Penguins forward Jake Guentzel declines comment on his contractual status
Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jake Guentzel will offer clear, concise and detailed explanations on just about anything that happens on a hockey rink, be it a scoring sequence, taking a big hit or the contributions of a teammate.
But off the ice, any ruminations he might have about his status as a pending unrestricted free agent this upcoming offseason are a private matter, even if his agent, Ben Hankinson, offered plenty of thoughts on the subject.
After a 3-1 home loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday, Guentzel was asked about potential negotiations regarding a contract and largely declined comment.
“I’m not going to go too much into detail about it,” said Guentzel, who is in the final year of a five-year contract with a salary cap hit of $6 million. “I’m just trying to play, and we’ll see what happens as we go.”
Earlier in the day, Hankinson outlined a variety of possibilities as to how Guentzel’s future might play out during an interview with SiriusXM NHL Network Radio.
“He’s on the last year of a deal,” Hankinson said. “The good news is I have a really good relationship with (Penguins president of hockey operations) Kyle Dubas. Jake Guentzel is in a great spot. He started his career there. It’s no secret the team is getting older. There are some Hall of Fame players on that team. What’s going to happen, I don’t know. But I’m going to lean on conversations I’ve already had with Kyle, including in the summer, including conversations with Jake. I think the good thing is we’ll all be on the same page.
“Could it get ugly? Yes, it could. Kyle has to make decisions, too, which way the team is going and the investment he’s going to make with Jake. Is it the same direction? It’s going to come down to how they play, and we’ll put our heads together. … All the things that go into trade deadlines, (Kyle) might look into what he can get for Jake or what it costs to sign him. There’s a lot that will happen in two months, and I don’t know the answers to that. But I do know Jake loves Pittsburgh. He’s a hockey player. He’s had some good success and fun in that city. We’ll see.”
Dubas’ most recent public comment on potential negotiations came Oct. 9, and he largely avoided the topic when asked during a news conference a day before the season opener.
“With Ben and I’s relationship, we can have a discussion as he wants,” Dubas said.
Guentzel is the team’s leading scorer with 43 points (18 goals, 25 assists) in 38 games.
Shea regains confidence
Being on waivers is never ideal. But for Penguins reserve defenseman Ryan Shea, waivers led to a path with benefits.
On Dec. 19, one day before the NHL’s roster freeze for the holidays, the Penguins placed Shea on waivers with the hopes of assigning him to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL. A day later, he went unclaimed and was on his way to Northeast Pennsylvania and found something he had been missing.
Playing time, and, more profoundly, confidence.
A healthy scratch for four consecutive games at the NHL level before being assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Shea appeared in four contests for the AHL Penguins and primarily skated in a top-four role before being recalled to the NHL roster Dec. 30. After being shuffled between the AHL and NHL rosters again Jan. 2 and 3, respectively, Shea returned to the Pittsburgh Penguins with a better command of his game.
“Going down, I think I found a lot of confidence,” Shea said after practice Sunday in Cranberry. “That was the problem with my game probably the last seven (NHL) games I played (before Dec. 19). I think I just lost my confidence, and I lost probably what I was probably best at. I went down there, played a lot of minutes. Played a lot of (penalty kill), which I definitely enjoyed because I think that’s a part of the game I can help this team out in.”
At the moment, Shea, a left-hander who can play the right side of a defensive pairing, is serving as a reserve, having been a healthy scratch for each of the past two games.
A first-year NHLer (who doesn’t qualify for rookie status per the NHL’s guidelines based on his age), the 26-year-old has appeared in 22 games this season with no points while averaging 12 minutes, 28 seconds of ice time.
There is plenty of room for growth.
“He’s gotten a lot better in his time here with each game that he gets under his belt,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “For Ryan to establish himself as a regular NHL player, my expectation would be a player that defends extremely well, that helps us on the penalty kill, that can be a shot blocker, defend with his stick, be a reliable, trustworthy, stabilizing defenseman. That’s what he’s shown an ability to do at the (AHL) at a very high level. His game will translate. I just think there’s an adjustment process there to the speed.
“As his confidence grows, then that, hopefully, will be the foundation of getting his game to the next level where he has a positive impact.”
Going through waivers might have helped Shea in that process.
“Playing a lot of minutes, kind of getting in that state of what some of the top-four (defensemen) plays here, (those types of) minutes, it was good,” Shea said. “It got everything back for me, my feel. I thought I defended well, moved pucks well. That’s what I’ve just got to bring to this level.”
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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