Should Dominik Simon be on the Pittsburgh Penguins top forward line?
Dominik Simon is an enigma amongst many Pittsburgh Penguins fans. It seems as though folks either love or hate the 25-year-old winger. Personally, I really value the skillset that Simon brings to the table. He has very good vision and has a positive offensive impact on the large majority of his linemates. Simon’s finishing ability can be frustrating at times, but the positives outweigh the negatives.
The PensBlog compared Simon to Bryan Rust, Jared McCann, and Patric Hornqvist as the Penguins first-line right-winger. As the data below shows, the Guentzel-Crosby-Simon trio was the most dominant.
While Simon is not an elite goal-scorer, he played a key role in this line controlling territory. Simply put, Crosby and Guentzel were buzzing like bees around a hive when he was on the ice with them.
Here is my favorite clip of that line in action. Simon beats Josh Morrissey to a loose puck and quickly finds a streaking Crosby with time and space. These are the kind of plays that made Chris Kunitz such a great fit alongside Crosby over the years.
On this play, Simon read that the Lightning had a forward attempting an outlet pass behind their own goal, and intercepted Brayden Point‘s pass. Simon made an area pass to Crosby, who wasted no time converting on this tap-in.
Last season, Crosby and Guentzel were at their best when Simon was the third wheel. That matters a lot. The Penguins really need Crosby and Guentzel to consistently play at an elite level with some of the flaws on this roster.
I feel that the Penguins should open training camp with Guentzel-Crosby-Simon as their first line. However, if they opt to go a different route, that works too. All three of Pittsburgh’s top centers saw an increase in the team’s shot attempts for percentage when Simon was on the ice with them.
Down the stretch, the third line of Simon, Nick Bjugstad, and Hornqvist was dominant. As you see above, Bjugstad really benefitted from playing alongside him. Simon made that kind of impact on two forward lines that season.
Just to be clear, I’m not saying Simon is a star-in-the-making, but he elevates the productivity of his linemates and the team. If he sees an uptick in his 6.6% shooting percentage from last season, 15 goals is not a stretch. The talent and ability are there.
Simply put, Simon makes the players around him better. Despite a few flaws in his game, the data and the video support that. If the Penguins analytics department looks at this kind of data, they will have a strong case for Simon starting the 2019-20 season in the Penguins top-six. Thanks for reading!