Pittsburgh players may have been given the day off yesterday but the front office was hard at work locking up three of their younger forwards each to a two year deal.
.@penguins ink a trio of young players to 2-year contract extensions pic.twitter.com/UhyeH6b6r9
— Penguins PR (@PensPRLady) March 14, 2016
All three deals begin with the 2016-17 season and run through the 2017-18 campaign. The Rust contract has an average annual value of $640,000, while both Wilson and Kuhnhackl have average annual values of $625,000.
Best case scenario is that each of these players continues to progress and become regular contributors to the Penguins bottom six forward group at a very low cost. Worst case scenario is that they provide the organization with depth they can recall from WB/S when injuries hit. Here is how they have fared at the NHL level this year
The red line signifies what the average third line caliber player can produce at the NHL level. As you can see these three players aren't quite there yet in the small NHL samples.
The good news is that they are a tremendous upgrade from past bottom six forwards the team has employed. None of them drown on the possession front in fact two of the three have done a marvelous job in this regard.
At the very least the Penguins are playing with the puck in the other team's zone more often than not with Wilson and Rust on the ice. Kuhnhackl has been able to break even so far. Not bad for ~600k.
If I had to power rank these players right now it would go Scott Wilson, Bryan Rust, Tom Kuhnhackl. I believe Wilson has the most potential to increase his offensive output at the NHL level.
Beau Bennett has been upgraded to contact at practice. Coach Sullivan calls Bennett's recovery a "work in progress".
Bennett "a work in progress." Neither docs nor Beau have come away confident about every one of his workouts.
— Bill West (@BWest_Trib) March 15, 2016
When Bennett is ready to return to game action I would replace Kuhnhackl.
Here are the lines from practice today. Scott Wilson remains out with an undisclosed injury
Today’s forward lines →
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 15, 2016
Kunitz-Crosby-Hornqvist
Hagelin-Bonino-Kessel
Simon-Cullen-Rust
Kuhnhackl-Fehr-Sheary
Bennett
Defense pairings remain the same. Pouliot and Lovejoy are the extra pairing.
Tonight's opponent, the New York Islanders, played last night against the Florida Panthers winning by a score of 3-2. The Islanders have a game in hand on the Penguins and a four point lead in the standings. If the Penguins want to keep the pipe dream of sliding into third place alive they need a regulation win tonight.
Pittsburgh will play four of their next five games at home.
Pittsburgh will look to earn their first three game winning streak since late October/early November when they won six games in a row and nine of ten.
Detroit and Philadelphia play tonight so at least one team is going to come up with two points and at least keep pace with Pittsburgh. The Penguins will be hoping that this game does not go to overtime.
Here is your daily look at the playoff race
Eastern Conference Playoff race:#NHLplayoffrace pic.twitter.com/rjyVQYTT2o
— Damian Echevarrieta (@Ech28) March 15, 2016
Daniel Sprong continues to rip up the QMJHL like everybody thought he would.
Congratulations to Daniel Sprong on being named the QMJHL Second Star of the Week. Release: https://t.co/WpiPqyujtI pic.twitter.com/yEddHVOsMP
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 14, 2016
He has 44 points in 31 games. His team has qualified for the playoffs, but I think I speak for most people when I say I hope that playoff run is short so that Sprong can become eligible to join the Baby Penguins and play some meaningful hockey again.
There seems to be a perception that Evgeni Malkin hasn't been durable in regards to the Penguins playoff runs. This hasn't been the case.
Pens have played in 108 playoff games since 2007. Malkin has been healthy enough to play in 101 of them. Unfair to question his durability.
— Josh Yohe (@JoshYohe_PGH) March 13, 2016
If you do the simple math that is a total of seven games missed. These all occurred during the 2010-11 season when Tyler Myers blew out Malkin's knee after collapsing on him.
Thanks for reading!