Here we go again. Trade rumors about one of the best Penguins players instead of trade rumors about the ones that don’t help the team. This time it is Kris Letang and wait until you hear some of the comments from team sources. They are maddening and hold parallels to how Evgeni Malkin was talked about last year
Yeah, being subjected to trade rumors is part of the experience when you are an NHL player. We’ve all heard the “even Wayne Gretzky was traded” line a million times. It doesn’t mean you should subject one of your players to the stress that comes with trade rumors. Especially when it is a core player and you are entering your final years as a win now team! I detest what Evgeni Malkin has gone through with these stupid rumors and I feel the same about Kris Letang.
But neither ownership nor management believes the Penguins will be better without Letang, who has two years remaining on his contract. And the return of Todd Reirden as assistant coach is the first part of the Penguins’ plan for Letang to “be that guy again,” a team source told The Athletic.
“If I’m running things in Pittsburgh, I’m looking at Letang and thinking about what my team would be if he got back to having great years,” one league source said. “And why wouldn’t Jim (Rutherford) or (Mike Sullivan) think that way? Didn’t they have the same thought a year ago about Malkin? And didn’t they figure it out with him?
“Be that guy again” Just stop it. What a complete joke. Listen, I’m all for Todd Reirden coming back as an assistant coach, but the idea he needs to be some kind of Kris Letang whisperer is comical. If Letang can “be that guy again”? “Got back to having great years?” “ Figuring it out with Malkin?
What are you watching? What don’t you understand about this sport? How dumb are these people? I really mean it. How dumb are these people? Can they not see the obvious?
“The way I see it, Pittsburgh is doing with Letang what it did to Malkin a year ago — get through to him, get him to change some things and get him back to where they need him to be,” one league source said.
“That’s why Reirden is back. I guarantee that’s what went into Jim’s thinking.”
How about this, how about you stop playing Jack f’n Johnson with your best players and then pretend like they need to improve and have a bounce back season. This is the same exact crap we went through with Evgeni Malkin last year. The same exact crap. Evgeni Malkin didn’t have a bounce back season this year. He got to play with Kris Letang and Jake Guentzel! Kris Letang is a huge reason why Sidney Crosby is able to do the things he is able to do. Kris Letang makes every forward’s job easier.
You want to know why ignorant people have the perception Letang needs to bounce back? He had to play with Jack Johnson for a month and change. He had to play almost as much with Johnson as he did without. It has happened again. Jack Johnson has broken the brain of hockey men into believing the really awesome player needs to improve. Look at the contrast and tell me it doesn’t boil down to the simple conclusion that Jack Johnson can ruin even the best players in the league.
Letang without Johnson is an elite player. It has been true for a decade and it was true last season.
With him it is below average offensively which is damn near impossible to accomplish. The defensive results are horrid, which isn’t the case away from Johnson.
STOP PLAYING YOUR BEST PLAYERS WITH JACK JOHNSON AND THEN PRETENDING LIKE THEY NEED TO BOUNCE BACK THE NEXT SEASON
It is rubbish. It is a completely crappy way to treat your best performing employees. It is a completely crappy way to treat the players that have propped you up your entire tenure as GM. It is astounding how poorly Jim Rutherford treats some of these players. He leaves them to flap in the wind when they have kept him from looking even more foolish than he has the last few seasons.
“Letang is still their best defenseman,” one league source said. “If he’s lost a step, I didn’t see it. Maybe a half-step? But I didn’t see a guy who looked noticeably different as a skater.”
At least one league source doesn’t have their head up their ass. Hopefully the GM removes his head at some point.
Thanks for reading!
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»