So far this season, the Penguins have had an up and down year. They started out really bad and were 7-12-4 and at the very bottom of the league and the Eastern Conference. That is mainly due to the fact that there are certain players on the roster that have gotten way too much ice time, and that needs to change.
Those players include Ryan Graves, Matt Nieto, and Drew O'Connor, all of these players are ones that need to see the bench more for different reasons.
Graves is what he is and needs to see the bench more
Right now, the Penguins have no choice but to insert Ryan Graves into the lineup because Owen Pickering and Marcus Pettersson are out with injuries. That is very unfortunate because if everyone was healthy, Graves would not be playing.
Graves to Penguins fans and most NHL fans in general, is what he is. He is not good against top line competition and if you are going to play him, he needs to be in a sheltered bottom pairing role.
He needs to see the ice less and less as the Penguins go into the new year and go on later into the season. They need to bench him as soon as Pickering and Pettersson get back because Graves is a major weakness on defense.
What is wrong with Drew O'Connor?
There is something majorly wrong with Drew O'Connor. He is not nearly the same player that he was last season and he is even playing with Evgeni Malkin.
Something is not adding up. He is always over skating or making the wrong play or thinking way too hard about what to do when he is on the ice. This is not the DOC that the Penguins knew last season that was super quick and had quite the wrist shot.
Drew O’Connor has reached a 30 game goalless streak. The scoring drought is insane.
— krissy ☃️ (@cptkrissy) December 24, 2024
DOC not scoring in 30 straight games is a major cause for concern and is a major reason he needs to see less ice time going into the new year and the rest of the season.
Matt Nieto only plays a lot because he is a veteran and blocks youngsters that deserve it more
Matt Nieto had a tough road back from major surgeries, but since he was put back into the lineup. He really does not do a lot of things well outside of penalty killing.
Dubas has said many times the Pens need to get younger. He had the opportunity to claim a 24 year old former first round pick in Wahlstrom and chose not to.
— Bill (@WV8771) December 14, 2024
Yet we have 32 year old Matt Nieto playing on the fourth line. The blind loyalty to Nieto is odd.
Everyone knows that Coach Sullivan loves his veteran players but Nieto either needs to sit in the press box for a while or only see like 5 minutes a night because he does not do much at all to help the team.