Hornqvist isn't just a part of that, the PP drops to like half of it's potential success-rate when Hornqvist is out. He's the main part of what makes the PP work. Kessel's been great, but Horny drives the PP bus.
I think the biggest part of that aspect is that we have zero Hornqvist replacements. Not just stylistically, but in terms of an effective (or even semi effective) net front presence. As much as Kunitz was hated here, he was still half ass decent in front of the net. When Hornqvist went down and our PP cratered I think a huge part of why was because we had no one to replace what Hornqvist did in front of the net. You have even a Kunitz level player there, and while we'd still see a drop, I don't think it would be anywhere near as drastic as it was.
This is like saying JVR drives Toronto's PP. Hornqvist is great at what he does, but what he does is effectively stand in front of the goalie while everyone else on the PP literally does everything else, like actually set up the plays. You could replace Hornqvist with some other player who is willing to stand in front of the net and it would still be effective, probably not AS effective but effective. The guys who are making the plays in the zone during the PP are literally driving the bus.
Yes and no. It takes more than just a willingness to stand in front of the goalie to be effective there. So while I think you could replace Hornqvist with someone, it can't just be any old body. We tried it with Guentzel who's infinitely more skilled then Hornqvist and the drop off was massive. Being an effective net front guy is more than just blocking the goalie sight and knowing your angles - if it was that easy, more guys would be good/great there.
So while I think you could replace Hornqvist there... you need the right body to do it, and last season anyway we didn't have that body.
Absolutely, for example when Hornqvist got big PP with Nashville from 09-14, their average PP rank was 16/30. Penguins finished top 5 in PP% 5 of 8 seasons prior to Hornqvist.
And who was Pittsburgh's net front guy those seasons? Not going to look it up, but I imagine that Kunitz played a lot of that role. And while he had his faults, he was decent there.