Penguins add versatility with Patrick Marleau, Conor Sheary, Evan Rodrigues
Jim Rutherford didn’t really mask his intentions over the past handful of weeks.
When all-star forward Jake Guentzel went down with a significant right shoulder injury Dec. 30, the Pittsburgh Penguins general manager declared, a few days later, he would pursue a top-six winger.
On Feb. 10, he made good on that vow by acquiring Jason Zucker, currently moonlighting as Sidney Crosby’s left winger.
On Friday, Rutherford said he wanted to add another forward, saying “a two-positional player would be ideal.”
On Monday, he traded for Patrick Marleau, a left winger who dabbles at center, and reacquired Conor Sheary, a member of the Penguins’ two most recent Stanley Cup championship teams who can play either wing.
The only forward Rutherford acquired Monday who doesn’t quite fit his two-position preference is Evan Rodrigues.
He can play all three positions.
“If we had got a forward that can only play one position, we would have been OK with that,” Rutherford said after Monday’s trade deadline had passed. “But certainly the guys we got can move around. They can move around the lineup, they can move to their opposite wing or to center. Having that kind of flexibility for the coach makes it easier for him.”
For Marleau, Penguins sent a conditional third-round pick in 2021 to the San Jose Sharks that can transition to a second-rounder if the Penguins win the Stanley Cup title this season.
While he never has won the Stanley Cup championship, Marleau is one of the more accomplished players currently in the NHL.
Not coincidentally, he’s also the third-oldest player in the NHL.
Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara (42) and Sharks forward Joe Thornton (40 years, 237 days) are older than Marleau (40 years, 162 days).
Rutherford feels even at this ripe portion of his career, Marleau, who has served as a captain with the Sharks, still has the skating ability to be a contributor on a team that utilizes speed as a brand almost as much as it does as a tactic.
“We’ve watched him a lot,” Rutherford said. “The advantage he’s got is kind of like (former Penguins forward Matt Cullen): He can still really skate, and as you get older, that’s important for you. His desire to get that ultimate prize is going to be big for him as time is running out. He should be good for us.”
The No. 2 overall pick of the 1997 NHL Draft that was staged at the Civic Arena, Marleau (6-foot-2, 215 pounds) is signed to a one-year, two-way contract with a salary-cap hit of $700,000. Marleau has appeared in 58 games this season and has 20 points (10 goals, 10 assists). The 50th-leading scorer in NHL history with 1,186 points, Marleau currently has a consecutive games played streak of 846 games, fifth-most in NHL history.
For Sheary and Rodrigues, the Penguins sent forward Dominik Kahun to the Buffalo Sabres.
After signing Sheary to three-year contract with a salary-cap hit of $3 million during the 2017 offseason, the Penguins traded him to the Sabres one year later to clear cap space that eventually was devoted to signing defenseman Jack Johnson.
Having been a 20-goal scorer during his time as a linemate with Crosby, the 27-year-old Sheary (5-8, 179 pounds) has not enjoyed the same success in Buffalo. In 55 games this season, Sheary, a pending unrestricted free agent, has 19 points (nine goals, 10 assists).
“He was pretty pumped when I talked to him,” Rutherford said. “I gather all my information from all the people in the hockey operations. … The coaches felt very strong when his name came up. It would be seamless for him coming back in here.
“He didn’t leave here because we didn’t like him. He left here because it was the (salary) cap situation, which is the same thing for a lot of players that leave. We’ve got to move guys around to make the cap work. At this point in time, we had the room to fit him back in and bring him back. He was a good player for us in those two (Stanley) Cup runs. He’s still a capable guy.”
Rodrigues, 26, is something of a wild card. Playing 11 of the 12 possible positions over all four lines with the Sabres last season, Rodrigues established career highs with 74 games and 29 points (nine goals, 20 assists).
He largely has struggled this season with nine points (five goals, four assists) in 38 games. A healthy scratch for 17 games this season, Rodrigues (5-11, 184 pounds) requested a trade.
“I’m a hockey player who wants to play hockey,” Rodrigues said to Buffalo reporters last month.
He is signed to one-year, $2 million contract and is a pending restricted free agent.
“Getting guys that can move up and down the lineup always helps,” Rutherford said. “Marleau and Sheary can do that. Even Rodrigues, he was in and out of the lineup in Buffalo. I don’t know exactly what happened there, but even there were times that he played with (Sabres All-Star forward Jack) Eichel. Those guys can definitely move around.”
The Penguins did not make any moves on defense. With injured defensemen Brian Dumoulin (left ankle) and John Marino (face) recovering at a satisfactory pace, Rutherford felt adding a defenseman would extract too heavy a toll.
“With the way the defensemen (were traded recently), and the ones that were available (Monday), the prices of them didn’t make sense because that depth defense we (would have) got may have not even played a whole lot if we were healthy,” Rutherford said. “Nothing made sense for us on defense.”
It might take some time to get a sense of how the lines shake out. But it’s clear Rutherford and company feel the options to roll four lines are much better now than they have been dating to Guentzel’s injury just before New Year’s Day, even with Zach Aston-Reese (undisclosed) and Nick Bjugstad (core muscle) still recovering from injuries.
“It started to show the last couple of weeks. We were always in a position that the top three lines were probably playing a little bit more than they should,” Rutherford said. “And trying to get their minutes down that we could come and come hard shift after shift with four lines, that’s what we should be able to do now that we made those changes.”
“We feel good about our team. We have felt good about it all year. We feel better today.”
Notes: The Penguins assigned rookie forwards Anthony Angello and Sam Lafferty to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League. … Veteran forward Andrew Agozzino was claimed on waivers by the Anaheim Ducks.
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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