John Marino did a lot of things during his first season in pro hockey.
And he did almost all of them a lot better than most people would have predicted when the Penguins acquired his rights from Edmonton for a sixth-round draft choice and convinced him to pass on his final season of eligibility at Harvard.
Marino was poised with the puck and in high-pressure situations. He made quick, correct decisions. Moved the puck to his forwards quickly and accurately.
All of which helped him ascend to the No. 2 defense pairing, earn a six-year contract that will have an average annual value of $4.4 million when it kicks in next season and be widely acclaimed as the future cornerstone of his team's defense corps.
Now comes the tough part.
Not only replicating his rookie performance, but building on it. To have what he did in 2019-20 be not an exclamation point, but a foundation.
Marino wouldn't be the first player to follow a strong debut, be it in college or a pro league, by regressing during his second season.
Heck, that happens often enough the phenomenon has a name -- Sophomore Jinx.
And while jinxes are not rooted in reality and have nothing to do with the trajectory of a player's career taking a turn for the worse in Year 2, there are numerous reasons it can happen.
A player could get complacent after a strong first season, leading to a decline in work ethic or effort. Opponents could get more familiar with his tendencies, making it easier to force, or exploit. mistakes. A change in responsibilities or teammates/partners could have a negative impact, too.
Jim Rutherford said Thursday that he does not believe in a sophomore jinx for anyone, and made it clear that he is particularly confident that Marino will continue to play well in the season that begins next Wednesday in Philadelphia.
"Everything he does, he does a good job with," Rutherford said. "His hockey sense is so good, his positioning is so good, and all the other things that go with it. He sees the ice, moves the puck. He's strong. He's strong on the puck.
"And he wants it. He wants to be good. He wants to play. He's going to be like anybody else -- during your season, you can have some off-games -- but he is a very solid, mature player."
The concept of sophomore jinxes has believers in pretty much every sport, and there are NHL players whose production in their second season did not meet the standards of the one before it.
Former Penguins center Jordan Staal, for example, went from putting up 29 goals -- seven of them shorthanded -- and 13 assists in 81 gmes in 2006-07 to getting 13 goals and 16 assists in 82 games the next season.
Washington left winger Alex Ovechkin, the premier goal-scorer of his generation, recorded 52 in 81 games as a rookie, but slipped to 46 in 82 a year later.
Hall of Famer Jarome Iginla got 21 goals and 29 assists in 82 games as a rookie with Calgary, then managed just 13 and 19 in 70 in his second season.
Clearly, there are plenty of players, elite and otherwise, who stumble after getting a strong start to their career, although that isn't the case with Marino's most prominent teammates. And while point production is hardly the only way to measure a player's contribution to his team, consider how they fared in their first full (or nearly full) and second seasons with the Penguins:
• Sidney Crosby: 38 goals, 63 assists in 81 games
36 goals, 84 assists in 79 games
• Evgeni Malkin: 33 goals, 52 assists in 78 games
47 goals 59 assists in 82 games
• Kris Letang: Six goals, 11 assists in 63 games
10 goals, 23 assists in 74 games
Not everyone made major strides between their first and second seasons, however.
Jake Guentzel, for example, had 16 goals and 17 assists in 40 games when he broke into the league in 2016-17 and 22 goals, 26 assists in 82 games the following season.
That statistical hiccup was short-lived, however. Guentzel had 40 goals and 36 assists in the same number of games a year later.
