Penguins line Jason Zucker up with Sidney Crosby

The Pittsburgh Penguins didn’t waste time giving their newest player a chance to prove his value.

Forward Jason Zucker, acquired in a trade with the Minnesota Wild on Monday, made his Penguins debut Tuesday at PPG Paints Arena against the Tampa Bay Lightning on the left wing of center Sidney Crosby’s line.

“He’s a guy that can play in our top six. He’s going to make us a stronger team,” coach Mike Sullivan said before the game of Zucker. “We really like his foot speed, his scoring ability, and he’s got a good, solid two-way game. We’ll start him with Crosby, and we’ll take each game as it comes and we’ll see where it goes.”

In 45 games this season with the Wild, the 28-year-old Zucker had 29 points (14 goals, 15 assists) while primarily playing with Eric Staal at center.

While Staal is an excellent player, as validated by his selection to this year’s All-Star Game event, playing with Crosby, one of the NHL’s all-time greatest players, presents a considerable upgrade to Zucker.

The addition of Zucker (5-foot-11, 192 pounds) had a trickle down effect on the remaining healthy wingers to open the contest.

Patric Hornqvist lined up on the right wing with Crosby and Zucker.

Evgeni Malkin centered the second line with Jared McCann on his left wing and Bryan Rust on the right wing.

The third line remained status quo with Zach Aston-Reese on left wing, Teddy Blueger at center and Brandon Tanev on right wing.

Dominik Simon slid down from the top line to left wing of the fourth line with Andrew Agozzino at center and Sam Lafferty on right wing.

“When you look at a player like Jason and the attributes that he brings, we believe that he can fit in and play to this identity,” Sullivan said. “He brings a speed game. He brings an offensive dimension. He’s got a defensive conscience, as well. He’s a versatile player. He’s a competitive guy. He has a lot of the attributes that we value in our players that are trying to help us become the team that we’re trying to become and be true to the identity of this group.”

Considering the Penguins’ pool of left wings has been impacted by injuries to Jake Guentzel (right shoulder) and Dominik Kahun (concussion), Zucker boost the depth on the port side, specifically.

“It just gives us one more player, I think, that gives us some options in moving people around Sid and (Malkin),” Sullivan said. “That gives us an opportunity to have the strongest top six (forwards) that we can put together. I do think, depending on the health of our group and who starts to come back to our lineup, it may provide an opportunity to utilize Jared McCann in different capacities. We have some ideas on what that might look like.

“But having said that, we’re going to watch and see how the team plays and we’ll try to utilize the players accordingly based on what we have and based on how the team is playing at the time.”

Zucker, who carries a salary-cap hit of $5.5 million, is also a candidate to carve out a role on the power play. This season, he averaged 2 minutes, 19 seconds ice time on the man advantage with Minnesota.

“We have some ideas on how we’re going to use him (on the power play),” Sullivan said. “There will probably be a little bit of a feeling-out process and how most specifically we’re going to use him. But we’ll probably introduce those concepts slowly. But certainly, he’s a guy that we think we can use on one of our (power-play units) for sure. Then we’ll see where it goes from there. But obviously, this is a guy that’s a top-six forward that has offensive instincts and an ability to score goals. We’re going to try to put him into positions where he can play to his strengths.”

Having dealt ineffective forward Alex Galchenyuk as part of the transaction, the Penguins feel they are a deeper and more potent squad with Zucker.

“We really think he’s going to make us a better team,” Sullivan said. “He’s a guy that has attributes that will fit into the style of play that we’re trying to play. He’s a top-six forward. We really like his speed, his overall two-way game, his ability to shoot the puck. He’s another one of those guys that we think can use in a top-six capacity to make us a better hockey team. We’re excited to add him to our group.”

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