Evan Rodrigues didn't want to leave Pittsburgh.
Rodrigues, 29, signed a one-year, $2 million deal with the Avalanche in September after spending the previous 2 1/2 years in Pittsburgh
"It's the business of the game," Rodrigues said of how the last offseason went after Colorado's morning skate at PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday. "It's a place that I loves, my family loves. It would have been great to come back. But there's obviously more to hockey than just wanting to be there. There's the business side and things didn't work out. But I don't have one negative thought, one negative thing about the city or organization. ... I think I took the next step in my career while I was here, especially last year. We absolutely loved it here and loved everything about it, all the guys in the room. It was an awesome, awesome time."
Rodrigues credits his time in Pittsburgh with being big for his confidence, most so early last season. The Penguins had a number of forwards out due to injury, and Rodrigues was thrust into a top-six, top power play role.
"I proved that I have the ability to play in this league and contribute," he said.
It's fair to say that the change has gone well for Rodrigues. He ranks No. 7 in scoring on Colorado with 11 goals and 15 assists in 37 games. He's filling the same sort of role that he did in Pittsburgh, a versatile forward who can play center and both wings up and down the lineup.
I asked Avalanche coach Jared Bednar what kind of an impact having Rodrigues has had on his team.
"Huge," Bednar said. "We've gone through some injuries to our top-six forwards, and he's a guy who has stepped in and played top-line, second line, first power play, second power play, he's done some penalty-killing for us. He's done a lot of really good things for us. You guys know him well -- he's a guy who can play with high-end skilled players and help your team produce offense and still be a responsible checker for us. I like the way he plays with the puck -- he manages it, takes care of it, makes plays with it. It's always a positive."
It's the same kind of review Mike Sullivan had of Rodrigues' time in Pittsburgh.
"ERod was a great player for us," Sullivan aid Tuesday. "He was a real versatile guy. I think his versatility is one of his greatest strengths, he was a guy that we moved all around the lineup. He can play center, he can play wing, he can kill penalties, you can put him on a power play. He played on our top power play unit at times. We moved him all over our lineup depending on what the need for the team was at that time. That was one of the values that he brought to our group. He's a real competitive guy, he's got a high hockey IQ. He was a real good player for us, and I know he's bringing the same to the Avs."
There was a steady stream of Penguins players making their way over to the Avalanche's bench at the optional morning skate to catch up with Rodrigues and give him hugs and fist bumps. Tristan Jarry, Mak Friedman, Danton Heinen, Kasperi Kapanen, Marcus Pettersson and Teddy Blueger all made their way over there at some point, with big smiles all around as they caught up with their former teammate.
TAYLOR HAASE / DKPS
Mark Friedman hugs Evan Rodrigues at the Penguins' morning skate on Tuesday.
TAYLOR HAASE
Tristan Jarry hugs Evan Rodrigues at the Penguins' morning skate on Tuesday.
"It's good," Kapanen said of getting to catch up with Rodrigues at the skate. "I haven't seen him in awhile, and he's obviously playing well. He's a great guy, we miss him. It'll be fun to see him out there."
"He's an awesome guy," Blueger added. "Obviously we miss him around here. It's good to see he's doing well and enjoying it and stuff over there. It's good to see old friends and stuff, always good to catch up."
When a visiting team has a morning skate, there are usually two buses that go to and from the arena and hotel before and after skates, with one bus being on the earlier side. Rodrigues said that he's usually a later bus kind of guy, but he made sure to take the early bus to PPG Paints Arena this morning to have a little fun with his former teammates. He knows that the Penguins players play a game that's a combination of soccer and tennis prior to skates, so he wanted to get to the rink early and mess with the net setup a little, and leave some notes behind for his former teammates.
"It's been awesome," Rodrigues said of the opportunity to see some of those guys. "I saw a lot of them this morning. A lot of good memories the past couple of years."
MORE FROM THE SKATE
• Casey DeSmith will start. Dustin Tokarski will back up.
• Tristan Jarry and Jan Rutta both joined the team for the optional morning skate, the first time either of them rejoined the group. Jarry only took shots from the group toward the end. Rutta wore a regular jersey, but Sullivan wasn't sure yet if that meant he had been cleared for contact, because he hadn't spoken with the medical staff yet. A regular jersey doesn't always mean something in an optional morning skate because there isn't much contact to begin with.
• Josh Archibald and Kapanen will both play tonight. The Penguins could afford both and clear a roster spot by either sending Drew O'Connor down or simply moving Jarry to regular injured reserve, for which he's already fulfilled the minimum time requirement.
• Kapanen on how he feels coming back from injury: "A little rusty, obviously after being away from the ice for some time and not really getting any team practices before that with the injury. But now coming back, I feel great. First skate today, I feel good."
• Participants in the optional morning skate were Jarry, Tokarski, Friedman, Heinen, Kapanen, Ryan Poehling, Rickard Rakell, O'Connor, Pettersson, P.O Joseph, Rutta, Evgeni Malkin and Blueger.
• Backup Pavel Francouz starts in net for Colorado.
