David Perron will make his debut wearing the number 39 today for the Penguins. What we don't know yet is exactly where he will slot in with the team. It is a safe bet that it will be on the left wing beside either Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin.
What we do know about Perron is his past and how he performed with both St. Louis and Edmonton. Overall his body of work is pretty solid.
Here is his career usage
Overall we see a lot of blue, always a good sign. He has played shutdown roles, two way roles, sheltered roles and everywhere in between. Keep in mind the color of the bubbles are relative corsi which compares him against his own teammates. This is important in explaining the red bubbles. In 2010-11 the St. Louis Blues were the 6th best possession team in hockey at 52.3% while David Perron was a 52.0% player In 2011-12 the Blues were 5th overall at 53.0% and Perron was 51.1%. So even the red in this chart isn't too alarming.
Here are his offensive rates for his career. He is currently at a career low for goals per game and close to a career low (rookie year) in his points per game average.
To put things into perspective
Mark Arcobello was the center that Perron played the most with so far this season. Arcobello was recently traded away to Nashville for Derek Roy instead of the Oilers just plucking Roy off waivers for nothing. The Oilers needed to shed a contract and they chose Arcobello, not a glowing endorsement. Sid and Geno are not Mark Arcobello. Perron will not finish the year with career lows in either points per game or goals per game now.
This deal is not bad for the Edmonton side either and dare I say that it has a Tyler Dellow flavor to it as well. The original ask for David Perron was Brandon Sutter but I believe the Oilers are better served with the first round pick. Edmonton without Perron in the lineup can continue to tank for McEichel and any additional first round pick in a solid draft is a useful asset.
Brandon Sutter remains a slightly overrated player who is unable to drive play on his own. The Oilers need centers who drive play if they are going to trade for them. Considering they are the favorite for McEichel they can more than likely move forward with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jack Eichel as their one-two punch. Not too shabby.
Some may view Rob Klinkhammer as a random throw-in to the deal but to me the Oilers receive a solid bottom six forward who has always been a good possession player. For whatever reason the Penguins didn't feel the need to use him much after acquiring him. For my money Rob Klinkhammer is a better value than Nick Spaling.
The Penguins trading a late first round pick (25-30) is inconsequential. Crosby and Malkin are in the primes of their career. A player picked in that range can take upwards of 3-5 years that the Penguins just don't have time to wait for.
The key to the Perron deal is that he is not a rental.
The Penguins will get another season of Perron for under 4M in 2015-16. Trading first round picks for rental players is where things get dicey. I predict that the Penguins will re-sign Perron to a contract extension in the neighborhood 5 year 5.25M when the time comes. That would further cement this deal as a success. Perron is currently 26 years old with many more years of quality hockey left.
This is an excellent trade for the Penguins. They didn't wait until the deadline. Perron will have ample time to play on the team before the playoffs. His style is a great fit for either centerman. They did not overpay. Kudos to Jim Rutherford.
Are the Penguins done with deals? I don't think so. I think you'll see another trade for a winger. It remains to be seen if that trade will be a rental or a potential blockbuster that would involve a Derrick Pouliot kind of asset.
For now the Pittsburgh Penguins are a better team today than they were two days ago.
For those folks with 18 minutes of free time, here is every goal David Perron scored last year. He has some serious skill and is not afraid of the bad angle shot.
Perron is a big Kovalev fan, so am I. I am excited for the entertainment value he will bring to the Penguins
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Kasperi Kapanen and Team FInland may be out of the World Junior Championships but not before Kap could pull this rabbit out of his hat:
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Lost in the shuffle yesterday I wrote a piece about Chris Kunitz and how he isn't trending downward just yet. You can find that
here
Thanks for reading!
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