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NHL: Pittsburgh Penguins 2021 regular season grades

Despite this season being abbreviated by 26 games, this has been an egregious and long regular season for the NHL. Coronavirus, injuries, player safety outcry, locked divisions, floods in Dallas, and protests in Minnesota have all impacted this year’s NHL. 

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It will be a season we will never forget. Especially here in Pittsburgh, where the Penguins won the division for the first time since 2013-14. I have said time and time again that this team looks eerily similar to the 2016 Stanley Cup team. I cannot wait to see what this team will do in the playoffs.

But before we get to the playoffs which today were officially announced to start on Saturday the 15th, let us look back on the Penguins regular season and hand out grades for every player. Keep in mind that this list is completely subjective and my own opinion.

A+ Rankings: Exceeding expectations for the Penguins

Sidney Crosby, Mike Sullivan and Jared McCann.

Sidney Crosby has never not had it. People are still waiting for him to fall off and it has just not happened. He continues to be one of the best players in the league and if this were an 82 game season, Crosby would have scored 94 points based on his points per game. There is no question that he has been the Pens’ best player and he should win the Hart Trophy this season.

I am including coaches and general managers in this conversation as well and Mike Sullivan gets the top ranking for me as well. Sullivan gets the most out of his players and has kept the Penguins competitive despite injuries and adversity. Hands down the frontrunner for the Jack Adams if you ask me.

Jared McCann gets an A+ ranking for me and I really do not care if this is a little crazy. I am absolutely in love with the player that McCann has become as he is exactly what the Penguins need. A young depth player with tons of potential that can play on the powerplay and has a great shot. McCann was three points shy of his career-high this season despite playing in 23 fewer games.

A Rankings: Incredible and solid seasons

Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust, Kris Letang, Cody Ceci, Ron Hextall and Jeff Carter.

Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust have been great as always this season. The chemistry with Sidney Crosby has truly shown. Although Crosby ended up beating Guentzel for the overall lead in goals, I am not sure how many Jake’s Shakes I have gotten this season.

Kris Letang needs some respect for what he has done this season. He is tied for third in the entire NHL for points by a defenseman. Norris? And how about the emergence of Cody Ceci? Absolutely stellar bounce-back year for him and Ron Hextall needs to re-sign him.

Speaking of Hextall I thought he did a great job in his first season with the Penguins. He only made two moves; adding Mark Friedman and Jeff Carter and they have both worked out very well. Carter has 5 goals in his past two games. Also thank god we never got Nick Deslauriers. 

B Rankings: Great season, about what I expected

Tristan Jarry, Casey DeSmith, Zach Aston Reese, Brian Dumoulin, Teddy Blueger, Chad Ruhwedel, Kasperi Kapanen, Mike Matheson, Frederick Gaudreau, Radim Zohorna, Mark Friedman and Pierre Olivier Joseph.

Now, just because I have a player in this category and not in A or A+ does not mean that I think they had a bad season. This category is where I am putting a bunch of names based on what I expected at the beginning of the regular season and the players matching my expectations.

Tristan Jarry, Casey DeSmith, Zach Aston-Reese, Brian Dumoulin, Teddy Blueger and Chad Ruhwedel all fit this description. They did not have incredible seasons by any means, but they performed almost exactly how I expected them to which is good. 

Offseason acquisitions with the likes of Kasperi Kapanen, Mike Matheson and Frederick Gaudreau impressed me as well. Matheson can really skate and is still young enough to develop even more. Kapanen is having some good chemistry with Malkin that I hope continues into the playoffs and Gaudreau is certainly a late bloomer.

Young call-up players like Radim Zohorna, Mark Friedman, Pierre Olivier Joseph only played a handful of games with the Penguins but certainly impressed in the small sample size.

C Rankings: Average or borderline disappointing

Colton Sceviour, Anthony Angello, Drew O’Connor, Yanick Weber, Kevin Czuczman, Maxim Lagace, Josh Currie, Juuso Riikola, Todd Reirden, Mike Vellucci, Brandon Tanev, Evgeni Malkin, Evan Rodrigues and Marcus Pettersson.

A lot of players in this category are just fringe depth pieces, players that barely played, or major players that missed a substantial amount of time due to injury. 

I really do not have much to say about Colton Sceviour, Anthony Angello, Drew O’Connor, Yanick Weber, Kevin Czuczman, Josh Currie, Juuso Riikola or Maxim Lagace and just threw them in here with a passing grade.

Again, I put coaches on this list, and in this category, I have Todd Rierden and Mike Vellucci which represent the Penguins’ power-play and penalty kill. The powerplay (currently 24.00%) this season was hit or miss while the penalty kill (currently 77.27%) was consistently average.

Brandon Tanev and Evgeni Malkin are here because they simply were hurt too much and it really sucks to say that. Malkin, even when he was not hurt struggled and did not even reach 10 goals this season. Malkin has returned, but Tanev’s presence has been missed and I cannot wait to see what he can bring in the playoffs.

Evan Rodrigues has had a strange season. Originally on the first line but then bounced around the lineup ever since it has been hard for E-Rod to find a comfortable spot in the Pens lineup. As for Marcus Pettersson, his defensive games took a step back in comparison to last season and he also was not able to keep his ironman streak alive.

D Rankings: Underwhelming and disappointing

Mark Jankowski, Sam Lafferty, Jason Zucker and John Marino.

Mark Jankowski had two great games to start off the season and then progressed into a wasted roster spot for the Penguins. But he played in a whopping 45 games this season because of injuries. I understand the frustration that Calgary Flames fans had with Janko as he is a player that just seems to be going through the motions.

Sam Lafferty is a bit of the same even though he has a little bit more to his game physically. Even though I like the energy from Lafferty, he seems too much like a jitterbug for me to be a consistent NHL player.

I wrote a whole article on why I think Jason Zucker has underperformed this season. For a first-round pick, a top prospect, and $5.5 million in cap space, seven goals, and 14 points are not enough. Zucker needs to find his game and I think that will come when he finds the right-center to play with. I hope he can do it.

Lastly, I am sure many of you are surprised that I have John Marino this low, and I will try and defend myself from the angry mob here. There is no easy way to say that Marino had a sophomore slump this year. His points-per-game was cut in half, although positive his plus-minus took a hit, and he seems lost defensively at times.

He struggled a lot early on but his game has matured over the progression of the season which is ensuring. But the main reason I have Marino so low is that I know he can be better. Marino did not take the next step in his development this year he took a step back, before eventually getting back to where he was in the first place.

Penguins Grades Verdict

Last season I saw the dawn of the next number one defenseman for the Penguins. This season I am wondering if that was an overreaction.

Overall, the Penguins had a great season. If I could grade the team as a whole I would give them an A. This team has a certain aura around it that you just know is great. I am so excited for the playoffs and round one against the New York Islanders.

For essentially the video version of this article check out my YouTube channel.

The post NHL: Pittsburgh Penguins 2021 regular season grades appeared first on Pittsburgh Sports Castle.



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