The Pittsburgh Penguins season came to an end after a 4-0 series sweep at the hands of the New York Islanders. The loss frustrated the team and its fans alike, and marked the earliest playoff exit for the Penguins since the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The entire roster had a lackluster and disappointing performance as they were completely shut down by the Islanders tight checking trap style of play. This leaves the Penguins players in a horrible time period where everyone is questioned on their importance to the team, the General Manager makes the generic “changes need to be made” comments, and people start to claim that “the dynasty is over”.
Let me preface this by saying that I believe the Pens had a successful season, no matter how disappointing the end result was. They sat in last place in the conference a decent number of games into the season and came back to challenge for the division title up until the last week of the season, and that should be commended. Not to mention they clinched their 13th straight postseason berth, which is no small accomplishment.
You’ll hear the annual trade requests claiming that Evgeni Malkin, or Phil Kessel might be on their way out, but it’s not ever that easy. If there is anyone from the Penguins core that might be dealt it will be right winger Patric Hornqvist. Statistically he didn’t produce to his normal levels in 2018-19 as he scored 18 goals but only totalled 37 points in 69 regular season games. Those are his lowest marks since the 2012-13 season when he only scored 4 goals and 10 assists with the Nashville Predators.
The issue that I saw is not with his point production. Hornqvists’ specialty is being a pain in the side of opposing teams and especially opposing goaltenders, but he didn’t seem to be able to do that this season. His innate ability to draw penalties by just being pesky and immovable in front of the net is what earned him his 5 year contract extension last season. His ability to play top line minutes with Sidney Crosby and score big goals was just the cherry on top. All of that was missing from Hornqvist’s game all season long. This was highlighted by the series with the Islanders, as Hornqvist was a non factor and was even bumped off of the first powerplay unit in favor of Jake Guentzel. Hornqvist showed a little bit of his former self in game 4 when his antics got him on the receiving end of a couple blocker shots to the face from Islanders goaltender Robin Lehner, but that seemed as much out of self frustration than it was to actually shift the momentum and spark something in the team.
Patric Hornqvist spent the majority of the season in the Penguins bottom six where he struggled to play to his role as the antagonizer. He is someone that used to be comparable to Tomas Holmstrom in Detroit, Sean Avery in New York, or Scott Hartnell when he was playing for the Flyers, in the way that he would be able to get under the opponents skin, but that effect just wasn’t there for him this season.
With Hornqvist only one season into his new 5 year contract at a $5.3 Million cap hit per season he could very easily be the first name on a potential trading block for Jim Rutherford. It would be tough to see a player like Hornqvist go because of how great of a locker room guy he is. He has also been a key part for the Penguins on the ice for the last several years, including his game 6 Stanley Cup clinching goal in Nashville. As GM Jim Rutherford has already said, “Some big changes will have to be made. Obviously there will be changes in our team.” If changes are to be made, and especially to the core of the team, Patric Hornqvist could very well be on his way out.
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