Bryan Rust, Kasperi Kapanen flipped the script with the Penguins' right wingers
In advance of the Penguins’ upcoming training camp, the Tribune-Review will look at the Penguins’ depth. Today, the right wingers:
At the dawn of the 2020-21 season, the Penguins intended to insert newly reacquired right winger Kasperi Kapanen on the top line, riding shotgun with franchise center Sidney Crosby.
That would leave Bryan Rust, after a breakout performance during the 2019-20 campaign, to remain on Evgeni Malkin’s line.
But by the time the 2020-21 season concluded, Kapanen and Rust had flip-flopped assignments and found resounding success.
Entrenched on the top line with Crosby and Jake Guentzel on the left wing, Rust reached the 20-goal mark for the second consecutive season and finished fourth on the team in scoring with 42 points (22 goals, 20 assists) in 56 games. Only Crosby (24) and Guentzel (23) scored more goals than him.
While Crosby is expected to miss the first handful of games in the 2021-22 schedule due to offseason wrist surgery, that potent trio of Rust, Crosby and Guentzel figures to once again be the pacesetter for the Penguins’ offense. Rust’s speed opens up a lot of ice for Crosby and Guentzel. Additionally, his offensive game continues to blossom and makes him a danger to opposing goaltenders’ save percentage.
For Rust individually, another prolific effort could be significant as he is a pending unrestricted free agent next offseason. At 29, this will likely be his best chance to command an ample contract.
The Penguins’ first-round pick in 2014, Kapanen returned to the Penguins via trade after a five-year apprenticeship with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Once he got some immigration issues behind him and got used to his new/old surroundings, Kapanen found chemistry playing on the second line with Malkin.
Arguably, the best stretch of Malkin’s unremarkable 2020-21 season was sparked by having Kapanen on his line throughout March.
With Malkin expected to be sidelined for a significant portion of the 2021-22 campaign, Kapanen will likely have to get used to playing with a revolving door of centers in the early portions of the season.
Offseason signings Brock McGinn and Danton Heinen are in the mix for the third line. It remains to be seen where each player slots in as they are both capable of playing on either wing. McGinn’s energy and tenacity will peg him as a replacement for the popular Brandon Tanev. Meanwhile, Heinen is a quick skater who has a nose for the crease.
Sam Poulin and Nathan Legare are two of the Penguins’ top prospects and will be making their professional debuts in 2021-22. Now, if they open the season in Pittsburgh or with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League (AHL), that’s up for debate.
While their lack of experience works against them, they offer a tone of youthful energy to an aging roster and are cheap options for a payroll that is bumping up against the NHL’s salary cap ceiling of $81.5 million.
At 6-foot-5 and 210 pounds, Anthony Angello is one of the biggest players in the organization but no one will confuse him with some of the true brawlers that inhabit the Metropolitan Division such as Ryan Reaves and Tom Wilson. Regardless, Angello has shown enough during brief stints in the NHL lineup over the past two seasons to merit a serious look in the upcoming training camp.
Evan Rodrigues, Sam Lafferty, Dominik Simon and Radim Zohorna can all man various forward positions and will likely be asked to display that versatility over the course of an 82-game season.
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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