Next up in the never ending search for a realistic top six winger upgrade is the veteran Alex Tanguay.
Tanguay is back with the Avalanche after multiple stints with Calgary. He is still a viable offensive threat that is capable of putting up 25 goals and 60 points during a full season. Last year he was unable to come back from a knee injury and he only played in 16 games with the Avalanche.
So far this year he has been able to stay on the ice and he is on pace for 25 goals and 55 points.
This is not bad offensive production considering the role he has been used in. His quality of competition is the highest it has been in his career.
You do see a lot of red on the chart and that would indicate that he has not been an outstanding possession player. He has also not played on teams that have been very good in that department the past few years. When healthy the Penguins are amongst the better teams and more specifically Crosby and Malkin are going to elevate whoever is with them. Tanguay’s potential player usage in Pittsburgh would be a sheltered offensive role, most likely with Malkin.
Last week Tanguay showed off that he still has at least a little game breaking ability
Tanguay is not a rental. He makes 3.5M and is signed through next year.
The Avalanche are one of the worst possession teams in the league. They have a Score-Adjusted Fenwick of 44.7%, only Buffalo’s 36.7% is worse. The Avalanche were one of the best shooting teams last year and so far to this point they are doing a good job in that area again. Unlike last year Semyon Varlamov is not playing at a Vezina caliber level and thus the Avalanche haven’t been able to survive bad possession.
The Avalanche are a bad possession team because they have a bad defense corp. This seems like the kind of situation where a team with a lot of defensemen could come in and make an offer.
****
Olli Maatta is getting a second opinion about his shoulder, the same shoulder that was surgically repaired this past offseason. If the diagnoses is another surgery it would be wise for the Penguins to start throwing some of their young defensemen in the fire. Scott Harrington has been recalled and he might actually play in his first game tonight. Given how well Derrick Pouliot has played in WB/S I would like him to receive a look eventually as well. These young guys are going to be the players that can potentially replace a long term Maatta void, not a Robert Bortuzzo. Let’s see them play.
The Blue Jackets made a trade for Chicago’s Jeremy Morin yesterday. It was a nice risk reward deal and is the kind of deal that would make sense for the Penguins.
Congratulations to Tomas Vokoun on a terrific career. Yesterday Vokoun made it official that he is retiring.
Over the past seven seasons Vokoun ranks fifth overall in the NHL in EVSV% with an impressive .930%.
He was under-appreciated throughout his career due to the teams that he played on, but he consistently gave his squad the best chance to win each and every night.
Pittsburgh fans should always be grateful as he saved the Penguins from yet another embarrassing first round playoff exit when he took over the reins against the Islanders.
Tonight is going to be an uphill battle against Tampa Bay given the Penguins lineup deficiencies right now. Taking any points would be impressive and would probably mean that Fleury had quite a game.
The Penguins handling of Sidney Crosby’s mumps has been less than desirable. In fact a lot of how the Penguins have handled things has been less than desirable this past year. Seth Rorabaugh has an in-depth breakdown about that
here
****
Brand new Hockey Hurts Penguins related podcast can be found
here
Thanks for reading!
Follow me on twitter
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»