COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Penguins' worrisome secondary scoring was addressed with the acquisition of two-time 30-goal scorer Rickard Rakell in advance of Monday's 3 p.m. NHL trade deadline.
After consecutive seasons of career-worst finishing impacts and shooting percentages in 2019-20 and 2020-21, Rakell, who turns 29 in May, is having a solid bounce-back campaign in the final year of his contract.
Scoring at a 25-goal pace over an entire season, Rakell initially figures to slot in alongside Evgeni Malkin, paving the way for Bryan Rust to return to the first line, but for a team that has struggled to convert their chances this season, Rakell's scoring touch will likely be felt no matter where he lines up.
This iteration of the Penguins, and most to precede it over the past decade, has been susceptible to over-complicating on the attack and looking for one too many passes. That speaks to the sheer talent of the team's stars, and can even result in some of the most gorgeous hockey you've ever seen, but there's other occasions where they become predictable and easy to defend if they're not completely dialed in.
Rakell should help the Penguins' occasional pass-happiness. The 16.2 shot attempts per hour he's taking at five-on-five this season puts him second among Penguins players (Drew O'Connor - 17.4), and his rate of 0.8 goals per hour at five-on-five places him ahead of ... Sidney Crosby, Rust, Jeff Carter and Kasperi Kapanen.
Even if that doesn't sniff the torrid scoring rate from his early twenties, it'll do just fine for what the Penguins need.
Rakell's primary assist rate of 0.32 per hour this season is currently the lowest of his career. Part of that can be attributed to hockey voodoo correcting for the career-high rate he posted last season, and partly due to spending 499 of his full-strength minutes this season with Trevor Zegras, who thrives as a puck-carrier and passer.
There is no denying Rakell's nifty hands -- I mean, look at this:
Between the legs, in stride, right around the defender and putting the puck on a platter? Yeah, nifty.
Or how about this assist where he dares to drive the middle while threatening a shot with the puck in his hip-pocket:
Defenders have to respect Rakell whenever he has the puck loaded, so when they sell out and open up passing lanes it's nice to see that he can make slippery passes under pressure.
That said, his overall passing numbers have been poor along with his primary assists rate. Rakell ranks in just the 15th percentile of passes that directly lead to chances at five-on-five, visualized in the lower left of the following microstats chart from JFreshHockey and AllThreeZones:
JFreshHockey, AllThreeZones
Again, that could have something to do with flanking a center that always has the puck on their stick like Zegras. It might also be an effect of his linemates not doing a great job of getting into prime scoring areas enough when he does have the puck.
But individually, Rakell has been very good at finding open ice and working his way to the prime scoring areas as he ranks in the 84th percentile of taking shots off high-danger passes.
The Penguins did acquire him to score goals, after all.
Often times, the difference between being locked down and having just enough space to operate can be a slight change of pace or a subtle lane shift. In the following clip, Rakell did both, and found himself in perfect position for a one-timer that was promptly blown past the goaltender:
And that's precisely what he did: blew it past the goaltender. A rocket.
Rakell has a somewhat rare combo of a really heavy release while also possessing pinpoint accuracy from below the tops of the circles.
You'll predominantly see him use two shooting styles to get such a quick release and power. The first of which is very similar to the cross-body sweeping shot that the Canucks' Elias Pettersson deploys with regularity:
Rakell had the puck in his hip-pocket, but his hips were also angled slightly toward the puck instead of facing the net directly. As he swept his blade across the wheelhouse, he transferred his weight to his outside leg and swung it out front on the followthrough.
It can be immensely difficult for the goalie to read, especially if the shot is kept at waist-height because the difference between going far-side or short-side is a simple wrist curl at the tail end of the sweeping motion.
Here's a behind the net view of what that looks like ... and an example of Rakell's ability to dangle out of pressure:
The other style you'll see from Rakell is when he plants all of his weight on his inside leg with the puck in his hip pocket. As he gears to shoot, he pulls his top hand up away from his body to act as a lever to snap the puck forward. Because all of his weight is on his inside leg, he can essentially lean on his stick while shooting to create downward force and more torque. Combine that with his lethal accuracy and goaltenders are left wondering whether to cry or wind their watches:
Thought that shot was impressive? Check out when he does it with his momentum taking him away from the goal:
That's just sick. And the shot isn't the only thing to love about the goal. He took an indirect route to end up in the slot relatively unmarked and was able to take a pass that handcuffed him and immediately get it to a loaded position in his hip pocket.
Need any more convincing this guy can wire the puck?
The most important thing for Rakell to be successful with the Penguins is for him to continue finding ice where he can utilize his shot. I've just got a feeling that Malkin guy might be able to draw some attention away and make a few ridiculous passes to connect with him. Just a feeling.
Defensively, Rakell grades out below-average and has for most of his career. It isn't a major problem, and shouldn't be anything noteworthy as long as he is putting the puck in the net like he's shown in the clips above.
Does the addition of Rakell push the Penguins over the top as legit Stanley Cup front-runners? Probably not. But Ron Hextall believes the Penguins are better postured for a run now than they were over the weekend -- you’d have a tough time claiming otherwise.
