As is tradition, the Cup champs get worse. That’s the way it goes in a hard-cap league, but this feels a bit different than the usual order of business. The players Pittsburgh lost were expected, it’s the players they added that are a bit puzzling.
The big gaffe was adding Ryan Reaves at the expense of a first rounder, a price even Reaves couldn’t believe. The NHL is a confusing place where a bonafide top six talent like Marcus Johansson goes for a second and third, but a fourth liner – who’s probably below replacement level – goes for a first. Over the last three years, Reaves’s average Game Score is 0.07, which is better than just six other forwards who’ve played all three years. The reasoning was even more curious as the team that just won two Cups without any muscle apparently got pushed around too much? Most teams only dream that they could be pushed around into two straight Cups.
Then there’s the Marc-Andre Fleury replacement, Antti Niemi, who’s been one of the worst goalies in the league for the last two seasons. In that time he’s sporting a .900 SP, better than only one goalie, Jonas Hiller, who isn’t even in the league anymore. Give Niemi 20 games next year and he likely costs Pittsburgh about one point in the standings.
The reigning Cup champs are not exempt from criticism when their moves are questionable, but the thing is, none of this really matters. When healthy, no other team is even close to Pittsburgh’s level, even after a terrible off-season. That’s especially true with the great demise of the only team that could really challenge them...
