Pittsburgh doesn’t play again until they welcome back Marc-Andre Fleury and the Vegas Golden Knights. They’ll have plenty of time for practice and today it appears they will have time to try out a new defensive pair
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Guentzel-Crosby-Hornqvist
Hagelin-Malkin-Kessel
Simon-Brassard-Rust
Cullen-Sheahan-Sprong
Dumoulin-Letang
Johnson-Schultz
Oleksiak-Riikola
Maatta-Ruhwedel
-SK
Yes, the fourth defensive pairing includes Olli Maatta. Yes, this is only a Monday practice in October. Yes, this is the time of the year for overreactions based on small samples. Yes, I’m going to make one right now.
The Penguins don’t view Jack Johnson as a depth defenseman. They view Brian Dumoulin as a top pairing defenseman. Where does that leave Olli Maatta for the long term? I’ve certainly advocated in the past that you could probably get more value in a trade with Maatta because of his perceived value, but I never thought that Jack Johnson would be the one replacing him.
Sullivan: “We try different pairs daily to see what we might find and what chemistry may develop. What we decide ultimately to go with on Thursday (vs Vegas) will be decided Wednesday night.… -SK
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) October 8, 2018
From my years of observing Olli Maatta I have the belief that he is a chameleon. When he is partying he over drinks like the crowd. In hockey he plays to the level of his partner.
We saw him rise to prominence when he was in a sheltered pair with a talent like Matt Niskanen. We saw him do well with Kris Letang in 2015-16. We saw him play poorly with Trevor Daley when Pittsburgh PDO’s to a second consecutive Stanley Cup. We saw him “rebound… last year without Daley while he was playing with Justin Schultz. Having him play with Jack Johnson is going to have the Daley impact, not great. If he truly is a chameleon perhaps playing him with Letang isn’t such a bad idea. If Brian Dumoulin is as good as people say he is then he can play with Justin Schultz and that will also be a solid pairing. This of course leaves Jack Johnson on the bottom pairing and that is where we run into problems again because I don’t believe the team views him as such.
Juuso Riikola is going to play into this situation. If the Penguins eventually view him as a bottom pairing defenseman and they refuse to view Jack Johnson in that regard then you have a situation where Olli Maatta could become potential trade bait.
We’re so early into the season and we won’t have enough information to make informed decisions until later during the holiday season. I would keep an eye on this situation. It has potential to be a big talking point this year.
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