The Pittsburgh Penguins still have the potential to roll out three incredibly good scoring lines next year. On the right side you have Phil Kessel and Patric Hornqvist. At the current moment there is room for improvement on who that third right winger will be.
Bryan Rust had a great playoff run and had some of the best individual moments of the entire Stanley Cup run. Nobody will ever take that from him and he can help the team again next year. I just don't think it should be on the Evgeni Malkin line. I don't view him as a long term top six winger.
Pittsburgh doesn't have a ton of money to spend but there was a name thrown out this morning that caught my eye as I'm sure it did others as well.
Nail Yakupov is the former first overall draft pick. In fact he was drafted right in Pittsburgh.
Yakupov's career to this point has been less than stellar, hence being available. He has one more year left on his current deal and makes 2.5M. He will be an RFA after the 2016-17 season.
Jim Rutherford has had multiple dealings with the Oilers the past few years. He traded with them to acquire both David Perron and Justin Schultz.
Acquiring Nail Yakupov would be along the same lines as acquiring Justin Schultz. You would be hoping a player who has struggled could find their way coming to a better organization. When Justin Schultz was placed on a much better team and in an appropriate role he did good things.
Over the years the Oilers have jerked Yakupov around placing him in various bottom six roles while occasionally giving him sniffs at the top six. In Pittsburgh he would get Evgeni Malkin. His two most common centers in Edmonton were Sam Gagner (596:14) and Derek Roy (534:15). That doesn't look like the best way to get a scoring winger to score. Edmonton also has one of the worst defense corps. in all of hockey. They haven't had the luxury of employing enough skilled defensemen to get their skilled forwards the puck in proper transition. This would definitely hamper a guy built on raw speed like Yakupov.
This could easily be another Justin Schultz situation where a player can show more than they did when with the downtrodden Edmonton Oilers.
The Pittsburgh Penguins seem like the most optimal team for Yakupov to utilize his raw talents.
This is the kind of risk I would definitely take assuming the asking price above is accurate.
****
Speaking of Evgeni Malkin he will NOT need surgery on his elbow. This is obviously great news. Malkin will spend his summer in the United States between Pittsburgh and Miami training.
Thanks for reading!
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»