The Penguins are remaining patient in their quest for a third line center. They will be acquiring one. It will come via trade. The who, when, and how of the situation has yet to be revealed.
When looking around the league you need to find teams that would be willing to move a third line center piece for something from the Penguins that makes sense. Today I'll take a look at Radek Faksa of the Dallas Stars.
Dallas is pushing its chips to the center of the table in an effort to win now. They are trying to load up before Tyler Seguin needs a new deal and Jason Spezza's play declines too much. They recently bucked up for Alexander Radulov to the tune of 6.25M for the next five seasons. There is no hiding the fact they want to make a run.
The Stars also signed center Martin Hanzal which gives them some wiggle room on the Radek Faksa front. They certainly don't need to trade him, but they are in a better spot to do that than they were a month ago.
Here is what their current depth chart looks like courtesy of Daily Faceoff
Jason Spezza is certainly capable of playing center and that would allow Hanzal to bump down into an appropriate third line center role. Dallas has moved on from Ales Hemsky, Patrick Sharp, and Jiri Hudler. Moving Spezza back to center would create room for a proven winger. This is where the Penguins could potentially use one of their Swedish wingers (Hornqvist/Hagelin) to give Dallas something that would make sense for them.
Dallas would get a known commodity that fits in with their win now approach and would still be able to roll three solid centers.
I don't know if Jim Rutherford would lean towards a player that has a limited NHL sample like Faksa to take over a third line center role while going for a three peat, but you don't get to choose the teams that have third line centers potentially available.
There are some encouraging signs with Faksa. During the 2015-16 season he had 15 goals and 26 points in 28 games with the Texas Stars in the AHL. That was for his 21 year old season and 0.7 points per game is usually the benchmark for future success. He was pretty much a point per game player. After being called up in January he was up for good in the NHL.
This year was his first full season of NHL action. He had 33 points in 80 games. His 5v5 points per 60 was 1.54. Not a ton of offense, but also not incredibly lean. For comparison sake Nick Bonino had 37 points in 80 games with a 1.43 5v5 points per 60. That is very similar production.
On the possession front Faksa did well. He had a positive relative possession of 2.4% which was second best among regular Dallas forwards. His 5v5 shot attempts percentage was 51.8%. Also second best among the forwards. Bonino was a possession black hole last year. He had a 46.4% shot attempts percentage and a negative relative possession of -4.9%.
Faksa is currently an unsigned RFA so he would fit comfortably into Pittsburgh's salary structure. Dallas would need some assistance in absorbing a 4M cap hit. On a quick glance it appears they only have 2.9M in cap space.
Dallas has center depth. Pittsburgh has winger depth. I think there are enough variables that line up for Radek Faksa to be on Pittsburgh's radar in their search for a new third line center.
Thanks for reading!
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