The Penguins now have eight healthy defensemen on their roster after Friday's trade -- right-handed Erik Karlsson, Kris Letang, Connor Clifton and Jack St. Ivany, and the left-handed Parker Wotherspoon, Ryan Shea, Ryan Graves and newly acquired Brett Kulak.
Kulak, 31, was skating on the left side of the Oilers' third pairing but has experience on the right side, as well. The 6-foot-2, 192-pound defenseman has two assists and was a minus-7 in 31 games this season. He skated in all 82 games last season, scoring seven goals and 18 assists.
"He's been incredibly steady," Kyle Dubas said of Kulak. "And he's done it in the hardest environments, in the playoffs and down the stretch. And I know when we were watching them last month, he'd obviously had his struggles. I think their whole team was in that sort of a funk, and then he's been able to come through it. He's able to play both left and right. He's played with all types of different partners there. He can kill penalties."
Dan Muse used the same word to describe Kulak, saying he "can be a steady presence there."
Muse said after Friday's practice that the staff had only just begun to have discussions on where to use Kulak, and they aren't even sure yet about his availability for this weekend as he and Stuart Skinner first have to go through the immigration process.
Given that Kulak was on Edmonton's third pair and skates on the left side, some might have the initial thought that he could just slot in for Ryan Graves on the left side of that pair, given Graves' struggles in the last two years and also that it wasn't too long ago that he cleared waivers.
Since Graves has come back up, though, he's been one of the more productive players in his role and that pair with Connor Clifton has been an effective third pairing.
Some figures to support that, using five-on-five rates and were he ranks among the six defensemen still on the roster who have played this season:
• The Penguins see the second-best rate of shot attempts for with Graves on the ice, with his 58.66 per 60 minutes trailing only Letang's 60.6
• When Graves is on the ice the Penguins see 49.29 shot attempts against per 60 minutes, the best rate on the team.
• That's not from sheltering -- Graves' 2.41 offensive zone starts per 60 minutes is the lowest rate on the Penguins' defense. He starts in the offensive zone only 27.27% of the time, also the lowest.
• Graves individually averages 13.66 shot attempts and 4.55 shots on goal per 60 minutes, second to only Karlsson in either category. He's spoken before about his AHL stint giving him more confidence with the puck, and that's measurable.
• Graves' rate of 2.41 giveaways per 60 minutes is the lowest among their defensemen.
• Graves' rate of 6.7 blocked shots per 60 minutes also leads the defensemen.
• Graves draws penalties at a rate two times higher than the next-closest defenseman.
• Of the five regular pairings the Penguins have used this season (Wotherspoon-Karlsson, Shea-Letang, Graves-Clifton, Graves-Matt Dumba and Caleb Jones-Harrison Brunicke) the Graves-Clifton pair leads in on-ice share of shot attempts (59.17%), unblocked attempts (65.25%), high-danger attempts (67.5%), shots (63.74%), expected goals (65.11%) and goals (75%).
"I like playing with Cliffy," Graves told me on Friday. "I think we both play a similar style of game, which helps. We play straight lines, we play hard, we think the game similarly. We just want to move pucks quickly. We want to break out as efficiently as possible. We don't need to be fancy. We're not trying to beat guys one on one. We're just moving pucks quickly. We're physical, just playing straight-line hockey that is effective. We think similarly and kind of play off each other."
Graves didn't seemed fazed by a new left-handed defenseman being added to the mix and in direct competition with him for a spot, saying, "there's been competition all year, so it is what it is. You've just got to worry about yourself."
Breaking up the third pairing right now would seem silly. They're making a positive impact.
So, where does Kulak go?
The Shea-Letang pairing sees the highest rates of shot attempts against, unblocked attempts against, shots against, expected goals and actual goals against. That's despite being the only pair to see more than half of their shifts start in the offensive zone, at 53.42%.
It's not possible to pin those results on either one of those guys, but as a pair, they leave room for improvement defensively. And if any one is going to come out of the lineup, at least for an extended stretch, it would be Shea. Kulak being a left-handed defenseman would only reinforce that. And given that the book on him is that he's a "steady" presence first and foremost, pairing him with someone like Letang who takes risks offensively could be something that helps Letang, too.
The Penguins don't have a ton of practice time over this next stretch, just with the condensed game schedule coming up. They don't have the benefit of experimenting too much in practice before throwing a new pair into a game. But if they're looking for a good place to start, simply swapping Shea for Kulak on the second pair would seem to make the most sense.
THE ASYLUM
Where does Kulak fit here?
The Penguins now have eight healthy defensemen on their roster after Friday's trade -- right-handed Erik Karlsson, Kris Letang, Connor Clifton and Jack St. Ivany, and the left-handed Parker Wotherspoon, Ryan Shea, Ryan Graves and newly acquired Brett Kulak.
Kulak, 31, was skating on the left side of the Oilers' third pairing but has experience on the right side, as well. The 6-foot-2, 192-pound defenseman has two assists and was a minus-7 in 31 games this season. He skated in all 82 games last season, scoring seven goals and 18 assists.
"He's been incredibly steady," Kyle Dubas said of Kulak. "And he's done it in the hardest environments, in the playoffs and down the stretch. And I know when we were watching them last month, he'd obviously had his struggles. I think their whole team was in that sort of a funk, and then he's been able to come through it. He's able to play both left and right. He's played with all types of different partners there. He can kill penalties."
Dan Muse used the same word to describe Kulak, saying he "can be a steady presence there."
Muse said after Friday's practice that the staff had only just begun to have discussions on where to use Kulak, and they aren't even sure yet about his availability for this weekend as he and Stuart Skinner first have to go through the immigration process.
Given that Kulak was on Edmonton's third pair and skates on the left side, some might have the initial thought that he could just slot in for Ryan Graves on the left side of that pair, given Graves' struggles in the last two years and also that it wasn't too long ago that he cleared waivers.
Since Graves has come back up, though, he's been one of the more productive players in his role and that pair with Connor Clifton has been an effective third pairing.
Some figures to support that, using five-on-five rates and were he ranks among the six defensemen still on the roster who have played this season:
• The Penguins see the second-best rate of shot attempts for with Graves on the ice, with his 58.66 per 60 minutes trailing only Letang's 60.6
• When Graves is on the ice the Penguins see 49.29 shot attempts against per 60 minutes, the best rate on the team.
• That's not from sheltering -- Graves' 2.41 offensive zone starts per 60 minutes is the lowest rate on the Penguins' defense. He starts in the offensive zone only 27.27% of the time, also the lowest.
• Graves individually averages 13.66 shot attempts and 4.55 shots on goal per 60 minutes, second to only Karlsson in either category. He's spoken before about his AHL stint giving him more confidence with the puck, and that's measurable.
• Graves' rate of 2.41 giveaways per 60 minutes is the lowest among their defensemen.
• Graves' rate of 6.7 blocked shots per 60 minutes also leads the defensemen.
• Graves draws penalties at a rate two times higher than the next-closest defenseman.
• Of the five regular pairings the Penguins have used this season (Wotherspoon-Karlsson, Shea-Letang, Graves-Clifton, Graves-Matt Dumba and Caleb Jones-Harrison Brunicke) the Graves-Clifton pair leads in on-ice share of shot attempts (59.17%), unblocked attempts (65.25%), high-danger attempts (67.5%), shots (63.74%), expected goals (65.11%) and goals (75%).
"I like playing with Cliffy," Graves told me on Friday. "I think we both play a similar style of game, which helps. We play straight lines, we play hard, we think the game similarly. We just want to move pucks quickly. We want to break out as efficiently as possible. We don't need to be fancy. We're not trying to beat guys one on one. We're just moving pucks quickly. We're physical, just playing straight-line hockey that is effective. We think similarly and kind of play off each other."
Graves didn't seemed fazed by a new left-handed defenseman being added to the mix and in direct competition with him for a spot, saying, "there's been competition all year, so it is what it is. You've just got to worry about yourself."
Breaking up the third pairing right now would seem silly. They're making a positive impact.
So, where does Kulak go?
The Shea-Letang pairing sees the highest rates of shot attempts against, unblocked attempts against, shots against, expected goals and actual goals against. That's despite being the only pair to see more than half of their shifts start in the offensive zone, at 53.42%.
It's not possible to pin those results on either one of those guys, but as a pair, they leave room for improvement defensively. And if any one is going to come out of the lineup, at least for an extended stretch, it would be Shea. Kulak being a left-handed defenseman would only reinforce that. And given that the book on him is that he's a "steady" presence first and foremost, pairing him with someone like Letang who takes risks offensively could be something that helps Letang, too.
The Penguins don't have a ton of practice time over this next stretch, just with the condensed game schedule coming up. They don't have the benefit of experimenting too much in practice before throwing a new pair into a game. But if they're looking for a good place to start, simply swapping Shea for Kulak on the second pair would seem to make the most sense.
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