By Mark Madden
November 19, 2017
The Penguins organization feels Daniel Sprong isn’t ready for the NHL.
Call him up anyway. Make Sprong prove he’s not ready.
The 20-year-old right winger couldn’t possibly do worse than any number of Penguins forwards.
Sprong, a rookie pro and second-round pick in the 2015 NHL draft, is thought to be defensively deficient. That part of his game would be a perfect fit in Pittsburgh. Nearly every forward is defensively deficient. It’s a free ride through the neutral zone to the Penguins’ end.
But unlike too many Penguins forwards this season, Sprong can score. He has nine goals in 14 games with the Pens’ Wilkes-Barre/Scranton affiliate. Sprong is a natural finisher, with high goal totals throughout his Major Junior career.
Such a call-up would be no knee-jerk reaction to the Penguins’ mediocre start. The team is 11-8-3 despite clearly suffering from a Stanley Cup hangover. That’s not disastrous. They’re tied for first place in the Metropolitan Division.
Summoning Sprong to Pittsburgh would be a logical reaction to the Penguins’ inability to score, which is inexplicable given their talent.
The Penguins are averaging 2.68 goals per game. That figure ranks 25th in the NHL. Subtract 19 power-play goals and three short-handed goals, and they’re averaging 1.68 goals per. That’s pathetic production at even strength.
So call up the minor-leaguer who’s scoring and has pedigree thereof. That’s common sense.
Few Penguins forwards are producing at the expected level.
Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are pretty near, but hardly plumb. Second-year pro Jake Guentzel isn’t a secret anymore. Phil Kessel is on song, and Patric Hornqvist and Conor Sheary are going above and beyond.
But the Penguins have several forwards that just don’t score.
Fourth-liners carry low expectations. You could use more, but can’t rely on more.
But Bryan Rust (two goals in 22 games), Carl Hagelin (one goal in 21 games) and Riley Sheahan (one goal, an empty-netter, in 13 games) are underachieving at an inexcusable level. Rust and Hagelin have each skated in top-six roles intermittently. Rust gets some power-play time.
Rust does have 10 assists, and does play in traffic.
Hagelin’s forecheck and pace set a tempo. But he doesn’t go to the dirty areas often enough, and his finishing has zero polish.
Sheahan has scored in just two of his last 107 games. Sheahan not scoring isn’t unexpected, and it’s not exactly a mystery. Same problems as Hagelin, only worse: Doesn’t go to the blue paint, misfires at the moment of truth.
Rust, Hagelin and Sheahan are useful players in other aspects. Sheahan is particularly frustrating, because he never puts a skate wrong otherwise. He does all a third-line center should do, except he almost never scores.
Coach Mike Sullivan sometimes tries to create artificial depth by spreading his scoring among his top three lines.
The Penguins’ third line has been productive lately: Hornqvist has two goals in his last three games, and Sheary had two goals (including the overtime winner) in Tuesday’s 5-4 home victory over Buffalo.
But when their skills are evaluated within the context of the roster, Hornqvist and Sheary should be top-six. Third-line talents Hagelin and Rust have instead been used in the top six and simply have not helped in those roles.
Hagelin, Rust and Sheahan don’t score and don’t often even look like threats to score. You can’t have three guys like that playing as much as those three do.
Summon Sprong. Live with his weaknesses. Teach him. Let Sprong get acclimated. See how he does.
Perhaps Sprong will score some goals. This isn’t often said about the Penguins, but goals are a rare commodity right now.
If need be, move Guentzel to center. He certainly isn’t sparkling at wing. Drop Sheahan to fourth-line center.
Sprong and Kessel have similar quirks: Don’t hit much, don’t block shots, don’t excel on defense. It might seem difficult to have both in the lineup. But their deficiencies are much less damaging than a forward who never scores.
You can always send Sprong back to the minors. You can always move Guentzel back to wing. These aren’t desperate times, so these aren’t desperate measures. A big trade would be a desperate measure. These are reasonable experiments that should be tried, and can be discarded if they don’t work.
But much of the tried and true as regards the Penguins’ offense isn’t working right now. November is a good time to test different ideas.
Mark Madden hosts a radio show 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WXDX-FM (105.9).
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