The Pittsburgh Penguins were off yesterday and they are also off today.
Seeing as though there is no new business to discuss with the Penguins I thought I would address a tweet that I saw from a player’s agent last night.
That is a pretty direct shot at the Montreal Canadiens implying that his client is being misused.
Offensively P.A. Parenteau is having a down year. He only has 6 goals and 14 points in 41 games. That is a point per game clip of only .37 when his career mark is the Chris Kunitz neighborhood of .66.
Here is how he shapes up since 2012:
Not bad. Good possession and quality offense.
Since becoming a full time NHL player he has always been above average from a possession standpoint on his team.
Offensively the power play does contribute to his point totals. He generates ~30% of his points from the power play in his career.
This doesn’t mean he cannot produce at even strength though. His 5v5 points/60 from 2012-15 is at 1.84. Some players in his neighborhood include Alex Ovechkin (1.85), Nicklas Backstrom (1.82), Daniel Sedin (1.82) and Patric Hornqvist (1.82).
Parenteau’s points/60 has plummeted to 1.30 this year under Michael Therrien and if you remove the 2014-15 season Parenteau’s points/60 from 2012-14 is at 2.02.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Therrien has had a negative impact on Parenteau’s production. Therrien’s teams are usually bad possession teams that get bailed out by high PDO. The 2007-08 Penguins and 2014-15 Canadiens are a great example of this (both teams led/lead NHL in PDO). If Parenteau finds himself on a quality possession team with solid center play he could still do some damage.
Yes this is putting the cart way before the horse, but it is never too early to start doing your homework for next year’s roster. If things turn sour in Montreal with Parenteau another team will have the opportunity to pick up a legitimate top six forward with only one year remaining on his contract at 4.0M whose value has been artificially lowered.
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