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The defenseman Pittsburgh should be looking at instead of Jack Johnson

June 27, 2018, 2:05 PM ET [138 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
So let's move past the cap clearing trade from this morning and focus on what that cap space could potentially be used on. Personally I would lean towards spending it on an impact forward. The team in an effort to reduce Kris Letang's minutes might be leaning towards another defenseman in the 3-4M AAV range.

Jack Johnson's name is one you've heard by now. He is poison especially if it isn't for minimal money. A better option if you are dead set on spending 3-4M on a depth defenseman would be Calvin De Haan.



There's an actual offensive pulse with De Haan and his expected goals numbers are solid. Nothing favors Jack Johnson. When you look at the passing and contributions to offense De Haan crushes Johnson



Both players have a ~2500 minute sample which is on the larger side for this tracking project. Sometimes the samples aren't as big as you want, but with this one you are getting a pretty good picture of the skill sets of each player.

You would think the Penguins would want to explore a better player at the same rumored price point as Johnson. Using Sheary's cap space on a defenseman that has skills that could translate to Pittsburgh's style of play would be useful. Spending it on Sid's teenage friend, not so much.



Thanks for reading!
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