Pittsburgh Penguins: Jake Guentzel is an elite even-strength scorer
The Pittsburgh Penguins have seen Jake Guentzel develop into one of the NHL’s premier scorers.
It did not take long for Jake Guentzel to make his presence known as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins. In November of 2016, Guentzel scored on his first NHL goal on his first shot during his first shift against the New York Rangers.
After signing Guentzel to a five-year, $30 million contract extension yesterday, the Penguins are banking on his offensive production to continue. Considering his performance this season and his career playoff production, general manager Jim Rutherford was smart to get this resolved sooner than later.
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2018-19 has been the best season to date for Guentzel. He has the seventh most even-strength goals (14) and the ninth-most even strength points (30) in the NHL. Guetnzel has scored a whopping 91 percent of his 33 total points at even-strength. Quality of teammate is obviously a contributing factor here, but he has demonstrated the ability to create his own shot and push defenders back in his own right.
Through 37 games, Guentzel is on pace for 73 points this season. This number would likely be in the 80s if Guentzel was a consistent member of the Penguins top power-play unit.
Corsica Hockey’s player rating system has Guentzel pegged as the ninth best-left wing in entire NHL. He is ahead of high-profile names such as Jamie Benn, Gabriel Landeskog, and Max Pacioretty.
Per Quant Hockey, Guentzel ranks in the 90th percentile in terms of goals and points per game since becoming an NHL regular. Guentzel compares similarly to wingers Dylan Larkin and Filip Forsberg.
The key factor with this contract is that the Penguins will be paying for future performance. At 24, Guentzel is just entering the prime years of his career. If Guentzel can remain healthy and sustain this pace for the rest of the season, the Penguins top-six forwards will be even more difficult to slow down. This is a good deal for both the player and team.
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Following the departure of the underrated Chris Kunitz, the Penguins needed to find a long-term replacement to skate on the left side of Sidney Crosby. Jake Guentzel has proven to be just that, and he will be remaining in Pittsburgh through the 2023-24 campaign.
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