Penguins Grades: Problems for Trade Acquisitions

For better or worse, a pair of Pittsburgh Penguins trade acquisitions were joined together this season, despite little to nothing in common other than general manager Kyle Dubas submitted transactions to the NHL Central Office with their names on them.

The careers of Kevin Hayes and Philip Tomasino are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Hayes is finishing a big-money seven-year deal lavished upon him by the Philadelphia Flyers, who plucked him from the Winnipeg Jets via free agency. Hayes was to be the second-line center of the next great Flyers wave, but was instead the target of former coach John Tortorella’s ire.

The formerly heralded Tomasino is also on his second chance. The 2019 first-round pick of the Nashville Predators (24th overall) was unceremoniously bounced from Music City as Nashville GM Barry Trotz tried to take the team in a new direction, essentially giving up on the team’s former first-round pick.

Read More: Sullivan Pushes Tomasino for More, Hayes Finds Spot (+)

Tomasino cost the Penguins merely a 2027 fourth-rounder. Hayes’s acquisition price was even more generous, as St. Louis included a future second and third-round pick to facilitate the salary dump.

For the Penguins, both were emblematic of Dubas’s plan to retool, rebuild, or revamp the lineup. The draft picks affixed to Hayes were the primary reason for the deal, while the 23-year-old Tomasino represented hope for the future.

Tomasino was the perfect acquisition for a team at the outset of a rebuild, sort of. If the Penguins could develop him to a more complete and reliable player, they would have a scoring winger young enough to be with the club through transition to the foretold magical wonderland on the other side of struggle and rebuild.

And if they failed, it cost merely a mid-round pick. Tomasino scored 11 goals this season, which is more than roughly 97% of all fourth-rounders will ever score.

Penguins Report Cards

For the entirety of his tenure, it was customary for former coach Mike Sullivan to praise individual players when asked. Sullivan had his crutch phrases to indicate where a player needed to improve–“Those are conversations we’ve had…” usually followed by “He’s at his best when…”

However, Sullivan found it hard to praise Tomasino. The former coach lauded his work ethic to make the necessary changes and admitted he was still trying to make them, but the praise often ended there.

“We’re trying to encourage Philip to embrace the other aspects of the game, maybe some of the subtleties of the game that are not as easily quantifiable as a goal or assist, but they add up to winning–like winning puck battles and wall play and going to the net and finishing a check and things of that nature that are required if we’re going to have success as a group if we’re going to win, and if he’s going to have success as a player,” Sullivan said on Jan. 22.

The biggest problems with Tomasino’s game are those lack of dimensions. He can score, though his finishing level is below average. According to the advanced stat website MoneyPuck.com, Tomasino’s Shooting Talent Above Average was a surprising minus-13.4%.

That tracks with the eye test, too.

Tomasino’s best games were noticeable. When he vigorously worked the walls and was harder on the puck, it stood out. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be his natural disposition, which is a perimeter game with bursts of offense.

A player can be softer around the edges if he puts up healthy goal totals, but a player who has to remind himself to be harder to play against, who carries a negative finishing rating, is another matter.

As a restricted free agent, Tomasino’s future is both in the team’s control and in limbo, too. Was one year enough of an audition after Nashville gave up because of those issues?

Tomasino finished with 11 goals and 12 assists in 50 games with the Penguins, 24 points in 61 games overall. The paper totals are average for a third-line winger, but if that’s his career path, Tomasino will indeed need to work toward a more complete game.

He didn’t do enough this season.

Tomasino Grade: C-

Kevin Hayes

While Tomasino is 23, Hayes is 33 and playing the back nine of his career. It was a horrible summer for him as his best friend Johnny Gaudreau was killed by an alleged drunk driver in a tragic bicycling accident last August. A little memorial hung in Hayes’s dressing room stall all season.

However, Hayes didn’t have a good start to the season. Sullivan put him on the wing, where he looked slow and out of sync, and the coach eventually made him a healthy scratch for about a month.

After he returned to the lineup and Sullivan put him in the middle, Hayes had a resurgent stretch in which he elevated the third line, found his niche on the Penguins’ power play units, including PP1, and showed his A-level game. However, it didn’t last, and by the end of the season, Hayes was back to his mediocre game.

Hays can kill penalties, but that’s not his natural game. Overall, he is a playmaking center who is a bit slow, but the increasing problem for players and teams is that the game is getting a bit faster.

Hayes didn’t work in St. Louis last season as he scored a career low 29 points. His point total fell even further this season with the Penguins to 23 points (13-10-23) in 64 games.

Hayes may again be the de facto third-line center next season, but that would be because of a lack of internal options if prospects Tristan Broz and Vasily Ponomarev aren’t yet up to the task.

Hayes filled the Jeff Carter, locker room veteran and good-guy role, but as the team transitions to young players, being the class cut up may not be as valuable as it once was.

The Penguins have ample salary cap space, so there’s little reason to suspect a June buyout, but it’s not out of the question. It would cost the Penguins only $2.3 million (instead of $3.5 million) next season, and only $666,666 the following year.

Adding additional drawbacks to a continued relationship, before the season, Hayes told PHN that he needed to shoot more. Unfortunately for him, he took 55 fewer shots this season (98) than last (153), and less than half the shots he took with the Philadelphia Flyers two seasons ago (209).

Hayes’s game is rapidly trending in the wrong direction. Barring a resuscitation that more closely resembles his mid-season performance, Hayes isn’t guaranteed a spot on the team next season. Like Tomasino, the Penguins gave him a chance and a lot of ice time, but the results and falling totals are not in keeping with a team trying to rebuild.

Hayes Grade: D