Pittsburgh Penguins need more production out of Riley Sheahan

One of the biggest reasons for the Pittsburgh Penguins’ latest struggles has been the lack of production from Riley Sheahan.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are facing an ultra-talented Winnipeg Jets team on Tuesday night. Prior to the start of the 2018-19 campaign, I picked a Penguins versus Jets matchup as my Stanley Cup Final pick.

If Pittsburgh wants to get back into the playoff picture and become a contender again, they will need more secondary scoring. I’m confident that the floodgates will burst open for Derick Brassard and Bryan Rust quite soon.

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However, I can not say the same for fourth-line center Riley Sheahan. Prior to coming to Pittsburgh in October of 2017, he struggled mightily to find the back of the net, scoring just two goals in his final 88 games with the Detroit Red Wings.

This season, Sheahan has been utilized a bit differently than he was in his first season as a Penguin. When Pittsburgh’s forwards are at full health, he is now being used primarily as a fourth-line, defensive zone specialist.

Per Hockey-Reference, Sheahan is starting 75.4% of his even-strength shifts in the defensive zone. That mark is the ninth-highest amongst all NHL players. That is a 10% uptick from how Mike Sullivan and the Penguins coaching staff used Sheahan last season.

As a result of that, Sheahan’s offensive production this season has been nearly non-existent. Courtesy of Natural Stat Trick, here’s a look at where some of Sheahan’s rate stats rank amongst the Penguins forwards (minimum 50 minutes). The per 60 stands for every 60 minutes of ice-time that Sheahan sees at five-on-five.

• Even-Strength Goals per 60: 0.28, 12th
• Primary-Assists per 60: 0.28, 12th
• Even-Strength Points per 60: 0.55, last
• Shots per 60: 7.44, 7th

On a team that has Stanley Cup aspirations, that is not going to cut it. When the Penguins were winning Stanley Cups, they rolled four lines that could score. This has not been the case this season through 22 games.

However, there are some reasons to be cautiously optimistic about Sheahan’s production. His PDO (shooting percentage + save percentage) of 0.931 ranks next to last amongst the Penguins forwards. The league average is generally around 1.000, so Sheahan has likely been the victim of some bad luck.

As you saw above, he is generating shots at an average rate, but the puck is not going in for him right now. Skating alongside a below-average Matt Cullen has made Sheahan’s job even more difficult.

In an attempt to get Sheahan producing again, I would do two things. The first would be to promote forward Teddy Blueger from Wilkes-Barre and form a line of Blueger, Sheahan, and Daniel Sprong. Blueger leads the baby Penguins in scoring, and at some point, they need to see what they have in him.

The second order of duty would be to give Sheahan some more neutral-zone starts. This would shorten the ice and likely lead to increased offensive-zone time for him and his line. Ultimately, the Penguins need to improve Sheahan’s quality of teammate or reduce his defensive zone-starts if they want to prevent Sheahan from going snake-bitten for an entire season once again.

Thanks for reading!