Granlund focusing on faceoffs after shift to center

NEW YORK -- Mikael Granlund hadn't played much center in recent years.

He has pretty extensive experience at all three forward positions in his NHL career, but had been used primarily as a wing during his time in Nashville before being acquired by the Penguins in a deal ahead of the NHL's trade deadline earlier this month.

Granlund started out as a wing with the Penguins too, but has switched to center as of late after Nick Bonino's kidney laceration created an opening -- and a need -- for a center.

Granlund has acquitted himself well at center so far. As he gets more comfortable taking faceoffs again, he could perhaps become the Penguins' go-to faceoff guy, a role currently filled by Jeff Carter.

Granlund spent limited time at center for Nashville this season before the trade, and he struggled in the faceoff circle in those games. His 43.26% success rate (122-160) was the worst of his career.

Since moving to center in Pittsburgh, though, Granlund has fared pretty well at the dot with a 51.56% success rate (33-31).

"I played center almost half of my career, so it's nothing new," Granlund told me after practice Friday in New York. "It's a part of the game that's maybe not the best thing that I have, but I've been working on that. There have been some good games. There's a lot of good centers in the league. It's a huge thing in hockey, it helps you if you can win a faceoff. I really to focus on that every day."

Granlund had some good years in the faceoff dot in past years in his career -- 55.2% in Minnesota in 2017-18, 52.6% in Minnesota in 2013-14, and 51.55% in Nashville in 2020-21. In moving back and forth between center and wing often throughout his career, he's learned that sometimes it just takes some time to settle back into a groove and get strong with taking faceoffs again.

"The more you get reps, the more comfortable you get, the easier it gets" he said. "There's nothing that's that big of a thing, it's just the more reps you have."

Granlund's game-by-game breakdown in faceoffs in Pittsburgh is pretty interesting. He was pretty average for his first two games at center, then Tuesday against Montreal he went a perfect 12-0, quite literally the best performance in any game in faceoffs by a player in franchise history:

"That was really nice, to be honest," Granlund said of that game with a big grin. "It's good to have those nights, it makes you more confident about that. But sometimes it can go the other way, too. There's a lot of good centers in the league, that's always the first battle of the shift."

Thursday night against the Rangers was one of those games in which Granlund was back to below average in draws at 2-8.

Right now the Penguins' go-to guy with faceoffs is Carter. For the start of overtime or a key draw in a close game, it's Carter who gets sent onto the ice, even if it means he has to get right back off after the draw. That's for good reason, too. Among forwards who have at least 600 minutes played this season and at least 100 faceoffs taken, Carter ranks sixth in the entire league with a 58.96% success rate. Sidney Crosby ranks No. 2 on the team at 53.27%, while Evgeni Malkin sits at 50.76%.

Mike Sullivan was asked prior to Thursday's game if he would be comfortable having Granlund be someone that takes those key faceoffs, and Sullivan didn't rule it out.

"Well, he's getting better," Sullivan said. "His last game (against Montreal) was his best in the faceoff circle. He hasn't played a ton of center this year, but he's played a lot of center in Nashville. I'm familiar with his coach there (John Hynes) and was able to have a conversation with him to try to help us as a staff on how we want to handle Granny. I think just the more he gets in the circle, I think he'll get better at it. But certainly his last game was his best and we're hoping he can build on that."

The Penguins are expected to get Bonino back from his lacerated kidney before the end of the regular season, and he'll certainly slot back into one of the two bottom-six center positions when he's back. If Granlund can keep getting better at draws, it would give the Penguins the real option to keep him as a center, and the flexibility to shift Carter over to wing ... or perhaps, the press box.

MORE FROM PRACTICE

• Jeff Petry remained sidelined with his upper-body injury suffered in Thursday's loss. Sullivan said he's still being evaluated.

• Kris Letang missed practice too, Sullivan said his absence was a maintenance day.

"We understand who is playing a lot," Sullivan said. "That was one of the reasons why Kris didn't practice today, for example. We're going to manage the workloads as best we can. But the priority is trying to win games, we're going to put guys on the ice that give us the best chance to win."

• These were the lines and pairings with no Petry or Letang. The forward lines were the same as the ones they finished Thursday's game with. Chad Ruhwedel slotted in where Petry was, and Danton Heinen filled in for Letang.

Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell
Jason Zucker - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust
Drew O'Connor - Mikael Granlund - Alex Nylander
Ryan Poehling - Jeff Carter - Josh Archibald

Marcus Pettersson - Danton Heinen
Brian Dumoulin - Chad Ruhwedel
P.O Joseph - Jan Rutta

• The top power play was Marcus Pettersson, Crosby, Malkin, Jake Guentzel, Rickard Rakell.

• The second power play was P.O Joseph, Bryan Rust, Carter, Jason Zucker, Granlund.

• I asked Brian Dumoulin what happened on the game-winning goal by Chris Kreider, where there was a battle in front of the net and Dumoulin ended up getting knocked over by Kreider.

"I was trying to block the shot that was coming in front of the net," Dumoulin said. "Trocheck just tipped it and it hit me. As I tried to turn, (Kreider) tripped me a little bit. A bang-bang play, what can you do? ... I wasn't trying to look for (a penalty), it is what it is."

• Always entertaining watching Zucker during the power play work. Whenever the second unit scores -- whether he scored it or not -- he has to celebrate for a minimum of 10 seconds:

• Practice was at Chelsea Piers due to Madison Square Garden preparing for a 1 p.m Saturday Knicks game. The best part about practices in places where players have to be bused over in their gear is the wheeling of the goalies:

• There were a bunch of beer league guys waiting off to the side for the Penguins to stop practicing so they could get on the ice. One was in a Capitals Carl Hagelin jersey. Malkin skated up to the glass next to him, and the man turned around and showed Malkin who was on the back of the jersey. Malkin was amused and cracked a smile:

TAYLOR HAASE / DKPS

Evgeni Malkin and a Carl Hagelin lookalike watch the Penguins practice Friday in New York