Among the Penguins' group of able-bodied depth forwards is newcomer Ryan Poehling, whose trajectory and on-ice impact remains inconclusive after an up-and-down start to his career.
Poehling, 23, stormed onto the scene with a hat trick in his NHL debut with the Canadiens at the end of the 2018-19 season. In 84 games since then, he's found the back of the net just 10 times, nine of which came during the 57 games he played last season. He also picked up nine assists (eight last season) during that time.
A former first-round pick (No. 25 overall) in 2017, Poehling's pre-draft scouting report described him as a "strong skater who can dangle, dazzle and hit." He hasn't proven to take over games the way he did at lower levels, but upon reviewing the video from last season, there are glimpses of the creativity he used to display with regularity.
For now, the most likely spot in the Penguins' lineup for Poehling to end up would be on the left wing of the fourth line. He has played only center in the NHL thus far, but said he is comfortable on the wing when he virtually met with reporters following his acquisition. He figures to be the first one called upon to shift to the middle if any of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jeff Carter and Teddy Blueger are out of the lineup.
At 6-foot-2 and 196 pounds, Poehling's physical presence doesn't instill fear into his opponents by any stretch of the imagination, but his willingness to engage in contact while utilizing his long reach presents the opportunity for him to potentially serve as the Penguins' net-front forward on their second power play unit.
Assuming the Penguins' top power-play unit remains unchanged from last season, all of Carter, Rickard Rakell, Kasperi Kapanen, Danton Heinen and Jason Zucker, along with Poehling, are candidates to join Jeff Petry on the second unit.
Right off the bat, the idea of reducing Carter's minutes to keep his legs fresh for the duration of the season sounds extremely enticing. I believe there's a path to him being more impactful than he was down the stretch of last season, and that starts with decreasing his usage. If 38-year-old Carter averages the fifth-most minutes per game of Penguins forwards again like he did last season, there might be trouble.
Carter frequently stationed the net-front on the power play last season, so swapping him for Poehling wouldn't affect the composition of the rest of the unit. Even if Poehling is playing on the wing at evens, he can take relatively infrequent faceoffs on the power play. His 45.8% success-rate at the dot over his career is quite a drop-off from the 57% success-rate Carter posted last season, but Carter might see that figure regress next season as it was just the second time he checked in over 52% since 2014-15.
It's not as if Carter was wildly productive in that role, either. His three power play goals last season outranked Poehling by a lone goal, but he played nearly double the minutes. If things are an absolute disaster with Poehling in place of Carter, the Penguins could always revert back. Mike Sullivan and co. have an entire 82-game season to tinker and figure out how to get the most from each and every one of their players.
Poehling showcased great hand-eye coordination and stick detail on quite a few of his 13 career goals. He can really fire the puck with time and space, no doubt, but it wouldn't shock me to see him make more of a name for himself by scoring goals with deflections and tip-ins.
That, in addition to his size, ability to play through contact and knack for finding gaps in coverage in small areas is why I believe he could provide some value on the power play:
Abandoned at the front of the net by the Blue Jackets' defense, Poehling perfectly placed himself in front of goalie Elvis Merzlikins to partially take his sightline away in advance of a shot. Poehling gave Merzlikins just enough room to maneuver before flashing in front of him as the shot came through. This is obviously important because he completely blocked Merzlikins' vision for a moment, but perhaps an even bigger factor to the puck ending up in the back of the net is that Poehling's quick flash went against the grain of the shot's direction. That's ... a goalie's nightmare.
Poehling also did a good job to present and keep his stick right in the middle of the ice even as his body went to the left of the crease. An aggressive target will yield better deflection results than a flimsy target that sits back and isn't clearly presented to the shooter or passer.
Being able to identify and recognize open pockets of ice will lead to more uncontested tip and deflection attempts and, while he won't be confused for Jake Guentzel in that regard, Poehling has shown capability in doing so:
Just textbook stuff there. Move the puck low-to-high forcing defensive coverage to shade further from their net, then slip into the vacated area uncontested. Boom. Sometimes it's that easy. Brownie points for another brilliant flash in front of the goaltender as the shot made its way to the cage.
Last season Poehling generated expected goals at the fourth-highest rate among Canadiens forwards to play at least an hour with the man-advantage. Even though the rate at which he shot (11.5 attempts per hour) was a mere fraction of the rate of his teammates, he plugged his way to strong chance-creation by shooting, or in some cases redirecting, exclusively from the most dangerous area of the ice.
Here's a chart of Poehling's unblocked shot locations on the power play last season, courtesy of Evolving-Hockey:
Evolving-Hockey.com
Squares (unblocked shot attempts) are scaled to their expected goal (xG) value. Bigger = higher probability of becoming a goal.
With extra room to operate on the power play, there's a greater chance for cross-ice, backdoor passes. Poehling's stick detail comes into play here yet again. Sometimes the pass is too hot or simply off the mark, but some players struggle to get a good chunk of their stick on the puck to convert. I haven't found that to be an issue for Poehling.
The following clip occurred at even-strength, but it's easy to see how the skill Poehling displayed here is applicable on the power play, as well:
Again, Poehling used his reach to extend his stick and present a target for the puck-carrier before making solid contact with the puck and adding enough finesse to place the puck upstairs.
As an aside, I really like how Poehling motored his way around a defender on his way into the zone. He threatened the middle with a couple strides, then changed lanes and took a wide angle as he powered his way to the backdoor.
The impact of Poehling's size and reach doesn't stop there, as both will aid him in corralling loose pucks in traffic jams around the crease and front of the net. Unlike some players who have rangy appendages, Poehling has the hands and skill to do something with it:
At the end of the day, the Penguins' second power-play unit isn't going to see the ice a ton, anyway. A newfound positive contributor there isn't going to have a significant effect on the outlook of the season.
That said, making room for Poehling as the net-front guy on the second unit could pay dividends in more ways than a handful of extra goals. On top of the reasons we discussed as it pertains to keeping Carter's legs in a good place, some power play production might provide the confidence Poehling needs to put the rest of his game together and become a potential third-line scoring option.
In the meantime, Poehling could play a very unique role in which some of his best skills and attributes are leveraged.
