One of the best wingers of one of the best eras of Penguins hockey will be returning to Pittsburgh this evening as a visitor. Jake Guentzel and the Carolina Hurricanes are in town and it is Guentzel’s first ever appearance on Pittsburgh ice not donning the black and gold.
He should (and will) be given rapturous appreciation for his time with the club. He is one of the smartest and most clever players the Penguins have had and he combined it with a lethal shooting percentage. NHL players are all immensely talented otherwise they wouldn’t be where they are. A lot of them do blend together into a style of play that can seem robotic and monotonous. Jake was not one of those players. He was very gifted with his shooting prowess, stick handling, and passing ability, but I was always drawn to how he selected the soft spots on the ice and his interchanges with Sidney Crosby. He had the perfect mindset and mentality to play with one of the smartest players of all-time in Sid. He was never caught off guard by the ridiculous passes that Crosby can create out of nowhere. He was able to meet Sid on his level and the body of work they created together was some of the finest hockey of the Crosby era.
Guentzel was ripping up the AHL when he received his original call up and just like Mario Lemieux he scored on his very first shift, on his very first shot, in his very first game.
It was all gas and no brake since then. He has been one of the best goal scoring wingers in the league. He led the playoffs in scoring his rookie season when he scored 13 times en route to the Penguins 2017 Stanley Cup championship.
He was a consistent offensive threat during his 503 games as a Penguin finishing with 219 goals and 466 points, good for 24th best in the NHL.
Guentzel scored 34 goals in only 58 playoff games for the Penguins which was good for a .586 goals per game rate. He is ninth all-time. Wayne Gretzky sits right above him at .587. He was a machine when the games mattered most.
Since coming into the league in 2016 at 5v5 Guentzel has had a 2.62 points per 60 which was 24th best in the NHL. His 1.25 goals per 60 at 5v5 was 18th best in this same time frame.
Transitioning to a new environment hasn’t slowed him down at all. He is doing great so far with Carolina
Guentzel's 10 assists are the most by any player in his first eight games with Carolina.
Rust joked, "didn't know he was such a good passer! That must mean either I can't score, or he just decided to finally show it."
Crosby: "Probably didn’t want to give him the puck." 😂
One of the great disservices paid to Guentzel was the idea that he was somehow a product of Sidney Crosby. For me, it was a sure fire way to tell me you don’t really understand the ins and outs of hockey. Playing with Sidney Crosby will help anybody. He is going to go down as a top five player of all-time. The idea Guentzel’s success was solely driven by 87 is hollow and uninspired analysis. He has a lot of great hockey left in him regardless of his future destination(s).
As for his time in Pittsburgh, he helped the Penguins win a lot of hockey games and he did so in a very entertaining way. There isn’t much more you could ask for as a consumer of watching hockey. He deserves to be mentioned along the likes of Alex Kovalev, Marty Straka, and Kevin Stevens. Not on the Mt. Rushmore of past Penguins stars, but the very successful tier right below. I definitely consider him a Penguins legend. He’s 11th all-time in Penguins scoring with 466 points and if not for the trade would have had a great look at being in the Penguins top five scoring and we know who the other four are.
Here's a salute to Jake Guentzel. One of the very best Penguins to do it.
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