For some people the first thing that comes to mind when players like Brandon Sutter, Nick Spaling, Daniel Winnik, Max Lapierre, and Craig Adams leave is who is going to penalty kill?
The answer is always the same from me. Anybody can do it. It is just a matter of the coach giving the player the opportunity to do it. Over the course of history coaches have elected to use their "specialists" in this role probably because they were scared to play them at even-strength and didn't want to run the effective even-strength players into the ground with too much ice time.
Now that we are shifting towards having four lines of usable even-strength players you have the ability to allocate shorthanded ice time to players that previously didn't see as much duty in that area.
Let's be honest, getting your body in a shooting lane and a stick in a passing lane while letting the team pass around the perimeter is not a difficult concept to grasp. If the worst players in the NHL can be considered "specialists" at it then maybe we overrate the difficulty of said skill.
Here is a quick look at the forwards who had at least 50 minutes of shorthanded ice time last year and are no longer with the Penguins compared to some of the new arrivals.
The three players who will be joining Pittsburgh's 2015-16 lineup are actually better at both even-strength play as well as playing on the penalty kill.
I included Pascal Dupuis because he basically missed the entire season last year due to his blood clot and is basically like a new player being added to the roster.
Sidney Crosby doesn't log a ton of shorthanded minutes and did not hit the 50 minute threshold for this chart in 2014-15. However, over the past two seasons in 61 minutes of penalty killing duty he had a Fenwick Against per 60 of 68.29.
It is likely that Chris Kunitz will no longer be on the first power play unit. He can make up those minutes by playing on the PK. In the last eight seasons he has only played 214 minutes shorthanded, but his Fenwick Against per 60 is a Penguins best 60.41 during that time frame.
Likewise David Perron only has 154 minutes of shorthanded ice time in his career but he carries a very impressive Fenwick Against per 60 of 56.84.
In 173 minutes Evgeni Malkin sits at 63.46 in his career.
Then there are wildcards such as Sergei Plotnikov, Oskar Sundqvist, Conor Sheary, Scott Wilson, and Bryan Rust fighting for roster spots.
I do consider Plotnikov a wildcard because nobody knows how his game will translate to the NHL. He could fall anywhere from being Malkin's left wing to being cut from the team. He has the following clause in his contract in case the latter becomes the reality.
Plotnikov’s contract also includes a European Assignment Clause, which allows him to return to KHL if he doesn’t make #Pens (or is demoted)
— Mike Colligan (@MikeColligan) July 4, 2015
Artemi Panarin of the Chicago Blackhawks has a similar clause in his contract.
The point that should be taken away from this blog is if you acquire solid players at even-strength throughout your lineup and play some of them on the penalty kill you'll do way better than relying on specialists who can't hack it during 5v5 action.
The forwards that played the big minutes on Pittsburgh's penalty kill last season won't be missed at all.
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Brand new Hockey Hurts Podcast discusses the Brandon Sutter trade, Eric Fehr signing, as well as other extensions (Voracek, Johansson, Stepan) You can find that here
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