Pittsburgh hasn’t won a playoff series since 2018, has the NHL’s oldest roster and is currently riding an 0-for-37 streak on the power play heading into Tuesday night’s visit from Arizona. But his streakiness impeded him in 2022-23.Sullivan, who led the Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cups in 20, is the NHL’s second-longest tenured coach behind Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper. Rust still offers quite a bit to the Penguins even when he isn’t scoring. Perhaps even more importantly, he has the trust of franchise center Sidney Crosby (to say nothing of an established comfort level with the other franchise center, Evgeni Malkin). And he’s more than capable of playing on either special teams unit as he averaged 2:10 of power-play ice time and 1:36 of short-handed ice time per contest. But Rust, even with his shortcomings in 2022-23, appears to be safe, if only because he has a no-movement clause in his contract.Įven with his limited goal output, Rust offers quite a bit in terms of his forechecking abilities through his fleet skating. The future: After missing the playoffs for the first time since 2006, few members of the roster should have job security. Rust’s season came to an early end in the regular season finale April 13 when he suffered a right-hand injury that required a month to heal. In the Penguins’ final 12 games, Rust was second on the team with five goals (as part of eight points overall). Oddly enough, Rust’s offense picked up in the final weeks of the season as the Penguins’ playoff hopes began to erode. After the NHL’s holiday break in late December, Rust had goalless slumps of nine, six and nine (again) games. And that futility came despite Rust being regularly deployed on the top two lines as well as the top power-play unit (at least until he was replaced by Rickard Rakell by early December).Īs the season wore on, Rust’s production followed a familiar pattern. After getting goals in the first two games of the season, Rust only generated three goals over his next 22 games. Rust took that streakiness cliche to extremes throughout the 2022-23 campaign. Rust - who missed only one game last season in order to attend to the birth of a child - reached the 20-goal mark for the fourth consecutive season. In terms of a base figure, the goals came over the course of 2022-23. Just kind of making sure the rest of my game is rounded out and I think the offense will come.” You’ve just got to try to take it day by day, keep working hard, focus on those little things. And everybody goes through things where everything is not. Everybody goes through things where everything is going your way. 3.įollowing that game, he tried to make sense of his futility before that outburst. Nor is he immune from it.Īfter going 14 games with only one goal and one assist throughout most of November, Rust broke through with a goal and three assists during a 6-2 home win against the St. Last season: A common cliche to describe goal-scorer is “streaky.”Īnd Bryan Rust isn’t ignorant of that adjective. ( Note: The first three years of Rust’s contract contain a no-movement clause.)Īcquired: Third-round draft pick (No. Pending unrestricted free agent in the 2028 offseason. ( Note: All contract information courtesy of Cap Friendly.)Ģ022-23 NHL statistics: 81 games, 46 points (20 goals, 26 assists)Ĭontract: In the first year of a six-year contract with a salary cap hit of $5.125 million. This series will publish every weekday leading into the NHL Draft on June 28 and 29. With the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 2022-23 season coming to an end without any postseason action, the Tribune-Review will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 49 individuals signed to an NHL contract - including those whose deals do not begin until next season - with the organization, from mid-level prospect Corey Andonovski to top-six winger Jason Zucker.
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