I had a couple questions I received on twitter the other day and I wanted to get to those today
How much do you expect Matheson to contribute this year? I know his contract is terrible but aren’t some of his underlying numbers good?
— x - Jeff Rose (@jefe810) December 14, 2020
His contract is terrible. He is nowhere close to being Jack Johnson. His underlying numbers are not “good…, though.
So here’s the deal with Matheson. The Penguins need to be mindful about how they deploy him (duh). If they don’t try to push him out of his comfort zone and put him in a huge role. He is a very good skater and he seems to like to rush the puck with his skating ability. The bad part is this strength doesn’t quite mesh well with results or his new coach. He has one of the league’s highest turnover rates and his skating of the puck is certainly linked to that fact. Mike Sullivan also does not encourage his defenseman to rush the puck. Perhaps, by taking the freedom of skating the puck away his turnover rate will plummet. Maybe they can work with him to use the skating ability to find time and space initially and then let the forwards do the work in transition instead of trying to do it himself.
Matheson has a nice shot. It has been effective. It is going to have to be effective at 5v5 because I don’t see him jumping on the first power play unit which already has Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel, Kris Letang and likely Bryan Rust on it. Maybe, this changes down the road, we’ll see.
Let’s say we get a best case scenario with Mike Matheson. I think it would open up the possibility of moving Marcus Pettersson and I would support that move. Again, we are talking about a best case scenario where Matheson’s underlying numbers improve considerably with the Penguins. I think the amount of money being spent on the left side of the Penguins defense does not come close to matching the value they get and it certainly isn’t Brian Dumoulin’s fault. I don’t think we will get a best case scenario and I do think the Penguins will flirt with the idea of moving Pettersson anyways.
Thoughts on signing Kovalchuk for depth?
— Zachory Kemp (@ZachoryKemp) December 14, 2020
Well, it is something I have given thought to for the Penguins because of their lack of right handed firepower on the power play since Kessel left. I am unimpressed with the scoring depth among the bottom six forwards. I don’t think he would cost a lot. Even the KHL isn’t bucking up for him right now
Russian media reporting that Ilya Kovalchuk will likely be joining KHL Avangard unless an NHL team offers him a deal at the eleventh hour.
— Andrew Zadarnowski (@AZadarski) December 15, 2020
Rumoured salary is 25M rubles for the remainder of the season.
So for those of you at home wondering how much money 25M rubles is I have done the math for you. It is around 343k.
Any team in the NHL who has interest in Ilya Kovalchuk would probably have a realistic shot at signing him. For league minimum I would definitely entertain adding his services on the Penguins, but weirdly enough it wouldn’t be for the power play. Apparently, he has been brutal in that area lately
While I would entertain signing him at league minimum I also don’t think it needs to be a priority. Although, I’d be more interested in actually watching him play than the majority of the Penguins bottom six just out of curiosity on how good/bad he would be.
Finally, to wrap things up guess who suited up for another professional season at age 48 yesterday?
Dnes proti JihlavÄ› nastoupà po 284 dnech trvajàcà pauze Jaromàr Jà¡gr! pic.twitter.com/Y6IfK8u2AN
— RytàÅ™i Kladno (@RytiriKladno) December 16, 2020
He actually had an assist
Jaromir Jagr is 48 years old and still dishing out assists. 😱
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) December 16, 2020
ðŸ“½ï¸ via @RytiriKladno pic.twitter.com/o4SbRcBmPA
He was still decent his last year in the NHL. No doubt in my mind he’d still be an improvement on a few NHL rosters even at age 48. In fact, I’d rather have him than Kovalchuk.
Thanks for reading!