Over the course of any NHL season you are going to fall into some injuries that impact the depth on your team. For whatever reason it feels as though Pittsburgh deals with these injuries more often than other teams. Given that they have the injury issues they do it is necessary for their GM to try and sign players who are versatile.

Blake Comeau fits the bill as that kind of player. He has given the Penguins everything that they have expected and more so far this year.

His speed has been noticeable as well as his developing chemistry with Malkin.

So far this season Comeau has 8 goals and 8 assists in 26 games. Over an 82 game season that projects to 25 goals and 50 points. Pretty solid numbers for 700k.

The last time the Penguins won a Stanley Cup in 2009 they had a winger with similar offensive output playing with Malkin. His name was Petr Sykora. Sykora finished that 2008-09 season with 25 goals and 21 assists.

One dynamic of Comeau’s hot start is the fact he is riding the wave of a very high PDO (1032) which could feasibly start to drop at any point. Although it is worth noting the aforementioned Petr Skykora finished the 2008-09 season with a PDO of 1034.

I don’t think the Penguins should be content with making Blake Comeau a permanent staple in the top six but the fact he has shown the ability to jump up in a pinch is exactly the kind of depth player a Stanley Cup Champion has on their team.

Jim Rutherford has tried his best to fill out the Penguins depth with players capable of taking on bigger roles if injuries dictate so. Steve Downie, Marcel Goc, Rob Klinkhammer, and Blake Comeau all fit the bill in this regard. This is a big change of pace from loading up a bottom six with players like Taylor Pyatt, Joe Vitale, Dereyk Engelland and Tanner Glass (all welcomed departures).

The current Penguins quartet comes in at a total cost of 3.55M and no player from that group makes more than 1.2M. The four players who departed cost a total of 5.45M and that is without Taylor Pyatt contributing towards that total because he is currently out of the NHL.

Really makes you wonder what the last regime was thinking when they tried to compile their depth players. It is a huge reason why the Penguins couldn't get over the hump in previous years.

Thanks for reading!

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