Sidney Crosby and Rutger McGroarty are certainly off to a strong start playing alongside one another in the NHL.
No matter what your rooting interests are for the Pittsburgh Penguins over the next couple of weeks, Thursday’s game against the St. Louis Blues was probably one that made you happy.
- It ended up being a good game where the Penguins played hard and significantly out-chanced one of the hottest teams in the league, while also rallying late in the third period when it would have been easy to just roll over.
- Sidney Crosby extended his point streak to 11 consecutive games and continued to produce.
- The young guys made a big impression, with Ville Koivunen recording an assist and Rutger McGroarty recording two points, including his first career goal to tie the game late in the third period.
- The Penguins still ended up not getting the second point if you are closely following draft lottery standings.
Everybody should come away happy. Or at least marginally happy.
The big takeaway for me out of Thursday is the production from the young guys, because as soon as McGroarty and Koivunen were called up they immediately became the must-see players the rest of the way. They are legitimate, bonafide prospects that not only have a chance to stick around and be long-term players in the NHL, they have a chance to be impact players on the next good Penguins team (whenever that might be).
They have also been given a real role (so far) to get a taste of NHL action, and have been impressive.
That is especially true with McGroarty who seems to already be finding a home on Sidney Crosby’s wing on the top line. I could not only see this being a thing going into next season, I could see it working extraordinarily well. It certainly has in a limited sampling.
From a (small sample size) numbers standpoint, the Crosby-McGroarty duo has been fairly dominant in terms of tilting the ice and generating chances. Their shot attempt, expected goal, scoring chance and high-danger scoring chances shares are all well over 65 percent, while they have averaged more than 4.5 expected goals per 60 minutes.
But it is not necessarily the big underlying numbers in a small number of minutes that has me believing in this duo in the short-and medium-term future. It’s about the playing style, the fit and Crosby himself.
McGroarty just seems to have a lot of the traits that have consistently worked well alongside Crosby throughout his career.
Think of the players that had the most success playing on Crosby’s wing, and the way McGroarty’s skillset fits into that.
North-south players. Smart players. Players with some defensive awareness. Players with a little bit of grit and sandpaper to their game.
Chris Kunitz is obviously the best example. Pascal Dupuis to a lesser (but still successful) extent. Jake Guentzel may not be the prototypical “grit” player, but that man was fearless going to the front of the net and scoring areas, while also always having a knack for being in the right spots. His hockey IQ in the offensive zone was (and still is in Tampa Bay) always off the charts. Bryan Rust is the current example.
I do not want to put too much on McGroarty at this point after five NHL games and in his first season of pro hockey, but you can absolutely see a lot of those traits in his game.
Crosby has also had a knack for taking younger players under his wing and immediately turning them into productive players.
I am intrigued to see what can happen here with McGroarty.
This is also why it is so important to not completely tear the organization down to the studs and start over from scratch. Having players like Crosby around to not only provide an example of how to be a professional, knowing what it takes to win in the NHL, still caring, but to also help them find success is going to be a huge part of the development for some of these younger players.
I have gone to this example before, but it is why I think the Los Angeles Kings were smart to keep players like Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty around throughout their rebuild. They could have very easily traded them at some point, probably picked up some draft picks and decent prospects. But I am not sure it would have helped them get better, faster. In fact, I am pretty confident it would have only extended the process. Not only because guys like Kopitar can still play and be a part of their resurgence, but because it’s helped some of these guys come along. Quinton Byfield, for example, is going to be a better player faster because of the time he was able to spend playing next to Kopitar between 2022-23 and 2023-24. During those two years more than 75 percent of his ice-time came alongside Kopitar, and he gradually started to produce and improve as a player. This year, he’s running his own line and as the season has progressed has started to become an even bigger impact player.
I also realize these are not totally apples-to-apples comparisons. Kopitar was a few years younger than Crosby currently is when the Kings rebuild started. Byfield was a No. 2 overall pick and expected to be a top-line player from the very beginning. Maybe he still becomes a good player even without Kopitar.
But my point still stands — having players like Crosby around to play alongside is only going to players like McGroarty become better NHL players, faster.
There is no reason for McGroarty to start any game this season on a line that is not centered by Sidney Crosby. See how it goes. See how it develops. Then maybe you go into the 2025-26 season knowing you at least have your top line set with a future Hall of Famer helping to develop one of the players that will hopefully take the torch in the years ahead.