The Pittsburgh Penguins ended up collapsing in the playoffs against the New York Rangers in seven games and many fans and writers raised questions if the Penguins needed a big change five years after winning the Stanley Cup. Some fans got their wish as owners Mario Lemeiux and Ron Burkle decided to fire general manager Ray Shero and head coach Dan Byslma due to their failures.
They ended up hiring former Carolina Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford and that got a lot of fans upset that this would be another failure. They also hired Mike Johnston of the Portland Winterhawks to be their coach. Jim Rutherford has been anything but a failure for the Penguins so far as he has brought in a lot of good quality players on the cheap. He did a big trade during the NHL draft that no one saw coming when he traded James Neal to the Nashville Predators for Patric Hornqvist and Nick Spaling. He then got a steal for Christian Ehrhoff on a one year deal for four million and then signed more players for one year deals such as goaltender Thomas Greiss, Blake Comeau, and Marcel Goc. He let all of the dead weight go such as Deryk Engelland, Joe Vitale, Brooks Orpik, and Tanner Glass who just weren't good for the Penguins. Alright, enough talk about what Jim Rutherford did to help this team. Let's take a look at a preview for next years Penguins team.
Offense
The Penguins offense is still just amazing even after they traded James Neal. Whenever you have two of the best players in the world in Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, your offense is going to be at the top of the league. Chris Kunitz is going to be on Crosby's line again this season so he's going to have another 30 goal season like he's been having the past couple seasons. They also have Patric Hornqvist this year and he's going to be a fixture on Evgeni Malkin's line as he could easily get 30 goals this year too. Pascal Dupuis is coming back from a torn ACL but it's hard to say if he's going to be back in top form after he got hurt. Overall, this offense should be just fine this year since Mike Johnston is an offensive coach at heart. Look for the Penguins to be at the top of the league for scoring once again.
Defense
Pittsburgh's defense may not have Matt Niskanen this year since he signed with the Capitals, but it still looks very good. The top pairing is going to easily be Kris Letang and Paul Martin since those are easily the two best defenseman on this team. The second pairing when healthy, will be Olli Maatta and Christian Ehrhoff. That is arguably one of the best top four defensive pairings in the NHL. Pittsburgh has a ton of options for the 3rd pairing such as Rob Scuderi, Derrick Pouliot, and Robert Bortuzzo. Pouliot should be a lock when he comes back from his shoulder surgery that he had over the summer and he should be paired with Bortuzzo since Rob Scuderi is pretty useless on the Penguins right now after his awful season that he had. He's stuck with them for another three seasons and you could argue that was the worst signing Ray Shero made with his time in Pittsburgh. This is a defensive corps that shouldn't give up a lot of goals this year.
Goaltending
The goaltending issue in Pittsburgh seems to be over as Marc-Andre Fleury had a great regular season and a very good postseason. He wasn't the reason the Penguins collapsed against the Rangers because the Penguins couldn't score more than one goal a game in games 5 through 7 on Henrik Lundqvist. With an improved defensive corps this year, Fleury should again have a good season and he needs to since he has to prove to Jim Rutherford that he is the franchise goaltender of the Penguins. Thomas Greiss is most likely going to beat out Jeff Zatkoff for the backup position and that could form one of the best goaltending duos in the league. Goaltending for Pittsburgh looks better than last year.
Special Teams
Pittsburgh's special teams have been the best in the league for a few years now. The power play for the Penguins is always number one in the league thanks to Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on there. That's also where James Neal thrived for the Penguins so it may be difficult to replace what he did on there. They're also going to have Christian Ehrhoff quarterbacking the powerplay and that could very well remind Penguins fans of the Sergei Gonchar days and how he used to quarterback it. Yes, Ehrhoff could be just like him. The PK for the Penguins will be a lot better than last year thanks to Pascal Dupuis coming back. He was one of their best players on the penalty kill before he got injured so it will be big for the Penguins PK. Look for the power play and the penalty kill to be at the top of the league again for the Penguins this coming season.
Outlook for season
The Penguins look so much better going into this season than going into last season. This looks like the best Penguins team on paper since they won the cup in 2009. That being said, the Penguins are going to win the Metropolitan division again this coming season but it may be closer than last season. Look for a finish in the top two for the Eastern Conference and a berth in the Eastern Conference Finals.