Slow goings while we wait for Sidney Crosby to sign his expected extension with the Pittsburgh Penguins. So I figure why not take a trip down memory lane with some player cards from yesteryear.
The player cards start in 2007-08, which was the Penguins first trip to the Stanley Cup Final in the Crosby/Malkin/Letang era. This was the year the Penguins traded for Marian Hossa and rode Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Marc-Andre Fleury, and Marian Hossa to the final. It was a remarkable achievement considering the team’s underlying numbers weren’t all that great under Michael Therrien. The star players played like stars.
I’m going to start with some forwards from this year and focus on the defense on a different day. Let’s start with the main players in Ray Shero’s big blockbuster trade for Marian Hossa
You can understand why the Penguins were interested in Hossa. They were looking for a winger for Crosby and did quite well. While Hossa was injured for most of the regular season with the Penguins he went on a tear in the playoffs with 12 goals and 26 points in 20 games. Hossa wasn’t quite the well-rounded player he is known for being in 2007-08. He got better in the following years after he departed the Penguins. Still a wonderful trade for Ray Shero and Pittsburgh
Colby Armstrong was the main forward the Penguins traded away to the Atlanta Thrashers for Marian Hossa. I remember at the time there was a sizeable portion of the fanbase bent out of shape they would get rid of Armstrong. Colby was a decent depth forward, but he was no #wingerforSid. It was a no brainer to include him considering how good Hossa was. It is also great having Colby back in Pittsburgh covering games in present day.
Erik Christensen was the other forward given up in the Hossa trade. Christensen had a nice wrist shot and was a depth player for the Pens. His real value came in the shootout where he was one of the absolute best in the league. His forehand, backhand, forehand release was so simple yet highly effective. He nailed the placement time after time getting it above the pad and below the arm.
At the time of the trade nobody was predicting the path Dupuis’ career was going to take as a Penguin. He was the throw-in and an afterthought. He started on the Crosby and Hossa line in 2008, but ended up as a defensive fourth line player on the depth chart playing with Miroslav Satan and Craig Adams. As we know he regained his spot on the Crosby line with Chris Kunitz and were one of the most productive lines of the Crosby era.
This one surprised me a little bit. Sykora was a top six winger for the Penguins and scored the famous Game 5 goal in the Stanley Cup Final in triple overtime. I had the perception he had a little more offensive juice than the 1% showing here. Making up for this was his 90th percentile in finishing. it kind of makes Malkin’s performance this season all the more impressive considering he didn’t get a ton of help from sykora. Malkin was in the 99th percentile for offense and 98th percentile in finshing. Sykora was hurt in the 2009 playoffs which opened the door for a guy by the name of Maxime Talbot to play on the Malkin line.
Lastly, we have the homegrown Penguin, Ryan Malone. During the darkest years of the Penguins Malone was one of the lone bright spots. His contract was expiring and he was without an extension when they made the Stanley Cup Final. He was certainly a positive contributor and a guy the Penguins would have loved to have kept. In his final year with the Penguins he had 27 goals and 51 points in 77 games. He added six goals and 16 points in 20 playoff games. The issue was the raise he was seeking and the cap at the time. The upcoming 2008-09 season saw the cap rise to 56.7M. Ryan Malone’s seven-year deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning paid him an AAV of 4.5M. That was ~8% of the salary cap at the time. The Penguins couldn’t justify that number and wisely walked away.
The plan is to do a few seasons of this with the forwards and defense in each specific year. Stay tuned.
Thanks for reading!
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