Blake Comeau was a great free agent signing this past offseason by the Pittsburgh Penguins. For 700k they received a player who has 12 even strength goals on the year which is tied with Sidney Crosby for second overall on the team only trailing Evgeni Malkin’s 14.
This was a great unexpected surprise but I’m still hesitant on him being a permanent fixture on the Malkin line.
Comeau missed a good chunk of time with injury this year which has allowed Malkin to have a similar sample size playing without Comeau. Malkin has played 375 minutes at even strength with Comeau and 421 minutes without him.
Here are the possession metrics for those samples along with Beau Bennett whose sample size is obviously much smaller due to his own injury issues.
When I saw a ~8% difference in Malkin’s CF% based on Comeau’s presence on his line I thought it was worth mentioning because that is a pretty large discrepancy.
Bennett’s main asset are his hands and his vision. Currently he is playing with players that do not play to his strengths.
If Blake Comeau can sustain his career high shooting percentage this year (15.7% vs career average of 10.2%) the possession stuff will matter less. However, if his hot shooting does slow down he may not be the best fit for the Malkin line.
I would give Bennett some time on the Malkin line in order to see if it works. If it doesn’t you can place Comeau back on the Malkin line. No harm no foul.
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