COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The name Evan Rodrigues most likely wouldn't ring a bell with most casual NHL fans. After all, Rodrigues, 28, has found the back of the net just 37 times over the course of his 240-game career with Buffalo and Pittsburgh.
Not only did Rodrigues center the Penguins' first line in their past two games against Tampa Bay and Toronto, it appears he's slated for more top line duty as Sidney Crosby's right winger.
The decision to do so, though curious, and likely temporary, has merit.
You may recall Rodrigues starting the 2020-21 season flanking Crosby. The duo, alongside Jake Guentzel, had rotten finishing luck in their 73 minutes together at five-on-five, but controlled play in a big way with a 61.3% expected goals share, per Evolving-Hockey.com.
Individually this season, Rodrigues is tied for the Penguins-lead in points (5), and has sole possession of the team-lead in shot attempts (30) and expected goals (2.52).
His five-on-five shot locations have been especially encouraging, per HockeyViz.com:
HockeyViz.com
The trigger-happy forward also has some of the league's best on-ice metrics through the first few weeks of the season.
In 76 minutes with Rodrigues on the ice at five-on-five, the Penguins have outscored the opposition 3-0. In doing so, they controlled 63.9% of the shot attempts and 68.3% of the expected goals. Those marks put Rodrigues second and third, respectively, among all NHL forwards to play at least 60 minutes at five-on-five this season.
Through six games, the Penguins are generating offense at a much greater rate with Rodrigues on the ice than when he's off the ice, an indicator that he's been a driving factor to his on-ice success.
HockeyViz.com
The offensive generation has been far beyond what you could ask for with Rodrigues on the ice, but even more impressive has been the Penguins' ability to fortify the net-front and slot area in the defensive zone during his ice time.
HockeyViz.com
The obvious caveat is that this is a six-game sample. The results at both ends of the ice won't hold up to such an extent forever, but that shouldn't diminish his performance thus far.
How has Rodrigues gone from career bottom-sixer, to someone the Penguins rely on to play a solid two-way game at the top of the lineup?
DEFENSIVE FUNDAMENTALS
Rodrigues is a sound positional player in the defensive zone. He's great at understanding how board battles in the corner will develop and uses that to his advantage to timely swoop in and snag loose pucks before hitting his wingers at the half-wall for exits.
That said, I believe the way he defends through the neutral zone has more to do with his impacts than his in-zone play:
As Tampa Bay skated the puck through the neutral zone, Rodrigues skated with the flow of the puck, allowing him to change direction much easier without losing momentum, unlike if he were to have been facing the puck-carrier head-on.
Once the Tampa Bay attacker had gained the zone and made a move around Chad Ruhwedel, Rodrigues recognized the opportunity to step up, and was able to do so quickly because he never stopped skating forward.
He then lifted the stick of the attacker and swiped the puck away all in the same motion before turning on the jets to get up ice.
In the following clip from the same game, Rodrigues defends his assignment through the neutral zone in very similar fashion:
It might seem elementary, but the difference between skating forward and skating backward while defending in the neutral zone can be the difference between a routine entry denial and an odd-man rush.
OFFENSIVE INSTINCTS
One of the things I love about Rodrigues is that, despite his eagerness to shoot, he doesn't throw the puck away at the first sign of trouble.
Due to the nature of the sport, players often believe they have less time to make a play than they really do. This leads them to throw the puck away in situations where their best bet was to hang onto the puck and pick their head up.
Rodrigues exemplified what could happen if you quit whacking at the puck under pressure:
Even though he found himself facing the corner of the offensive zone with the puck in front of him and three Toronto defenders on his tail, Rodrigues hung onto the puck long enough to pick his head up and scan the ice to find Guentzel at the circle for a one-timer.
In some cases, that puck is getting rimmed around the boards as a free clear for the defending team.
Rodrigues knows that getting to the slot to score goals is a priority, and that's why you can constantly find him battling at the front of the net or working his way to the slot in the offensive zone:
Rodrigues successfully snuffed out Tampa Bay's attempt to reverse the puck to the weak-side of the ice by winning a foot-race, as well as using his body to separate the puck from pressure while making a pass.
The Penguins then worked the puck down low, as Rodrigues noticed the open path to the slot and took it, firing a shot that narrowly missed the mark.
In the next clip, Rodrigues recognized that he had the inside track on the weak-side Tampa Bay defender, so he isolated the strong-side defender with a center-lane drive that resulted in a good look out front:
To bring his entire game together, Rodrigues has been playing with a ton of confidence:
Rodrigues was able to get around the flat-footed Tampa Bay checker with a beautiful hip-turn as he gained the offensive zone.
Swarmed by defenders at that point, Rodrigues did a good job to pull a subtle toe-drag that led into his shot, which allowed him to open up a shooting lane from a rather dull situation.
That's the kind of play you see from someone who has the utmost belief in their abilities.
Like I noted earlier, this solution isn't likely to be permanent, especially if Bryan Rust is back sooner than later. However, Mike Sullivan's favorite utility man hasn't looked out of place in the slightest through the early goings of this season, and should do just fine alongside Crosby.
