Today is the deadline to give qualifying offers to restricted free agents. For the Penguins that means players like Justin Schultz, Brian Dumoulin, Conor Sheary, and Derrick Pouliot. I fully expect the team to qualify each player, yes even Pouliot. The general manager himself said so.
One fringe player who will receive a qualifying offer is Derrick Pouliot, the former first-round pick some may have expected the Penguins to let walk.
Not even close, Rutherford said.
“We really like what he did at the end of the year,” Rutherford said. “All of our development guys really felt that he made giant steps toward where he needs to be to be in Pittsburgh. We’re pretty pleased with where he ended up. If he can build on that coming into camp, he should be with our team.”
Time will tell if that is actual praise or not, but you can't trade him if you don't qualify him.
Today I want to focus on a specific Penguins RFA and that player will be Justin Schultz. Since coming over from Edmonton he has done a great job at resurrecting his perception as a defenseman with a positive impact. People who were/are unable to take into consideration things like quality of teammate and quality of competition labeled Schultz as one of the worst players in the league. That assessment was proven to be patently false when Schultz finally escaped Edmonton's dysfunction.
I liked the trade for Pittsburgh since the day it was made. It was a great risk/reward deal to take a chance on. The rewards were plentiful for both team and player. Now it is time for that player to cash in monetarily for the production he has put up and will continue to put up.
I had reservations about Schultz and his caliber of play because of the small sample heading into last offseason. Jim Rutherford did a great job of getting Schultz back on the cheap and now we have an even larger Pittsburgh sample to draw from. I had apprehensions about how well Schultz could play if he wasn't given a bottom pairing sheltered role. Throughout the course of the 2016-17 season those apprehensions subsided. Schultz played a lot of minutes and those minutes were really good. He was one of the best producers of offense from the blue line in the entire league. His all situations points per 60 of 1.92 trailed only Victor Hedman, Brent Burns, Erik Karlsson, Kevin Shattenkirk, and Kris Letang. Quite the company to keep.
Possession wise he's be at around ~51.5% since coming over to Pittsburgh with a positive relative mark.
When Letang was injured and out for the season it created a huge void on the defense. Justin Schultz did not drown in his expanded role and how he handled the situation should make Rutherford more comfortable with committing to Schultz for the long haul. Schultz was no longer sheltered and was taking on an important role on Pittsburgh's number one power play. It was a success.
He's been objectively good. Just look at how he compares to your average top pairing defender
Here's some more information that paints Schultz in a positive light
He is an asset in Pittsburgh's transition game. Controlled exits and entries are the life blood of a consistently successful hockey team and Schultz is a positive contributor on this front.
Needless to say he has earned a raise from the 1.4M he was paid in 2016-17. How much of a raise?
If he was a UFA I have no doubts that he would get 5M+. However, he is an RFA and with that comes some leverage for the team. I would offer Schultz 4M per season for a total of four or five years. That number would probably rise to 4.5M after negotiations, but the term should stay at that 4-5 year range. Schultz will be turning 27 in a week or so and term is the one thing that can make this deal a regrettable one.
Justin Schultz's transformation in perception has been impressive. His body of work in Pittsburgh can only be described as good. He deserves his raise and the Penguins have the financial flexibility to give him that raise.
That third round pick dealt to Edmonton has had quite the return on investment.
Pittsburgh can feel comfortable paying Schultz.
Thanks for reading!
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