PITTSBURGH — Give Brian Burke and Ron Hextall a lot of credit for the Penguins' solid playoff positioning at the All-Star break.
They made the critical decision to stick with Tristan Jarry as their goaltender after his miserable showing in the playoffs last season. Jarry has been the team's MVP so far, made the All-Star Game, is a Vezina Trophy candidate and is the No. 1 reason the Penguins are a virtual lock to make the postseason for a 16th consecutive year.
Burke and Hextall also brought in Brock McGinn and Danton Heinen as key role players. The two players have made fans forget about Brandon Tanev and Jared McCann. And just last month, Burke and Hextall signed veteran center Jeff Carter for two more seasons at $3.125 million per year. Both the term and cost are right.
But Burke and Hextall will face their biggest challenges after this season. Franchise icons Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang will be unrestricted free agents. So will Bryan Rust, who might be the most indispensable of the three.
I'm not sure the Penguins can keep everybody.
Maybe Malkin will take a cut from his $9.5 million annual salary. He will be 36 before next season and is coming off major knee surgery. But it's not as if his game has disappointed. He has an active nine-game point streak (three goals, seven assists) but will miss the game at Boston on Tuesday night because of COVID-19 protocols. The power play has taken off since he returned to the lineup in Anaheim on Jan. 11, hitting at a 33.3% clip (13 for 39).
Letang has been mostly spectacular all season. He has 41 points in 42 games and plays nearly 26 minutes a game, easily the most on the team. It's easy to imagine another team offering him a multi-year deal for more than his $7.25 annual salary. Sadly, it's just as easy to think the Penguins won't be able to match the offer because of the salary cap.
That leaves Rust. The Penguins should keep him, almost no matter the cost.
That's how valuable Rust is to the team. He plays on the top line with Sidney Crosby and All-Star Jake Guentzel. He has 14 goals and 32 points in 24 games, which works out to 48 goals and 109 points over 82 games. He leads the club with seven power play goals, matching Alex Ovechkin's season total. He has scored three times on the power play in the past two games against Washington and Los Angeles. He can kill penalties. He won't turn 30 until May 11.
Did I mention Crosby and Guentzel love having Rust as their right winger?
Crosby continues to look like one of the top players in the world with seven goals and 16 points in the past 10 games. Guentzel leads the team with 23 goals and 46 points in 40 games.
How do you put a price tag on that love for Rust?
"They have a good amount of chemistry," coach Mike Sullivan said last month of his top line. "They set the bar for our team and it drives our team. The rest of the group follows their lead."
Rust's numbers would be a lot better if he hadn't missed seven games from mid-October to early-November and 11 more from late-November to late-December because of lower-body injuries. He also missed four games in January in COVID-19 protocol. That absence came at a bad time for him; he had scored seven goals and 11 points in the previous three games against Philadelphia, St. Louis and San Jose.
Here's Sullivan again with a recent analysis of Rust:
"I think Rusty has really evolved as a player in his time here as a Pittsburgh Penguin. He's always been a conscientious player on the defensive side of the puck. I think his offensive game has really grown to another level. He's shown the ability to finish. I watch him with his poise with the puck and his vision and his puck protection. His panic threshold is really high right now. He hangs on to pucks and, because of that, it's really helped his game offensively. His overall 200-foot game is the best it's been since he's been a Pittsburgh Penguin."
Signing Rust to a new contract won't be easy. He's one of the NHL's best bargains at the moment, in the final season of a four-year contract that averages $3.5 million. He deserves a big raise. Surely, he will get a big raise.
Burke and Hextall need to make sure Rust gets it from the Penguins.
