The Penguins have had a track record of leaping into mid-tier contracts ~4M with their young defensemen under Jim Rutherford. They’ve done it with Olli Maatta, Brian Dumoulin, Marcus Pettersson, and now John Marino
The Penguins have re-signed defenseman John Marino to a six-year contract extension.
The deal begins in 2021.22 and runs through the 2026.27 season, with an AAV of $4.4 million.
Marino has one year remaining on his entry-level deal.
Out of the four defensemen who have earned this mid-tier contract John Marino’s numbers have been the most impressive. I feel like this is the best bet of the bunch.
John Marino (6x4.4m extension with Pittsburgh) is a shut-down defender with good penalty-kill impacts and a very good shot. pic.twitter.com/ulonrwpCG7
Statistically he was not only one of the best defenders in the league, he was the best sitting in the 100th percentile. Even if you believe in a “sophomore” slump it would be quite a fall from grace to all of a sudden become a bad defender.
Offensively, he is mediocre, but that is fine when you are lights out defensively and strong in other areas. When I see Marino in the 39th percentile offensively, but also 88% for goals and 96% for primary assists it leads me to believe his tangible offense could potentially drop this year after having 26 points in 56 games. He made the absolute most of his offensive opportunities. His next area of growth will be to create more of those opportunities so the offense can further improve. This is one area that would be great to see some improvement on.
The term of the contract is great as it takes Marino to 30 years old. The 4.4M cap hit is great unless you believe Marino’s season was a total mirage, I don’t. My only concern with this Marino deal doesn’t have anything to do with Marino at all. I hope the team doesn’t think that he can step up and become a #1 defender at the moment. Kris Letang is the rightful holder of that title and is still playing amazing hockey. Right now the Penguins have a wonderful one-two punch on the right side of their defense and it will only cost about 12M. They should keep it that way for the foreseeable future. Just sit back and enjoy. Many teams would love to have a pair of right handed defenders like Letang and Marino.
Jim Rutherford has given and acquired a lot of sketchy contracts the past couple of years. The John Marino contract isn’t one of them.
You know what you are
You’re gonna be a star
All the way to Marino
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