With Phil Kessel now an Arizona Coyote, the Penguins have a potentially gaping hole on the power play.
If they’re going to maintain their top-five power play (24.6 percent success rate in 2018-19) — and cut down on their league-leading 15 short-handed goals allowed — they’ll need Evgeni Malkin to do a better job with the man advantage. Last year, Malkin registered 2.3 goals per 60 minutes of power-play ice time (down from 2.9 in 2017-18, and his lowest rate since 2014-15) and 6.7 points per 60 minutes (down from 8.0 in ’17-’18). He also committed 3.4 giveaways per 60 minutes of time on the PP, a huge uptick from 2.5 the previous season. Malkin could stand to make better decisions with the man advantage, but also show a little more aggression: He took 15.5 shots per 60 minutes, compared to 17 or 18 shots during his higher-scoring PP seasons.
MORE PENGUINS
• Will Schultz cash in? Few Penguins have more to play for in 2019-20 than defenseman Justin Schultz. The Oilers castoff reborn in Pittsburgh as a quality top-four blue liner, Schultz enters a contract year and is still young enough (29) to think that he could actually get a raise on his $5.5-million average annual value. To get that fat contract, however, Schultz will have to prove that he’s past the gruesome broken leg injury that limited him to 29 games played this past year. After he returned to the ice, Schultz wasn’t his usual self. He appeared on the score sheet often enough (0.52 points per game, above his 0.46 career average), but seemed to struggle when he didn’t have the puck. With Schultz on the ice during five-on-five play last season, Pittsburgh surrendered 36.1 shots against (30.7 against with Schultz skating from 2015-16 through 2017-18) and 28.5 scoring chances against (26.6 from ’15-’16 through ’17-18). The Penguins generated 7 percent fewer shots than their opponents with Schultz skating at even strength last year, compared to about an even shot share the previous three years. With a full offseason to heal and train, there’s plenty of reason to think Schultz will fully return to form. But he has a lot riding on proving he’s past a potentially career-altering injury.
• Working from home: While a couple of the Penguins’ recent bigger-money deals with defensemen haven’t worked out (the Jack Johnson free agent signing, and Olli Maatta contract extension), Brian Dumoulin is earning his keep. Sure, Dumoulin — signed for $4.1 million per year through the 2022-23 season — doesn’t tally many points (0.3 per game last season, 0.23 for his career), but he’s a major part of the team’s transition game and he’s one of the best defensive blueliners out there. Last year, Dumoulin ranked 15th among NHL defensemen in defensive point shares, a Hockey Reference stat that measures the number of points in the standings that a player contributes with his goal-prevention skills. Dumoulin’s D was worth five points last year, per Hockey Reference, up from three in 2018-19. Entering his age-28 season, Dumoulin looks to be in peak form.
