The Pittsburgh Penguins offseason is underway after Olli Maatta got traded for Dominik Kahun.
Jim Rutherford’s summer retool of the Pittsburgh Penguins has officially begun. On Saturday, Pittsburgh acquired forward Dominik Kahun and a 5th round draft pick from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for Olli Maatta.
As a rookie last season, the 23-year-old Kahun was very impressive. Kahun posted 13 goals and 24 assists. 35 of Kahun’s 37 points came at even-strength. Considering that Kahun will probably not see much powerplay time, his even-strength production is very important.
Kahun’s 16 primary assists were the second most of any Blackhawks skater. His points per hour of 1.9 ranked fifth amongst Chicago’s forwards.
As the data below states, the Blackhawks were a better team with Kahun on the ice as opposed to having him off of it.
His offensive awareness is on display in the clip below. If he can just get open, Pittsburgh’s high-end talent will find him.
One thing I really like about Kahun's game is the sneakiness he exhibits in the offensive zone. Look at how much ice he covers here, against the flow of play, to find a soft spot in front of the net. Gets to the scoring area without being caught. pic.twitter.com/PWFGa6hcqf
— Jesse Marshall (@jmarshfof) June 16, 2019
Kahun has one year remaining on his entry-level contract at a $925,000 cap hit. Creating salary cap space is another aspect that the Penguins accomplished with this trade.
Having young and productive forwards are vitally important to playing deep into the spring. St.Louis had three players of that ilk during their Cup run.
Adding a speedy playmaker in Kahun to the forward group is a fine addition. Kahun’s ability to play all three forward positions will give the Penguins some more versatility. In terms of overall depth, the Penguins forwards are trending similarly towards the 2016 team.
Olli Maatta was only as good as the sum of his parts. Quality of teammate really matters with him, and Maatta witnessed that first-hand in his Pittsburgh tenure. Maatta really benefited from playing on a pair with Matt Niskanen in his rookie season. Last season, Maatta was not that lucky.
His most common partner was Juuso Riikola, who is just as bad as Jack Johnson Second most common partner was Jamie Oleksiak who was traded away Third most common was Jack Johnson His year went exactly the way it should have. Deployment matters https://t.co/kK2lQio0HV
— Ryan Wilson (@GunnerStaal) June 16, 2019
The performance of Marcus Pettersson ultimately made Maatta expandable. Pettersson had a very good rookie season and should slot in on the second pair moving forward. The duo of Jack Johnson and Justin Schultz was an absolute tire fire last season and that can not be the Penguins second defense pair heading into next season.
Pittsburgh’s work on the blueline should not be done. The revamp must continue. Per Cap Friendly, the Penguins still have the second lowest amount of cap room ($6,375,000) in the league, and Jack Johnson’s $3.25M cap hit needs to come off of the books.
Micah Blake McCurdy of Hockey Viz feels that the Penguins got the better end of this deal.
Olli Määttä (to Chicago) is a slightly below average defender and Dom Kahun (to Pittsburgh) is a slightly above average forward. pic.twitter.com/b3n0jKI7M0
— Micah Blake McCurdy (@IneffectiveMath) June 16, 2019
The Penguins off-season is off to a good start. Now, if Pittsburgh can ship Johnson to the moon and solidify their second defense pair, they will be a very competitive team heading into next season.
The Penguins blueline still needs some work, and we will see if Jim Rutherford can accomplish that over the next couple of weeks. Thanks for reading! Data from Natural Stat Trick, Quant Hockey, and Hockey-Reference were used in this article.