Penguins Notebook: Coaches Working with Letang; Deadline Criticism

So what exactly is the point of the remainder of the Pittsburgh Penguins season?

The team is trying to win games, while management, beginning with general manager Kyle Dubas, is exclusively focused on the future. In fact, losing would benefit the franchise.

The professional schism seemingly affected the Penguins’ trade deadline actions, as Rickard Rakell and Matt Grzelcyk remained with the team despite advantageous alternatives, merely highlighting the competing duality.

Somewhat surprisingly, the team has very few players with the guillotine of unemployment hanging above them. Very few players are fighting for jobs with the team next season, and more players are simply placeholders.

If the Penguins are in transition, it seems like they are still in a holding pattern.

At the NHL trade deadline, Dubas did not add genuine desperation or an infusion of youthful energy intending to fight for a job. Perhaps on paper the Penguins did such things by acquiring Tommy Novak, Conor Timmins, and Connor Dewar.

Still, Dewar is more of a carbon copy of gritty low-scoring assets already possessed, such as Blake Lizotte, and Timmins is more of a depth defender than an impactful difference maker.

In fact, Novak is one of the few players on the roster with something to prove. After a couple of quiet games to begin his Penguins career, he’s missed the last few due to a day-to-day injury.

Philip Tomasino remains the youngster in the locker room. After Dubas acquired him from Nashville for a fourth-round pick, he has been given plenty of runway this season, with tepid results. Tomasino has 17 points (9-8-17) in 39 games but his ability to adopt a more complete game remains a work in progress.

With respect to the players, Penguins fans expected a little more than watching depth players in their later 20s scrap to find a down-lineup or bottom-pairing job.

Many fans found the idea of acquiring players in the 22-24 age range with big talent as a selling point for participating in the remainder of the season. However, the Penguins still have a bucket full of draft picks instead.

The draft picks are valuable but they hold little value for the next month of hockey.

Perhaps the biggest storyline remaining for the Penguins, aside from their final draft position, is goalie Tristan Jarry.

Can he complete the Lazarus-style comeback and regain his position as a No. 1 goalie?

With a week to let dust settle, it seems that Dubas did little more than nibble around the edges, dealing only the players who weren’t going to return (Marcus Pettersson, Drew O’Connor, Cody Glass), and one curious trade (Michael Bunting) that netted the team another reclimation project and second-round pick.

It was not the transformative or step forward deadline that many anticipated, but a continuation of the stockpiling. The current Penguins are certainly not better off, and it’s a legitimate query to ask just how much Dubas accomplished.

Kris Letang

Letang, 37, remains one of the Penguins’ big-three, but his statistics are down considerably and well off career norms. Barring an extraordinary run to the end of the season, the defenseman will have his worst offensive output since his third year in the league, back in 2009-10.

Letang has 26 points (8-18-26) in 61 games. He had 27 points in 73 games in 2009-10 before his career took off, and he had 50 points in 82 games this season.

Letang has recently pushed against any age-related decline; his digital read-outs show the same speeds that he’s always had.

But he’s obviously not having a typical season, and coach Mike Sullivan’s somewhat balanced, if not blunt, assessment of Letang was a bit surprising.

“I think it’s been a bit of a mixed bag. I think he’s had moments when he’s played really well. For example, the Colorado game (March 4),” coach Mike Sullivan. “I think that might have been (Letang’s) best game all year. When Tanger plays a calculated game, he defends hard, he takes what the game gives him, I think he’s a very effective defenseman for us and he helps us in so many ways.

“You know, when he tries to do too much, I think that’s when he gets in trouble or gets us in trouble a little bit. So just finding that balance between trying to be proactive and jump into the offense, and we certainly don’t want to take that aspect of his game away from him, because we think that’s one of the things that separates him from others. But when he’s calculated and when he doesn’t force plays, and he takes what the game gives him, I think that’s when he’s been at his best … if he’s trying to do too much, sometimes he gets himself and us in trouble. And that’s really the conversation the coaching staff has with Kris almost daily.”