Nothing could conceivably be more boring for a local hockey fan than to read a Bryan Rust testimonial, so I'll spare everyone anything of the sort. This city knows who he is, how he's carried himself on and off the ice, and what he's meant to his franchise well beyond the two Stanley Cup championships to which he's contributed.
We all good with that?
Wait, want a little more out of further respect?
All right, there was this, Friday night at PPG Paints Arena ...
... his 20th goal in the 37th game of a season thrice stalled by injury, this one a smooth power-play finish in the third period of the Penguins' 5-2 gutting of the Golden Knights. One that marked a third straight season of 20-plus goals and, far more relevant amid pandemic scheduling, continued a transformational stretch in those same three seasons that's seen him score 69 total goals over 148 games. Or one every other game.
And then there are the 145 total points. Or a point a game. Right around the residency generally occupied by the NHL's most prolific forwards, at least once they show they can do it again and again.
OK, good now?
Cool, because the bill's about to come due. And it's become nothing less than mandatory that the Penguins pay up.
Meaning before he can hit the league's open market this summer.
Meaning priority No. 1.
Yeah, I know Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang also are set to be unrestricted free agents. I'm on record as supporting the retention of both, not just for the immediate future but for the duration of their careers. Malkin's 35, so he'll have to come down from his current $9.5 million salary, but he's shown strong signs that he will and that he wants very much to stay. Letang turns 35 next month, and it'd be reasonable to expect he'd come down from his current $7.25 million salary. There've been indications he's reluctant to do that, but here's betting a longer term will address both that gap and any far-out cap concerns.
I believe both will stay.
Regardless, Rust ought to top the list.
On a roster with an aging core -- reminding here, too, that Sidney Crosby turns 35 in August -- Rust's only 29. That makes him a relative rookie, with the very real possibility he could keep producing at his recent rate into the next few years. As I've written forever, while I've respected management's wish to keep pushing for Cups as long as Sid's in uniform, first under Jim Rutherford and now under Ron Hextall and Brian Burke, we've long since passed the point where there's got to be a balance between that and protecting the franchise's future in Pittsburgh. There's got to be a life after Sid, just like there was life after Mario Lemieux, life after Jaromir Jagr.
Put it this way: Hanging onto prospects and draft picks is part of that, but so is prioritizing veterans in part by their birthdays.
The current management team's lucky that Rutherford, who hardly batted 1.000 with big contracts, banged one into the Allegheny with Jake Guentzel, whose five-year term with an average annual value of $6 million is more of a steal than anyone could've foreseen. Guentzel's 27, and that term takes him through this season plus two more. It's an ideal scenario in and of itself.
Coupled with Sid's contract, which takes him through one more season than Guentzel's, all that's missing would be Rust.
Now, of course, someone else could come along and concoct some chemistry on that right wing, but it sure seems silly to run that risk. Particularly in an organization bereft of skill at all three forward positions, and doubly so when weighing the perennial cap crunch that'll hardly be alleviated if/when Malkin and Letang are brought back.
So, keep the one who's already under the roof.
Rust's in the final year of a four-year, $14 million contract, yet another Rutherford river-blast, with an average annual value of $3.5 million. It's impossible to foresee what he'll command in an extension, but recent precedent around the NHL has seen wingers of his caliber being paid between $5 million and $6 million. And with Guentzel, a similar if superior performer, making the latter, that could serve as a bar in and of itself. If not, as with Letang, a longer term could be utilized as a bridge, albeit with less risk for the younger player.
I'm thinking five years, $30 million. Same term and a cumulative $5 million more than Jared McCann just got in Seattle. Sure, McCann's four years younger, but Rust's produced for a lot longer than a year and a half.
I'm also thinking it's eminently doable for the Penguins and Rust, even with the NHL's cap barely increasing next year by $1 million to $82.5 million. A $6 million salary would be a $2.5 million raise from his current pay, and that can be found in Malkin's reduction plus ... I don't know, jettisoning Kasperi Kapanen's $3.2 million cap hit into the hot sun. Or cutting even a slice of the league's most expensive defense corps and promoting P.O Joseph.
Make it happen.
It's somewhat acceptable for the rest of us to take Rust for granted. Not for management.
• Rust's goal came on the Penguins' fourth power play, capping an evening-long evolution of finding ways to escape Vegas' relentless pressure.
I asked him about that afterward:
"I think we were just trying to be on our toes a little bit more and be moving a little bit more and work a little harder," he replied. "I think especially that first power play we weren't great, turning the puck over a little bit, and I think we just said, 'Hey, let's get back at working hard and moving our feet,' and that's what we did."
Sure did. There's no higher compliment to be paid to any power play than to be able to adjust mid-game. Especially against a non-conference opponent they see twice a year.
I didn't find this game to be all that momentous, to be honest. The Golden Knights ran out of gas in the third after playing the previous night in Buffalo, and that was pretty much that. But I did appreciate this singular facet. A prodigious power play always finds a way.
• Still and all, the teams emerged from the second intermission tied at 2-2, someone had to make the difference, and Mark Friedman did that with this serious snipe at 3:49 ...
... scorching Laurent Brossoit to the blocker side for his first goal of the season in his 18th game played.
"Felt good," Friedman would say, allowing a small smile.
It's a feeling he should keep getting chances to feel. All he's done in the six games since being reinserted into the lineup is be highly visible in a good way, whether it's engaging/irritating opponents or sweeping pucks out of his blue paint, both of which he did again in this one.
If Brian Dumoulin hadn't fallen ill before this game, there's a chance Friedman wouldn't have dressed at all. Time to start figuring out ways to have him default into the top six, contract statuses be damned.
• On that note, hey, how about all that -- gasp! -- secondary scoring?
In addition to Friedman's personal icebreaker, Jeff Carter scored for the first time in 11 games, Evan Rodrigues for the first time in seven, his into an empty net. And I'm being kind by leaving off how long both had gone without scoring before that.
"I've been through many slumps in my career and, when you're in them, you just have to simplify," Carter would say through a grin. "There's really nothing else to do it. You shoot pucks, You go to the net. You score goals in the weirdest way when you're at the net, where it's gonna go off your ass or off your shin pad off your skate heel. You can't try and skill your way out of it."
He didn't, on the goal that put the Penguins up, 2-0, at 2:36 of the second ...
... although that was a fair amount of skill and speed exhibited by both Brock McGinn in revving up that partial break and by newcomer Valtteri Puustinen in springing him with that bullet pass.
Add that to the dual feed above on Friedman's goal by both Carter and Brian Boyle, and that's as much secondary offense as this team's seen in a single night since, like, Christmas.
"Sid's line has been very consistent, and they've been such a big part of our ability to win games and continue to climb in the standings," Mike Sullivan would say to that subject. "But you know, there's going to be nights when they're kept off the scoresheet, and that's when other guys need to contribute. The fact that we got some contributions tonight, throughout our lineup and two from the blue line, I think it just speaks volumes for what we're capable of, the type of team that we can become. We're trying to become a team in the true sense of the word."
• Now, a lot of that will be attached to Kapanen being a healthy scratch for the first time. Or Dominik Simon sitting with him. Or Puustinen, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's leading scorer, finally being promoted and looking promising in his NHL debut. Truth be told, I'm tempted to do all that myself.
But I won't. Not yet.
A ton more's needed. And I'd still like to see a ton more, too, from Drew O'Connor and Radim Zohorna. In fact, with McGinn injuring his right wrist in the second period and now out "week-to-week," according to Sullivan, I'd prefer seeing either of those two over Kapanen and Simon.
Don't stop with this. Too many bottom-six guys have languished too long. Take a longer look elsewhere.
• We've got detailed reporting on the Puustinen debut and the McGinn injury from Taylor Haase. She also covered Ron Hextall's press conference earlier in the day, in which he talked about the NHL trade deadline, his pending free agents and more.
• Imagine being as physically gifted as Mike Matheson to pull this off fresh off a six-game absence:
Unrelated, but anyone else have flashbacks of Sid feeding Ryan Whitney streaking down that left side upon watching that?
• Somewhat random but still impressive achievement: Letang's assist on Rodrigues' empty-netter gave him 50 points -- six goals, 44 assists -- in 55 games, the fastest 50 points for any franchise defenseman since Sergei Zubov hit that in 46 games in 1995-96. It's also Letang's sixth season of 50-plus points, matching Roman Josi, Victor Hedman and Erik Karlsson for the most among active defensemen.
• The Penguins swept both games from Vegas and, of far greater importance to the Golden Knights, they've lost three in a row and -- stunningly, I'd say -- are in danger of falling out of the Western playoff picture, currently two points ahead of the Oilers, the conference's ninth-place team.
The Golden Knights were outshot, 16-5, in the first period, but took over that statistic, 37-17, the rest of the way.
"We're going to concentrate on the really good things we did tonight," Peter DeBoer, Vegas' coach, would say. "We outplayed, for long stretches, a really good team over there. So it's a challenge, but that's the ups and downs of a season. We have a lot of hockey left."
• Am I really going to get through this full column without even mentioning Tristan Jarry?
And does that count?
• It's best-on-best women's hockey, U.S. vs. Canada, at the same place Saturday at 4 p.m. Here's hoping it fares well on attendance, despite the short two-week notice for ticket sales. It'd be pretty cool for Pittsburgh to attract a team someday in some form.
• Thanks for reading, as always!
THE ESSENTIALS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at PPG Paints Arena:
1. Bryan Rust, Penguins RW
2. Jeff Carter, Penguins C
3. Mark Friedman, Penguins D
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Brock McGinn, left winger, injured his right wrist late in the second period of this game and didn't return. Sullivan afterward described his status as 'week-to-week.'
• Mike Matheson, defenseman, came off IR two hours before faceoff and played for the first time since sustaining an upper-body injury Feb. 24.
• Jason Zucker, left winger, has been on IR since undergoing core muscle surgery Jan. 25. He's skating.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Heinen-Malkin-Rodrigues
McGinn-Carter-Puustinen
Boyle-Blueger-Aston-Reese
Matheson-Letang
Pettersson-Marino
Friedman-Ruhwedel
And for DeBoer's Golden Knights:
Pacioretty-Eichel-Marchessault
Dadonov-Karlsson-Amadio
Carrier-Stephenson-Roy
Rondbjerg-Leschyshyn-Kolesar
Hague-Pietrangelo
Whitecloud-Theodore
Hutton-Coghlan
THE SCHEDULE
The team practices Saturday, noon, in Cranberry, then returns Uptown to face the Hurricanes the next day, 1:08 p.m.
THE CONTENT
Visit our team page for everything.