One of the Pittsburgh Penguins biggest strengths as an organization is their wealth of young puck moving defensemen. This wealth was acquired by Ray Shero through both drafting and trades. Some people think that Shero went overboard on acquiring defensemen and there is valid arguments to support that theory.
That argument is also strengthened when you look at moves that brought in Doug Murray and Mark Eaton, two players who blocked the playing time of young puck moving defensemen like Simon Despres.
In July of 2013 Shero once again went to the veteran well instead of trusting his drafting strategy, he signed Rob Scuderi to a 4 year 13.5M contract.
Scuderi did not have a good 2013-14 season in his return to Pittsburgh. It included a broken ankle and subpar play throughout the year.
This chart is pretty straight forward. Scuderi is propped up by every single player with the exception of Brandon Sutter. Scuderi's numbers plummet when he is playing away from the other guys on this chart. When the other players get away from Scuderi their numbers climb. Scuderi was an anchor, the kind that holds you down and doesn't let you go.
Fast forward to this year and there has been talk of a bounce back season for Scuderi. And this is sort of true, it just depends on the context you use. It is a bounce back year if you are using Rob Scuderi as the standard. It is not a bounce back year if you consider the amount of young defensemen that are stuck behind him for playing time that could do just as well, if not better.
The numbers are a little bit better but the same concept applies. With the exception of Nick Spaling all players do better away from Rob Scuderi than they do with him.
Rob Scuderi has been predominately paired with Simon Despres. I believe Despres has done a very nice job this season and I think he could be even better if he didn't have to play all of his minutes with Scuderi (out of Despres 465 min at 5v5 he has played 343 with Scuderi). You can see the positive influence Despres has on Scuderi.
Simon Despres has been one influencing factor in Scuderi's slightly better possession numbers but there is also another factor at play as well, his usage.
As you can see there really isn't any blue regardless of what season you look at. That is bad.
One change you can see is that he is facing easier competition and more offensive zone starts this year. He is being sheltered more these days and that is the correct approach if you are going to have him in the lineup.
Is Scuderi having a better 2014-15 than 2013-14? Yes. Is he a positive influence on his teammates this year? No. Is he blocking a roster spot for other young puck moving defensemen? Yes.
The contract he signed in 2013 doesn't look any better today than it did at the conclusion of the 2013-14 season.
Thanks for reading!
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