Mailbag: What to do with Kasperi Kapanen + other roster moves (Penguins)

Penguins

Mailbag: What to do with Kasperi Kapanen + other roster moves

By Ryan Wilson

Nov 28, 2022 • 11:16 am

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I don’t have any unique takes on the Toronto game from Saturday. The Penguins played poorly on the second game of a back to back. They are the oldest team in the league. Did we really think we were going to get through the entire season without this situation playing out? Instead, let’s do a mailbag.

The number one topic received? People really want to know what to do with Kasperi Kapanen.

Mike Sullivan is clearly over Kasperi Kapanen. I’m willing to bet if Sullivan was given the option in the summer to bring Kapanen back or sign him to another two years he would have chosen to move on. He clearly has no more patience left for the 26-year-old Kapanen to find himself or whatever he needs to find. This is a Penguins team who would love to roster a bottom six goal scorer. Kapanen hasn’t been it. For now, they are going to healthy scratch him. If the team starts looking into trades the cap space is going to have to come from somewhere. I’m sure they’d be open to moving him. In fact, according to Frank Servavalli of the DailyFaceoff the Penguins are indeed trying to move him

20. Kasperi Kapanen Right Wing, Pittsburgh Penguins Age: 26 Stats: 13 GP, 1 G, 4 A, 5 Pts

Contract: 1 more season, $3.2 million AAV

Scoop: Of all the term handed out by GM Ron Hextall last summer, the extra year to Kapanen might be the most painful at this moment in time. Kapanen has struggled. His warts in compete and effort are there for all to see. And he’s not an inexpensive contract to offload given the circumstances, as Hextall has been one of the more active GMs out there trying to find a landing spot for him.

To this I say good luck Ron. Or at the very least find another GM who feels like this about Kapanen

Needless to say, I don’t agree with this assessment of Kapanen. Kasperi Kapanen does not help others on the ice and his success is tied up in scoring goals. Specifically, goals that occur during the rush. Which is why the PDO stuff matters. He needs a really good shooting percentage to be effective. He’s a career 10% shooter. It isn’t good enough to overcome the other stuff even when he’s at a career average. Shooting below it? Completely useless. He does not have an NHL level hockey IQ and is a play killer. You can’t rely on him on a nightly basis to do the non-goal scoring things that help other linemates. I very rarely talk about the effort level of NHL players because to a man they all work really damn hard. I don’t think Kapanen does on a regular basis. He is an exception to the rule. He has earned this criticism.

This isn’t a situation where Kapanen hasn’t gotten a fair shake from the Penguins. If anything they’ve invested an insane amount into him. They’ve used two separate first round picks to acquire him and then they gave him a very undeserved extension over this past summer. Kasperi Smith doesn’t get that contract in my opinion.

If he gets traded and “figures it out… then so be it. It won’t happen in Pittsburgh and it wouldn’t be Mike Sullivan’s fault for it, either. Very few players have been given the benefit of the doubt like Kapanen.

I would continue to try and find a taker for Kapanen and his contract. I don’t think it will be easy. For now, he can watch the harder working players who took his spot.

I think the same thing now that I did over the summer on this topic

They are undervaluing this player. Puljujarvi doesn’t have to be anything more than a solid second/third line tweener for a team to get value out of him. I think this is something the Penguins should entertain. I would float Kasperi Kapanen and/or Brian Dumoulin to them. There’s been a lot of talk about a second or third round draft pick. I’m not sure what a draft pick does to help Edmonton during Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl’s prime. They should be looking for roster “help… now.

Quickly looking at the Oilers line combos I see that they have Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl playing with Jesse Puljujarvi at the moment. I would absolutely trade Kapanen for Puljujarvi. Puljujarvi does things to help his linemates even when he’s not scoring, and if we are being honest, he doesn’t score a lot. He’s the opposite of Kapanen and I think it would help out the bottom six a lot more. All this said, I don’t think it is very realistic to expect a swap of these two players. The time to strike was during the offseason when the Edmonton media were burying Puljujarvi.

I suppose if you really wanted to go “all in… you could offer up two first round draft picks and then make them take Kasperi Kapanen and Brock McGinn to make the money work. I’m not sure this interests the Coyotes unless they think those first round picks are going to be in the top half of the draft and if they’re going to be in the top half of the draft the Penguins probably shouldn’t be making a deal like that.

Not that I’ve been seeking out Nick Schmaltz trade rumors, but I haven’t really seen his name thrown around as somebody they are even looking to move. I really think it is a player who would definitely fix a big area plaguing the Penguins at the moment. I just don’t see it, though.

Players aren’t stupid. They know who the most talented players on the team are. I don’t think it is something actively discussed, but when you hand out the colored jerseys for lines and defense pairings things are pretty obvious. Things become even more obvious when you are practicing the #1 power play. There’s no sugar coating that kind of deployment if you are on the outside looking in.

As for how things play out in the locker room it depends on two variables. The first is the kind of person your best player is. Do they make decisions on the ice that only benefit themselves? Do segregate themselves from the other players socially? Do they actively compliment and support their other teammates? These are very important things at the amateur level. If they are able to be a good person to their teammates it goes a long way in the perception of them from others.

The other variable is how the coaches hold players accountable. Is it equitable? If the star player is breaking team rules are they held to the same standard as the freshman kid who doesn’t play? If the star player isn’t doing their part on the forecheck or defensive zone coverage are they being held accountable for it? If the star player gets to play by their own set of rules while the rest of the players are getting punitive punishments how does that play out in the locker room?

It really helps when your best players are your best people. It solves a lot of issues before they are even issues.

I don’t have a concrete answer. He doesn’t look like his normal spry self. Perhaps we are dealing with an injury situation? I don’t think the aging curve jumped out and bit him and he is forever the player he’s been during this drought. He has developed into a really good top six winger option, something I didn’t see in him when he first arrived on the scene. One thing he can’t blame at the moment is his quality of teammate. This has been excellent for the past few years. He either gets Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin. If he’s hurt they should let him rest because this version of Rust isn’t the one that will give the team a puncher’s chance later in the year. If he’s not hurt he needs to figure it out. He has all the tools necessary to make it work.

The issue isn’t if they can, it is if they want to. They could have traded him at any point the last few years when his decline started and likely gotten some decent assets back for it, too. Dumoulin has been less of an issue since he was rightly demoted off of the top pairing. He is playing appropriate third pairing minutes and it has helped. I personally would still look to move him. I don’t think the team has any interest in it.

Thanks for reading!

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