Yes, it absolutely is. And to multiply the damage, Perron's usage has taken a scary turn.
I've been interested in how the coaches were going to cover up for his defensive deficiencies this year. Under MJ, he was heavily sheltered with O zone draws, the most heavily he's been sheltered since he's been in the league, which made sense. Under MS, that trend has changed, and that has a lot to do with playing with Crosby rather than Geno. This has probably contributed to him going from scoring at a poor rate, to not scoring at all, and for his mistakes becoming so noticeable.
He was a -6 through 28 games until MJ got fired, and he's been a -8 in 14 games under MS, and has only been a positive player once in 14 games. He was at almost 40% Ozone draws under MJ, and he's been closer to 30% under MS.
And even uglier, his teammates score less playing with him than they do on average (about 20% less), and his opponents score a ton more when they play against him than their averages (about 37% more). Most startling, we score only 35% of the goals scored when David Perron is on the ice, even though he starts a ton more in the O zone than the D zone. That's worse than Craig Adams during the final 4 years of his career when he was used as a Dzone checking forward.
And if you consider the alternative to Perron is typically Chris Kunitz, that really adds to how startling these stats are. And when you consider almost 70% of the goals scored when Kunitz is on the ice are scored by the Pens, it's pretty easy to see why the coaches have cemented him in the top 6. What's harder to understand is why Perron is still there.
