One of Ron Hextall's goals this past offseason was to make the Penguins "heavier" on the backend. He made his first step toward doing so by signing Jan Rutta to a three-year, $8.25 million ($2.75 AAV) on the first day of free agency.
"We feel Jan is a really good penalty-killer," Hextall said after the signing. "He's a real solid guy to play with really any left-hander on our team. We feel like it's a good addition to our team, and we feel like we got better and added a little bit of the girth that we feel like we need in front of the net and penalty-killing situation. So we liked the add."
Through the first 16 games of his contract, Rutta has played the second-most minutes while short-handed on the Penguins and has been one of their most consistent and reliable defenders at even-strength.
The two-time Stanley Cup champion with the Lightning -- and former partner of Victor Hedman -- has come as advertised. Really, he's been even better than that.
Never looked at for his offense, Rutta has two goals and two assists this season. He isn't much of a shooter, either, as he has just 13 shots on goal, but he doesn't need to shoot the puck a whole lot to be effective or have a strong impact. With him on the ice at 5-on-5 this season, the Penguins have scored 71.5% of the goals, the second-highest mark among Penguins defensemen behind P.O Joseph (74%), and they have generated a sturdy 57.3% of the expected goals, the third-highest mark among Penguins defensemen behind Marcus Pettersson (58.1%) and Joseph (57.7%).
It's interesting that Rutta's on-ice goals share exceeds his expected goals share because that's a trend that has persisted his entire career. In some cases it has been significant like it is now, though it won't remain to that degree forever. I originally suspected this was due to playing with high-end talent that could out-shoot expected goals totals in Tampa Bay, as he spent his fair share of time on the top pairing, but the two forwards he has shared the ice with the most at 5-on-5 this season are Brock McGinn and Ryan Poehling, hardly two players who carry the same finishing ability as the likes of Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov.
It's likely that Rutta is and has been benefitting from strong goaltending, but it's also possible that expected goals models are slightly underrating his defense, since his on-ice goals against rates typically check in below expected.
We still don't have enough of a sample from this season for the various isolated impact models to be all that reliable, but thanks to a combined sample from this season and last from JFreshHockey, we can get an idea of how a player's impact is trending to start the new season by using prior information to add on top of the current season's info.
Here are the changes in Rutta's isolated impact in various components compared between the 2021-22 season by itself, and a combined sample of 2021-23:
• Even-strength offense: 26th percentile to 36th percentile (+10%)
• Even-strength defense: 62nd percentile to 72nd percentile (+10%)
• Shooting: 46th percentile to 66th percentile (+20%)
On a $2.75 million cap hit the Penguins, would have been just fine to get the same impact from Rutta as he provided the Lightning last season, but he's actually performing better than they could have hoped for. It's also encouraging that he's trending upward despite being at the age where defensive-minded defensemen start to see rather significant declines. One thing that Rutta might have working in his favor is that despite being 32, he has only 254 regular-season NHL games under his belt.
Whether models are underrating Rutta's defense or not, he has been on the ice for the lowest rate of expected goals against among Penguins defenders this season, as opponents are generating just 2.29 xG per hour at 5-on-5.
Rutta is a solid in-zone defender. He's not the most prolific skater, but his long, powerful strides help him stay latched onto attackers while he uses his stick to annoy the crap out of them as they try and make a play. One thing I really enjoy about his game is that he rarely misses an opportunity to engage in contact, even if it's slight. I don't advocate for unnecessary hits or contact, but there is something to be said for having someone like Rutta who embraces the physical component on a team of players, who, let's be real here, aren't all that interested in playing the body over trying to make plays on the puck.
Another factor to Rutta's strong defensive impacts, though, is simply keeping the puck out of his zone and away from his net before the opposition can even set up shop:
All that was needed for the Penguins to take possession of the puck and transition up ice was Rutta subtly interfering with the Capitals skater closest to the puck as it came his way, allowing his Penguins teammates to swoop in and head out of the zone. Rutta's stick detail is better than I originally thought, and his strong and sturdy lower-half allows him to maintain balance and a forceful base as he engages physically.
After the Penguins attacked the other way and created several chances, Rutta then displayed a nice ability to hard stop and go back against the grain to step up on a Capitals trying to get out of the zone, forcing him to relinquish possession out to the neutral zone.
I've been impressed with Rutta's ability to process the game, as well. He seems to have found a nice balance between taking his chances to pinch and knowing when to hang back.
In this instance, Rutta's well-timed pinch prevented the Maple Leafs from exiting as the Penguins quickly turned the play into a positive offensive sequence, coming close to a decent chance.
As you can see there, and in the previous clip, Rutta isn't afraid of the opposition burning him. He's not sacrificing any positioning the same way other bigger defensemen might to prevent rush opportunities. He knows the value of killing the play as early and as far away from your own net as possible.
There are countless examples already of Rutta perfectly timing himself down the right wing boards to apply pressure and muck up the opposition's plans. It's leading to quite a bit of extra zone time for the Penguins:
Ever play little league baseball or softball? There was always that one kid on every team who wasn't the best player, but you could always count on them to be sure-handed in the field and they typically came up with a hit when you needed one at the plate.
That's been Rutta for the Penguins.
He's been so steady, so reliable. The Penguins are prone to making unnecessary mistakes, but Rutta hasn't played a part in that. He knows what he is and doesn't try to do too much. He takes what the game gives him, as Mike Sullivan loves to say.
Just look at the way he handled the puck under pressure, not throwing the puck away even though nothing was there:
That's a great job to get the puck off the wall and out front of his body while turning to face up ice rather than letting the forechecker goad him into a compromised position in the corner. And then how about that smooth skating? Those hip turns as he went heel-to-heel keeping the forechecker honest aren't something you see from every defenseman of Rutta's style.
While he's never going to put up many points or set up many chances directly, he's surprisingly competent with the puck on his stick in the offensive zone. Again, nothing flashy or high-end, just getting the job done, as he did here, setting up Jason Zucker for a near chance following a faceoff:
There's purpose and intent there, too. The same purpose and intent he applies to his physical engagements.
As I noted earlier, he doesn't shoot a whole heck of a lot, but he doesn't hold back when he does:
Rutta, quite frankly, was a luxury signing for the Penguins this offseason, so it's nice to see him providing a bit more than what was originally expected.
He hasn't had to step up into larger minutes much at all playing behind Kris Letang and Jeff Petry on the right side, but he's showing that he can handle a bit more if it were to come his way. If nothing else, he's providing the Penguins with some flexibility if it's needed.
One thing to monitor moving forward is that Rutta has played more than 35 games in a season just twice, and more than 57 games once, which was last season. I mentioned earlier that his relatively low number of career games might be prolonging an inevitable drop-off from Father Time, but it'll be interesting to see if playing a full season for the second time in a row will have effects on his performance further down the line.
Whether or not that comes to light, right now the Penguins are solid as a rock on their third pairing anchored by Rutta. He's proving to be a nice complement to the game the Penguins are trying to play.
