On Monday I talked about the Penguins most likely to make a jump in the 2020-21 season so today I will be doing the opposite. Which Penguins is poised to see a drop from 2019-20? My selection isn’t clever or a deep dive. Sometimes obvious things are obvious. I think Bryan Rust is the likeliest candidate to see a drop.

This is by no means saying he is going to be bad in the upcoming season. He is still going to provide value at the 3.5M he makes and will more than likely remain a good value. Last year he was amazing value and it is a tough standard to uphold when we are talking about somebody with a 17.9 shooting percentage. Rust has a very good career percentage at 12.4. Maintaining last year’s pace, or should I say expecting it, isn’t fair to any player in the league. For comparison sake Leon Draisaitl has the highest career shooting percentage among active players at 16.85. So while Rust is good. It is doubtful he is that good.

Independent, of what is fair to Bryan Rust the Penguins might need Rust to be amazing again because as of right now he is the alpha among Penguins right wing players. Kasperi Kapanen, Brandon Tanev, and Evan Rodrigues round out the other likely options. It might not be enough for Pittsburgh for Rust to have an average goal scoring season. What if it is below average? The Penguins are really banking on Rust not having logical regression and it places a huge burden on the 28 year old winger.

The one thing Rust has going for him is he will always be playing with a great center so he has a puncher’s chance to repeat, albeit unlikely.

Thanks for reading!

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