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What's the deal with Kris Letang?

December 5, 2017, 10:26 AM ET [93 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Let’s talk about Kris Letang. When you watch him play this year it doesn’t quite look like it used to. He’s still a great skater, he can still handle the puck like he always has, yet something looks off. Now it would be unfair to call into question Letang’s early season results without mentioning that he is coming off of neck surgery which caused him to miss the entire 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs. I personally cannot attribute his play to the neck surgery with any certainty. It would just be speculation from a distance on my part. Logic would dictate that neck surgery might be a difficult thing to come back 100% from.

The team isn’t exactly easing Letang back into things. They named him an alternate captain for the first time in his career and continue to give him an absurd amount of minutes.

From Jim Rutherford:

“He’s coming off a very serious injury. I believe he’s tried to do too much. I believe we’ve played him way too many minutes because we’ve had to with the injuries. Once things settle in, there’s not any concern. He’s a terrific player.”

Letang is playing 25:35 per night which would be the third highest total of his career in a career where he has played a ton. So you have a few variables at play right now impacting Letang. Coming off a serious injury, being overworked, and the confidence that suffers because of both.

Are our eyes lying to us this year? What do his results actually look like when compared with the rest of his career?

Let’s take a look at a few data points (ie evidence) to measure the different impacts that Letang has had throughout his career.

We’ll start with relative possession. When compared with his Penguins teammates how has he done in driving play?



No surprise here that he has been a positive relative possession player his entire career. With the exception of Bylsma’s last season in Pittsburgh Letang has been a positive factor. You’ll find that Letang’s 2013-14 season was a low point for his career with all of these numbers. The 2017-18 season is the second lowest and the Penguins aren’t exactly a possession juggernaut this year either. Given his past standard this is underwhelming.

How is Letang doing in shot generation and suppression specifically?




Not trending in the right direction. In fact his shot suppression is the worst of his career so far. Shot generation is down, but it isn’t as negatively drastic as the suppression side of things. In 2017-18 Letang is a much worse defensive player while taking a slight hit offensively. Something to think about is that the Penguins forward depth is comparable to the depth the team had in 2013-14 season when Letang’s worst season occurred. There could be some roster effects at play here.

One thing that can offset all the possession related stuff is producing lots of tangible offense. A player might live in their own end, but if they are producing at a high level it is one of those trade-offs you can accept. Letang has been known to be a very gifted offensive player throughout his career. He can probably make up for the dips in his possession this year.



Uh oh. This part of his game has plummeted. Right now the criticisms of Letang seem valid. There is no evidence to suggest otherwise. The puck is in the Penguins zone more often than it has in the past with Letang on the ice and his impact on tangible offense is at a career low. This is a bad combo. This has led to his xGF% to plummet as well



So now what?

Kris Letang needs an easier role for the time being. He shouldn’t be pushing 26 minutes right now. One area where they can limit his minutes is on the power play. I’m not ready to confidently say Justin Schultz is a better power play defenseman than Letang, but he is certainly capable of occupying that role in an effort to get Letang’s minutes down.

The effort to get Letang’s minutes down should be easier now that Justin Schultz and Matt Hunwick are back in the lineup and there are no more injuries to Penguins defensemen at the present moment.

I would make sure to play Letang with the Crosby and Malkin units in order to get his confidence up. I don’t normally like to talk about these things with players because I don’t have relationships with them, but Letang mentioned it himself:

From the article linked above:

“I think I’m hesitant,” Letang said. “You see one night, I’ll shoot everything. I’ll get a lot of opportunities, and I won’t capitalize. The next game, it creeps in my mind that I’m not accomplishing anything so I stop shooting.

“I’m just trying to do too much.”

“It’s a little bit of everything right now,” Letang said. “Timing. Trying to figure out how I want to play the game. Not try to get too many big hits. There different things in my mind. I think I’m slowly getting there, but I have to play a lot better.”


So is this all doom and gloom? Not necessarily. There are some legit factors working against Letang (neck surgery, age), but his larger sample speaks to a player that will rebound at some point. I think at this time Mike Sullivan could change Letang’s usage to build up his confidence in an effort to get him closer to the player he’s shown to be in the past. We are about 35% into the season so there is a long way to go. If I were a betting man I’d say that we will see signs of the old Letang in the near future. For now, the criticisms of his play are valid. It hasn’t been a great start to the season when compared to his previous standard.

Thanks for reading!
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