Making Moves

That 2nd pairing. Whoooof.

If I've learned one thing about the Penguin's coaching its that they can work miracles with defensemen but they can't teach the stupid of the stupid. I honestly don't know much about Zaitsev but as long as he buys into what's being fed to him I'm sure he could be successful in Pittsburgh.

What miracles? Schultz?

Schultz was great in the cups runs, I thought Gudbranson was excellent down the stretch and through the playoffs, and once Johnson bought into the system he played a fairly solid 2nd half of the season. Nobody is going to say that defense was the issue this year. Maybe defensemen making stupid offensive plays, but 5 guys who played in the playoffs above I thought all played pretty solid.

Yeah Schultz is good but he's always had great skill, just used poorly in Edmonton. Gudbranson had a good first 10 games then went right back to being very bellow average in possession metrics. Johnson has been a tire fire all season, burning extra bright in the playoffs, -3 and 3 bad minors. He had his worst possession stats in the last 6 seasons this year.

Not a single player has improved metrics with Johnson:
https://hockeyviz.com/fixedImg/replacements/1819/PIT/johnsja87/wrap

So I don't think pens should entertain the idea of taking bad defensemen and hoping they become good. There is no evidence to show that they are good at converting defensemen