.
When Craig Berube was elevated to head coach and Ian Laperriere became an assistant coach in charge of the penalty kill, the Flyers experimented for awhile with Rinaldo on the penalty kill. Laperriere pledged to help Rinaldo become a viable NHL penalty killer and the player was eager to put in the work to do so.
The experiment did not last long. The forward had some growing pains in his expanded role, which was to be expected. Wih the Flyers scrambling to erase a 1-7-0 start to the season and scuffling to score goals early in the season, they needed more seasoned penalty killers to help fill the gap left by the early season trade of Max Talbot to Colorado.
It is possible that the experiment could be revisited at some point in the future. However, that is not a certainty.
In the bigger picture, Rinaldo needs to find other ways to bring value to the team. He is never going to put up many points nor is he ever going to be a player with good advanced stats.
Agitating Dallas Stars forward Antoine Roussel is a considerably better version of the same style of player that Rinaldo embodies. While Roussel takes a lot of questionable penalties (3rd in the NHL with 209 penalty minutes and 13th in penalties taken with 1.6 per 60 minutes), he brings some other value to the table.
First and foremost, Roussel brings some opportunistic offensive ability to his team. In a checking line role this season, Roussel posted 14 goals and 29 points. Secondly, Roussel is a regular part of the Dallas penalty kill, averaging 1:40 of penalty killing ice time per game. While the Philadelphia penalty kill was superior to Dallas' both in personnel and performance, Roussel's ability to absorb significant PK time was notable. Overall, Roussel pulled down an average 13:19 of ice time per game for the Stars.
It would be a boon to Rinaldo and the Flyers if he can accelerate his development as a penalty killing option. That is still his most reachable goal for increasing his value to the team. It is unlikely that Rinaldo will ever approach double-digit goals in an NHL season (although he does show more skill at practice than the casual observer would expect). He is a good forechecker as well as bodychecker but lacks the size to wear opponents down by grinding and cycling the puck along the ways.
Rinaldo has one season remaining on the two-year contract he signed last summer. The deal pays him $750,000 per season. He can become a restricted free agent again in the summer of 2015.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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