Former Pittsburgh Penguins in the Playoffs

The Pittsburgh Penguins are on fire, making their presence felt in the playoffs. Recent trades have played a big part in getting them to this point.

The Pittsburgh Penguins had a major midseason turnaround thanks to a coaching change and a series of trades. Every one of the trades and lineup moves that happened this year positively impacted the team, and it’s hard to believe how well most of the players fit in in Pittsburgh.

Even with only eight teams remaining, there’s a lot of former Penguins making impacts of their own in the postseason. In the end, the team we have is the best it’s been in years. I don’t really want any of these guys back on the team – but it’s interesting to look at how these former Pens have prospered (or not) since leaving.

Let’s stick with the Eastern Conference first. The team we’re playing now, the Washington Capitals, famously has quite a few former Pens. Brooks Orpik, Matt Niskanen, Taylor Chorney, and Daniel Winnik are all “rocking the red” after spending varying amounts of time in the black and gold.

Orpik has served two games of his three-game suspension for interfering with Olli Maatta, and Niskanen hasn’t made much of a positive impact in this series yet either. He did prevent a Carl Hagelin goal in the last game, but that’s about it. Chorney – well, I hear his name a lot during the games, but I don’t really know what he does, if anything. Winnik is as much of a pest as ever.

So, basically same old, same old.

Thomas Greiss has taken over the starting goaltender job for the New York Islanders with Jaroslav Halak out with an injury, and he’s exceeded all expectations. He was an adequate backup for us, but nothing really special. However, he’s shown his merit for the Isles, and helped them win their first playoff series in decades.

That other New York team, the Rangers, have Tanner Glass, who’s still doing his general Tanner Glass thing and not being very successful on the ice while still inexplicably making the lineup. We eliminated them, but hey, why not mention it anyway. 

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All of these players were actually free agents, meaning we didn’t actually trade any but allowed them to walk and move to another team in search of a better contract (looking at you guys, Orpik and Niskanen). The Western Conference paints a little different picture.

James Neal has been a veritable force for the Nashville Predators, even getting named an alternate captain during his first season there. Surprised? I was too. I still am, a little. But like, proud-surprised.

(Another side note: the Preds knocked out the Anaheim Ducks in the first round, which included Simon Despres and David Perron. Despres was traded for Ben Lovejoy, and Perron for Hagelin earlier this season. Hagelin’s been a great surprise, scoring seven game-winning goals since joining the Pens.)

Anyway, Neal scored a last minute game-tying goal last night that sent the Predators and San Jose Sharks into a triple overtime showdown. The Preds won what became the longest game in franchise history as a result.

In return for Neal, we got Patric Hornqvist and Nick Spaling. Despite the not very nice things I may have said about Hornqvist before in the aftermath of that trade, he fits our team better than Neal. He’s a great fit on Sidney Crosby‘s wing and gets down and dirty in front of the net while taking (probably) fewer dumb penalties than his counterpart.

Spaling was part of the trade with Toronto that saw Phil Kessel shipped to Pittsburgh. While Spaling never made a huge impact with the Penguins, he was a reliable third-liner and was useful if not outstanding.

Incidentally, Spaling himself is still in the playoffs with San Jose. Paul Martin is also a new Shark, part of their top defensive pairing along with Brent Burns. I miss Martin a lot, but fully concede that we’re a better team without him. Still, I’m happy to see him doing well with his new team, even though teal clashes horribly with his hair.

Robert Bortuzzo is also still in the playoffs with the St. Louis Blues. We sent Bortuzzo west in exchange for Ian Cole a couple of trade deadlines ago. Cole has actually been really productive in the playoffs for us, blocking shots and reliably being a gritty back-end presence.

Though he doesn’t quite bring the size and physicality Bortuzzo had, and both are still kind of on the edge of the permanent lineup, I’d say we won that trade too.

Finally (if you want to go a little further back), Alex Goligoski is still in contention as a member of the Dallas Stars. Their defense hasn’t been great in recent years, but it hasn’t been quite as much of a liability this season as usual. Goligoski, of course, was traded for Matt Niskanen and James Neal back in the day.

Next: Penguins Finally Won in Overtime... Without Big Guns

“Well, why do I care about the former Penguins who are still in the playoffs?” you may ask. “They have nothing to do with our team anymore.”

That’s fair. You may not care about them. But it shows that this playoff push isn’t a fluke – this team has been strong and has had effective players in the system for years. These former Penguins were instrumental in earlier success and were also useful pawns for building the current team.