While the NHL is on hold because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Tribune-Review will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 54 individuals under NHL contract with the organization, from mid-level prospect Niclas Almari to high-profile trade acquisition Jason Zucker.

Conor Sheary

Position: Left wing

Shoots: Left

Age: 28

Height: 5-foot-8

Weight: 179 pounds

2019-20 NHL statistics: 63 games, 23 points (10 goals, 13 assists)

Contract: Final year of a three-year contract with a salary cap hit of $3 million. Pending unrestricted free agent this upcoming offseason.

Acquired: Trade, Feb. 24, 2020

This season: The Penguins never really wanted to trade Conor Sheary.

But they wanted to sign Jack Johnson.

Plenty has been said about the wisdom of the latter transaction. But one thing is clear about the former.

The Penguins corrected it.

By dealing away Sheary, a member of the 2016 and ’17 Stanley Cup championship teams, in the summer of 2018, they cleared enough cap space to sign Johnson to his much-scrutinized contract. This past February, they brought Sheary back and put him where he belongs.

On Sidney Crosby’s wing.

For the bulk of Crosby’s career, the proverbial “winger for Sid” has been something the franchise has pursued furiously. They’ve signed them (Zigmund Palffy), traded for them (Chris Kunitz) and drafted them (Beau Bennett), all with varying degrees of success. By any measure, the undrafted, undersized and unassuming Sheary — who joined the organization on an AHL contract in 2014 — has been one of their greatest successes in that endeavor.

Sheary opened the 2019-20 season with the Buffalo Sabres. When the Sabres acquired him from the Penguins, the hope was he could find chemistry with franchise center Jack Eichel much the way he did with Crosby. But over the course of two seasons, Sheary failed to be a complementary winger for Eichel. He was even a healthy scratch on occasion.

In 133 career games with the Sabres, Sheary produced only 53 points (23 goals, 30 assists).

With forward Jake Guentzel sidelined because of a right shoulder injury, the Penguins made a push to add top-six wingers at the trade deadline, one of them being Sheary.

In eight games with the Penguins this season, Sheary was bolted on to Crosby’s right wing and produced four points (one goal, three assists).

The future: Sheary should continue to inhabit his spot to the right of Crosby if the NHL season resumes. Even if Guentzel returns, Sheary has shown he still has enough cohesion with Crosby to merit such an assignment. A trio of Guentzel, Crosby and Sheary would be a reunion of the team’s top line during the 2017 Stanley Cup run.

Sheary’s biggest enemy continues to be consistency. With the Penguins and the Sabres, he has struggled with long stretches in which he failed to regularly produce offense.

While the team has some big questions to answer with pending restricted free agents such as goaltenders Matt Murray, Tristan Jarry and forward Jared McCann, Sheary will be their most prominent unrestricted free agent.

Given the uncertain future for the NHL’s economics because of the hiatus, he could be once again a player the team is forced to part ways with.

But for the time being, he’s back where he belongs.

Follow the Penguins all season long.

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