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The Penguins now have their front office in place and now the organization can start to seriously look at some of the personnel decisions that are on the horizon.
One of the more interesting situations is the pending unrestricted free agency of skilled winger Jussi Jokinen. Making negotiations even more interesting is the fact that Jokinen’s old GM who basically gave him away is now the one calling the shots in Pittsburgh.
Jussi Jokinen was one of Ray Shero’s better moves from the past few seasons and it is a move that probably would have never happened if not for Sidney Crosby breaking his jaw.
Jokinen came out guns a blazin’ for the Penguins at the end of the 2012-13 regular season. Jokinen scored 7 goals in his first 10 regular season games in Pittsburgh. Inexplicably Jokinen was a consistent healthy scratch in the playoffs as Dan Bylsma went with more gritty but less skilled players in the lineup. When he did see game action it was mostly on the 4th line.
In the 2013-14 regular season Jokinen was promoted as the left winger on the Evgeni Malkin line and he performed admirably in that role. Jokinen was 5th on the Penguins with 57 points and also chipped in with 21 goals. This was Jokinen’s best offensive year since the 2009-10 season in Carolina when he recorded 30 goals and 65 points.
Also impressive was Jokinen’s possession rate. Jokinen had a Fenclose% of 55.7% which was 3rd best on the team behind Pascal Dupuis (57.7%) and Beau Bennett (56.8%). Jokinen definitely benefited from playing with Evgeni Malkin but he was a great compliment to a great player. Jokinen sees the ice extremely well and was able to consistently get the puck to Malkin on his forehand with speed. Jokinen has an extremely high hockey IQ and it shows when he plays with other skilled players. Being able to create time and space for himself and others is an extremely valuable skill set when the players who benefit most are as physically gifted as Malkin and Neal.
In the playoffs this year nobody scored more goals for the Penguins. Jokinen led the Penguins with 7 goals and his linemate Evgeni Malkin was right behind him with 6 goals.
So the question is, do the Penguins make an aggressive effort to keep Jokinen? Was Jokinen just hot at the right time? Would the Penguins be buying high?
Yes and no. As you can see Jokinen has been up and down throughout his career with his offensive outputs. There aren’t many plateaus on this chart which means Jokinen’s production from year to year is different for good or bad. Usually these trends are correlated with his fluctuations in shooting percentage. There is an exception to the rule though and that was the 2013-14 season.
Jokinen saw his shooting percentage drop as well as his goals per game in in 2013-14 but his points per game climbed. This is encouraging if you want to keep Jokinen around. He wasn’t totally reliant on being a hot shooter like he has in the past. Being able to produce offense even with a dropping shooting percentage is a good sign. It opens the door for Jokinen to have a career year if he has a year in which his shooting percentage climbs again.
So all of this is pretty good, what’s the catch?
There is no doubt that other teams saw what Ju$$i Jokinen has done with the Penguins and there will definitely be a good number of potential suitors that will pay him accordingly.
Jokinen was a steal for Pittsburgh, only coming in at a 2.1M cap hit. This is going to at least double if the Penguins want to retain him. There is no doubt in my mind he could fetch a 5.0M per year contract if he wanted to. Could he stay in Pittsburgh for less? Probably, but that most likely means a contract in the neighborhood of 4.25-4.75M.
Is that worth it to the Penguins?
It might be considering they aren’t exactly busting at the seams with proven top 6 wingers who can produce with one of the big 2 centers. As far as how long of a term Jokinen will be looking for I don’t have a good grasp on that. If Jokinen could stay in the 3 year range that would make the most sense for the Penguins, but it would be understandable if Jokinen is looking for longer. If he wants 5 or more years it will be tough to justify the Penguins investing into another player that will be in his mid-thirties during his contract.
Paying Jokinen to stay will have ramifications, it will obviously mean the Penguins cannot go after some of their other unrestricted free agents, namely Matt Niskanen and Brooks Orpik and I am fine with that.
I think Jokinen is one of the more important players the Penguins should look at retaining. I believe Jokinen would be the player whose loss they feel the most if he signs elsewhere.
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Former Penguins Head Coach Dan Bylsma has a new job and it is not coaching another NHL team, yet. He has signed on to join the NHL Network with their coverage of the Stanley Cup Final. He will begin tonight during Game 3.
@TPBderek NHLN Host: "Dan, If you were the NY coach what changes would you make to counter the Kings?" Bylsma, "None."
— Ben (@BenK84) June 9, 2014
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Myself and Cameron Walsh discuss the new Penguins front office as well as the Stanley Cup Final in this week's Hockey Hurts podcast.
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Thanks for reading!
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