The other day we took a look back at the famed Cooke-Staal-Kennedy line which helped earn the Penguins the 2009 Stanley Cup against the heavily favored Red Wings. Today we will look at another famed Penguins third line the HBK line.
Both lines were integral to the Penguins winning a championship and each did it their own way. The HBK line had more offensive punch and probably deserved to have a Conn Smythe winner in Phil Kessel. Let’s take a look back at Hagelin-Bonino-Kessel.
Let’s start with what is probably Jim Rutherford’s best move as the Penguins General Manager, Phil Kessel.
Kessel had a ton of “baggage” in the public perception. It’s easy to hand wave a lot of that away now, but the reality was a lot of people bought into the reason the Maple Leafs never did anything was because Phil Kessel wasn’t a good leader or wasn’t good enough at the hockey stuff. We got the fraudulent hot dog acquisitions and a bunch of other hit pieces. We also had a full on argument on the draft room floor between Rutherford and Tom Fitzgerald about trading for Phil. Needless to say Phil became a rock star in Pittsburgh as for the first time in his career his on-ice results matched up with the team results. Phil Kessel is a back to back Stanley Cup champion.
He was exactly what the Penguins needed. Another top six caliber winger who could score goals. Furthermore, he was the right-handed shot they needed on the power play. For the first time in close to a decade the power play would not be predominately ran from the right side of the ice, but the left side. He was an elite shooter and ran a terrific power play. Make no mistake nobody was looking for Kessel to be defensively responsible, clearly. The offense vastly outweighed whatever defensive shortcomings he had. What few saw coming was his deployment. It was always assumed he would play with Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin. Instead, what happened totally transformed the Penguins lineup. He was able to lead his own line creating hell on opposing coaches trying to match lines. It was awesome to watch.
Another seismic change to the Penguins for the 2015-16 season happened during the summer when the team traded away Brandon Sutter for Nick Bonino. This was a huge change to the dynamic of the team. The Penguins bottom six was an uninspired group of players who lacked creativity and offensive talent prior to the 2015-16 season. They were a drag on the team and the results spoke for themselves. If Crosby and Malkin stopped scoring, so did the team. It created a lot of terrible takes on how Crosby and Malkin needed to do more instead of assessing the blame properly on terrible depth players. Bonino’s acquisition started the positive change.
Bonino was a clever player with good passing skills. He was able to contribute offensively and it did not come at the expense of his defensive play. It was a perfect transition. Think about the huge goals he scored in the 2016 playoff run. Having another center capable of offensive production was enormous in the Penguins ability to make their way through to the title. No Bonino no Cup.
Also worth mentioning the Penguins were chasing their tail for a third line center before acquiring Bonino and continued to do so after he left until the Jeff Carter acquisition four years later.
Carl Hagelin rounds out this line bringing his blazing speed which opened up the ice for the other two more offensively talented players. Hagelin was acquired in a mid-season trade when the Penguins moved on from David Perron. The problem wasn’t that Perron was a bad player. He’s shown since being traded from the Penguins to be quite a good player. He just wasn’t the right fit. He was slower and more plodding. The Penguins were correctly looking to destroy teams with their speed. Carl Hagelin’s skillset fit like a glove.
For those who don’t remember the risk of the trade at the time was if Hagelin was going to be able to regain some of his offensive touch he had with the Rangers. It had been lacking in Anaheim. It was not in Pittsburgh. He was shot out of a cannon and never stopped. He was also a prime example of not needing to waste a roster spot on an untalented grinder to play on the PK. Hagelin was great at 5v5 and on the PK.
When you combined all three of these players you have one of the more iconic lines in team history. It is a reminder of the importance of filling your depth with players capable of producing offense. They were a huge piece of one of the best Stanley Cup teams in the cap era. Their ability to entertain and produce results will forever be remembered.
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