Pittsburgh Penguins Thriving Without Core Players

The Pittsburgh Penguins are the hottest team in the NHL right now. Even with two of their star players on the injured list, they’ve turned into the team to beat.

Every team in every sport has its core group of players. These players are the ones the team revolves around and are often the building blocks for the future. They are the best players and strongest leaders and are invaluable assets for their team.

These core players are the face of the organization and the front office usually wants them locked in for a long time. Trades aren’t entirely off the table, but they’re unlikely and usually only at the request of the player.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have two of the greatest forwards in the entire world in Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Top defenseman Kris Letang might be the man to beat for the Norris Trophy this year. Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury not only keeps the team atmosphere light but also keeps the team in games when they aren’t playing their best.

Together, these four players compose the Penguins’ core.

Crosby is, of course, the captain of the team while Malkin is one of the alternates. They are often referred to as the “two-headed monster,” a dual-line offensive threat with even more fearsome chemistry when put together.

Their contracts also make up a major part of the Penguins’ total salary cap – so let’s take a look at those.

According to generalfanager.com, Crosby is signed through the 2024-2025 season with an annual cap hit of $8,700,000. When he becomes an unrestricted free agent (UFA), he will be nearly 38 years old. He also has a full no-move clause (NMC) through the duration of this contract.

Malkin makes even more money than Crosby does (in part due to Sid’s superstition about the number 87). Geno is signed through the 2021-2022 season, with his own NMC and an annual cap hit of $9,500,000. He will be nearly 36 when his contract expires, but has a potential signing bonus of $5,000,000 in the two final years.

Letang, the Penguins’ top defensemen, is also signed through the 2021-2022 season with a NMC and partial no-trade clause (NTC). His annual cap hit is $7,250,000, and he will have just turned 35 when this contract ends.

Fleury is the oldest of these core players at 31 and his contract expires the soonest in 2018-2019. His annual cap hit is $5,750,000 and he too has a NMC and limited NTC. When it ends, he will be 34: an age that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be washed up, but an age that is certainly past a goalie’s prime.

Tossing these numbers around is all well and good, but what does it mean for the team? You’d expect that they’d be playing their best hockey when all four players are in the lineup and leading, on and off the ice. Earlier in the season and frequently throughout the past few years, that was the case.

However, thanks to moves by general manager Jim Rutherford that increased the leadership and experience on the team in addition to Mike Sullivan‘s effective coaching, that’s not necessarily what’s happening at present. As fearsome as the Pens are with a healthy roster, they’re more than adept without.

Malkin is on the injured reserve list with an upper-body injury and will not return until the second round of the playoffs; meanwhile, Fleury was recently diagnosed with a concussion (his second of the season) and is busy recovering from that. Given how many serious injuries Crosby and Letang have also suffered in the past (multiple concussions for both, broken jaws, strokes…), they’ve had comparatively healthy seasons.

In Malkin’s earlier absence, Matt Cullen moved up to center the second line. Wily and experienced, Cullen has been a great surprise for the Pens. Now, Nick Bonino is centering the second while Cullen is on the third.

Neither of these players can really replace Geno or what he brings to the game, but Bonino is doing a stunning job in the meantime. The second line of Phil Kessel – Bonino – Carl Hagelin is one of the strongest in the entire NHL: fast, sturdy, and deadly accurate with the puck.

Bonino is not as fast as Malkin is, nor as good at quarterbacking plays. If he was, his contract would be just about as sizable! However, he has such great chemistry with his new linemates that some have suggested bumping Geno down to the third line – yes, you heard me right – when he returns.

This idea has its merits, true, but there is something inherently blasphemous about putting Evgeni Malkin on the third line. Every Penguin, Bonino included and perhaps Crosby most vehemently, will tell you that there is no replacement for Malkin on the team or in the league.

On the other hand, Sullivan has proved to be a disciple of the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” style of coaching. When Justin Schultz was picked up from the Edmonton Oilers at the trade deadline, Sullivan waited several games to insert him into the lineup. The team was winning and he didn’t want to disrupt an effective roster, but after a loss (and probably Rutherford’s urging) he played Schultz and hasn’t looked back since.

In Sullivan’s system, there have been a lot of odd men out. Geno will never be superfluous in Pittsburgh, of course, but every player has developed into an effective contributor, forcing the coaching staff to make some tough decisions.

If the Penguins make it through to the second round of the playoffs and get Malkin back this season – which seems increasingly likely, based on their scorchingly hot play – it will be interesting to see what Sullivan does. Realistically he’ll probably put Geno back in his normal spot on the second line and shunt down Bonino and Cullen, but what if he doesn’t?

Geno’s a core guy in Pittsburgh and he’s said time and time again that he wants to stay in the Steel City and play alongside Crosby. It’s unlikely and probably alarmist to think that he would be unhappy enough playing behind Bonino to request a trade. The team can and will alter enough in the next several years that Malkin will still be the second-line center.

But what about Fleury? Early in the season when he was out with a concussion, the team completely imploded. Pens fans (myself included) went into full panic mode. Backup Jeff Zatkoff was posting some “save of the year” candidates but wasn’t consistent enough to put up wins. Young Matt Murray had minimal NHL experience before his call-up despite his sky-high potential.

Now Murray has leapfrogged over Zatkoff to steal the backup position, and with Fleury out has even become the starter. It’s clear that Murray is being groomed as the heir to Fleury’s throne down the line.

The Penguins’ front office protected Murray like fierce guard dogs at the trade deadline with that end goal in mind. The fact that they have a starting goaltender on an entry-level contract’s salary is quite the coup, and Murray is showing why he was named the top AHL goaltender last year.

He played back-to-back games last weekend, one of which sealed the Penguins’ playoff berth and the other that saw the Pens crush their cross-state rivals. He allowed only 2 goals to the 10 that his team scored, and picked up his first NHL shutout in the process.

Not bad, kid.

People have been calling for Fleury’s head for years, that’s nothing new. In the past, though, that was mostly due to his perennial playoff collapse. Since seeing a sport psychologist, he has done a complete 180 from the weak link in the playoffs to the team savior.

Now fans are already so confident in young Murray’s play and development that some think that Fleury is no longer needed. While a trade within the next year or two wouldn’t make much sense, there is increasing potential for him to be moved before the expiration of his contract.

Murray is only 21 now and his future is incredibly bright. Fleury, ten years older, is one of the most agile and athletic goaltenders in the league. However, if you compare him to similar goalies in the recent era, he’s probably just past the peak of his career.

He could prove to be a Roberto Luongo as the years draw on, but who could claim to see that far ahead now? Lu turned 37 today and is a major reason why the resurgent Florida Panthers made the playoffs this year. Yet when he goes down with injury or has a rough game his team has a difficult time rebounding – an issue the Penguins have rarely had under Sullivan.

Let me make clear that the bright future of the Penguins is not coming at the cost of their current team. That much is especially obvious from their play as of late. It’s phenomenal that Pittsburgh is such a deep team that they can still succeed with two of their core players out of the lineup. It’s exciting to look at the team’s future and see how professional and talented the up-and-comers are.