As we barrel ahead towards the trade deadline it is fairly obvious the status quo is not good enough for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Their current roster setup isn’t the kind that is just going to “figure it out”.
The wonderful thing about twitter is that you can find all sorts of information and angles to look at things that you otherwise wouldn’t have either thought of or been privy to. Yesterday I thought
@vinnybattsproduced some very good information as the result of some of his research. It pertains to the Penguins talent level in the bottom six forward grouping.
I’m going to share some of that today.
When a numbers inclined person says the results are hilarious it can go one of two ways, really good or really bad. Spoiler, it ain’t good in this case.
First let’s start with what below replacement level actually means. It means the player is playing at a level that could be replaced by pretty much anybody, including your average AHL call-up. The Penguins aren’t the only playoff team with this issue, they are the ONLY team in the entire league who has managed to find themselves in this situation. Not good.
Again, not where you want to be if you are a “Stanley Cup contender”.
Out of the seven players listed the Penguins have ties or had ties to two of them, one is on the current roster and was actively traded for. Basically they replaced Joe Vitale with Joe Vitale. A lateral move from what was a less than ideal situation last year.
This example only mentions the center position. Pittsburgh hasn’t exactly gotten the winger part right either. Tanner Glass, Craig Adams, Zach Sill, Taylor Pyatt, Chris Connor, Aaron Asham, Richard Park, and even a converted defenseman like Deryk Engelland have littered the Penguins bottom six winger spots the past few years.
Whatever roles you envision a bottom six forward group having I can guarantee you that being amongst the worst in possession should not be part of that equation. Bottom six players are classically not as gifted offensively as the top six but that doesn’t mean you litter your team full of inept possession players. If you aren’t going to contribute tangible offense, what can you contribute? The answer with a lot of these players is nothing and the better teams avoid this kind of stuff.
“Well Team X has bad players in their bottom six too”
Who cares what other teams are doing? Make your team better. Create your own standard. The information is available to do so.
There is misconception that as long as Penguins have Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are in their primes that the Penguins are a legit Cup contender. This isn't true. You cannot solely ride your superstars to the Cup this isn’t the NBA. There is never a champion that does not have secondary scoring or at the very least role players who don’t get buried shift after shift in their own end.
The Penguins are fortunate because Sid and Geno are the hardest kind of pieces for a team to acquire. You need to be bad in order to get a high draft pick. You also need to be lucky that the year you have the high pick lines up with these kinds of players being available.
Penguins got lucky with the hard part and have been screwing up the easier part for years now.
As a result Crosby and Malkin have been the target of criticism when the Penguins don’t win it all. It shows a clear lack of understanding of how things actually work. To blame guys like Crosby and Malkin while ignoring the fact the Penguins continue to roster players who are AHL level is shameful.
Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are the #1 and #2 active players in points per game in the playoffs for their career.
If you want to take away the Cup Final years and focus on more recent results (since 2011) Crosby and Malkin are still one of the best duos in the league. Only Zetterberg and Datsyuk are close to having similar success as a tandem from the same team.
*chart created by Lyle Kossis*
It is easy to blame the best guys, even when they are producing like the best.
It is even easier to fill your roster with competent role players if you are looking at the right variables.
Time for Pittsburgh to get the easy part right.
Thanks for reading!
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