Penguins A to Z: How valuable is Teddy Blueger?
With the Penguins’ 2021-22 season coming to a quick ending in the first round of the playoffs, the Tribune-Review will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 54 individuals signed to an NHL contract — including those whose deals do not begin until the 2022-23 season — with the organization, from mid-level prospect Niclas Almari to top-six winger Jason Zucker.
Teddy Blueger
Position: Center
Shoots: Left
Age: 27
Height: 6-foot
Weight: 185 pounds
2021-22 NHL statistics: 65 games, 28 points (nine goals, 19 assists)
Contract: In the first year of a two-year contract with a salary cap hit of $2.2 million. Pending unrestricted free agent in the 2023 offseason.
Acquired: Second-round draft pick (No. 52 overall), June 23, 2012
Last season: Teddy Blueger was so valuable in his role entering the 2021-22 campaign that the Penguins coaches didn’t want to promote him.
Even with franchise centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin sidelined to open the season due to maladies that required offseason surgery, Blueger remained entrenched as center on the team’s shutdown line that included newcomer Brock McGinn at left wing and Zach Aston-Reese on the right wing.
Instead of bumping Blueger up to the second line and giving him a chance to spread his wings offensively, coach Mike Sullivan opted to keep that line intact due to its ability to hamper the opposition’s top forwards.
Blueger and company mostly did that through the early stages of the season until Crosby and Malkin were back in the lineup. Additionally, Blueger won 53.1 % of his faceoffs during the 2021-22 season, marking the first time in his career that he finished in the black in draws.
Additionally, Blueger led the team with 2:15 of short-handed ice time per game on a penalty-killing unit that finished third in the entire league with a conversion rate of 84.4 %.
Blueger was in the midst of what was the best season of his career when he suffered a fractured jaw at the hands of Winnipeg Jets defenseman Brenden Dillon during a 3-2 home shootout win for the Penguins on Jan. 23.
That injury sidelined Blueger for 16 games. Returning to the lineup by March 8, Blueger never seemed to regain the form that he had established in his first 40 games before his injury.
Furthermore, he rarely got to play with Aston-Reese or McGinn after returning to the lineup. Two games after Blueger returned, McGinn was sidelined for several games due to a suspected right hand injury. Then at the trade deadline on March 21, Aston-Reese was sent to the Anaheim Ducks.
In the postseason, Blueger was a mostly inert entity. In seven games, he recorded one assist.
The future: With another year remaining on his contract, Blueger’s immediate future with the Penguins is secure. He is clearly valued by management and the coaching staff as he handles a lot of the “dirty” work on defense and frees up the team’s top centers from those grueling duties.
Perhaps the only question regarding Blueger’s future is looking beyond the 2022-23 season.
By rule, the Penguins can open up negotiations with Blueger — or any player entering the final year of an active contract — for a potential extension.
Blueger is very valuable to the Penguins. But how valuable?
Are they willing to sink a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract into him? Or will all parties be content to let him serve out the final year of his current deal and see what the market will bear in the 2023 offseason?
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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