Should Penguins Be Getting More From Reilly Smith? (+)

CRANBERRY — Reilly Smith has proven to be precisely the player the Pittsburgh Penguins hoped they were getting when they acquired him from Vegas last summer.

Sometimes.

“We believe Reilly’s a real good player, on both sides of the puck,” Mike Sullivan said after practice Wednesday at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex Wednesday.

Smith certainly was during the early weeks of this season, when he and Evgeni Malkin teamed up to make the No. 2 line, whether it had Rickard Rakell or Bryan Rust on the right side, the team’s most formidable on a lot of nights.

But there have been other times when Smith has been a virtual non-factor, a guy who works hard but gets little tangible to show for it. And that’s been especially evident in his offensive output.