Reports from Michael Russo out of Minnesota were that things were souring with Jason Zucker and the organization. He was right.
The first round pick, whatever. It is even lottery protected
Alex Galchenyuk, definitely whatever. He was terrible in Pittsburgh. He couldn’t even live up to the billing of being a “poor man’s Kessel”. He is yet another player who didn’t make it a year with the Penguins after being acquired.
Calen Addison, oh well. In his 19 year old season and hasn’t shown any growth offensively. Points are far from the only way to evaluate prospects, but let’s be honest the scouts who put a ton of effort into this stuff don’t exactly bat 1.000 either. For a player who is supposed to make his living moving the puck and facilitating offense it isn’t a great sign to see the offense stagnate in his overage season. As mentioned above John Marino makes waiting on Addison non-essential.
The Penguins traded a negative asset in Galchenyuk, a first round pick that would never be ready when they needed it, and a right handed defenseman who’s offensive production has stalled in juniors and would have to climb above Kris Letang and John Marino. The Penguins get a much needed winger who plays a style that should fit in quite well. Jim Rutherford acquired Zucker once, this time it actually worked. When Rutherford gets fixated on a player he usually sticks with it.
Here is a look at Zucker this year and his last three
Zucker has had some injuries this year and hasn’t been at his best. He was also well aware the team tried to trade him in the summer and I can’t imagine the working environment was helping things. Zucker isn’t a magic bullet for the Penguins. He’s an average winger who can skate and those are the types of players who fit the winning script in Pittsburgh. He was a need for the Penguins. I don’t think the assets given up do anything to harm the Penguins and what their target goals are.
Most years Zucker contributes offensively at 5v5. He does have some years where he disappears into below third line level production.
Zucker is 28 years old and will have a 5.5M AAV this year and then the following three. The price the Penguins paid was because of the term Zucker had. I don’t doubt Chris Kreider was a player the Penguins liked, but he was a rental and the price tag might not have been far off. Here’s a potential look at the top nine given who is available :
Zucker-Crosby-Hornqvist
McCann-Malkin-Rust
Aston Reese-Blueger-Tanev
Dominik Kahun coming back opens up the possibility for McCann to go back to playing center, perhaps with Dominik Simon and whoever else they choose to go with. A fully healthy Penguins team (haha) has a lot of forward options to choose from. If they can survive long enough for a Guentzel return they will be a handful to deal with in the playoffs.
Thanks for reading!
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