Pittsburgh Penguins Power Play: Key lies with Malkin

Adam Gretz had a great piece about the James Neal / Patric Hornqvist switcheroo and what it might mean for each going forward. It's interesting, well researched and worth your time.

Gretz was wondering who would replace Neal in the sniper role on the Penguins power play, and correctly noted that Hornqvist and Chris Kunitz pretty much play the exact same style and position on the PP in front of the goalie. The ice might not be big enough for the both of them, and the loss of such a good shooter in Neal will hurt the Penguins #1 ranked power play unit, but the solution to replacing Neal lies within.

It's Evgeni Malkin.

Malkin only has 11 power play goals since the start of the 2012-13 season (in 91 games), where he has played mainly near the blueline in a point role of distributing the puck to Neal and Sidney Crosby. He hasn't been ineffective, he still has 37 assists, it's just that he hasn't seemingly been emphasized as a shooter on the PP when he was back playing on the point. With Neal gone, this should change in a hurry.

The addition of Christian Ehrhoff - who has a bomb of a shot- should be a solid addition back with Kris Letang or Paul Martin on the point, leaving really no reason not to move Malkin back closer to the net, where he should score more goals.

Crosby will (and should) remain in his preferred spot on the right half-wall, and with Hornqvist or Kunitz in front of the net, that would move Malkin into Neal's role of being a floater in space and looking for a soft spot in the zone to shoot would be great for the Pens power play.

Malkin was an absolute beast his first four seasons in the league from 2006-2010, scoring 60 total PPG (which ranked 5th in the whole league in this span) and getting him off the point and into more of a shooter's role might do well for his confidence and overall goal scoring ability moving forward at even-strength too, where it figures Malkin will have to shoot more with Neal gone.

As we've seen researched on this site, breaking it down by 5v5 rates and Malkin may not have deferred to Neal, but it's also undeniable that just for simple shots per game, Malkin only 191 SOG in 60 games last season, for 3.18 shots/game, Malkin's NHL career low since his rookie season. With Neal (and Jussi Jokinen, also an effective skill player in space) both gone, and Hornqvist doing his best work from right in front of the net, it's clear that Malkin will need to put more total rubber on target this coming season.

The difficulty in this theory would be that Malkin would have to play away from the puck a lot on the power play, as he lurks within the defense, trying to find the soft-spot in the coverage and then wait for someone (presumably Crosby) to find him for a developing pass that could be instantly converted to a shot on goal. If you have ever watched a skill player, especially Evgeni Malkin, you've probably noticed that he likes to be very involved and handle the puck as much as possible. Getting him to adapt to and used to this new role might be the toughest challenge in this whole exercise.

It will be interesting to see if Neal can continue to find the net without #71, but for the Penguins moving on without Neal, they should look to Malkin on the power play at least to recreate the shooting abilities that Neal held over the past few seasons. In that regard, Pittsburgh is lucky to replace a former 40-goal scorer with a former 50-goal guy.

Malkin 2013 PP shot chart

The majority of the shots here, from sportingcharts.com are coming from the point, or from where Malkin cheats down towards the right circle when the opportunity presents itself. When the Pens are setup in the zone, he's usually a long way out from the net, and his shots are not that dangerous- just 8 of 96 (8.33%) ended up scoring.

Malkin 2009 PP shot chart

Shots here are still clustered from the right side (where the left-handed Malkin can easily shoot one-timers) but there is also a lot more variability on the heat map from shots coming from the left side, and shots coming from closer to the net, including the dangerous area in front of the crease and between the faceoff circles. Malkin scored more on just a few more shots this season (13 goals on 105 shots for 12.38%).