I’m talking quality of his play
Yeah, I know that. So am I.
Look, Letang obviously did not have a great year last year — particularly by his lofty standards.
However, people are just as obviously overstating how much he struggled or he would not have led the team in TOI.
I think we can all agree that it is counterintuitive to suggest that someone who stinks would somehow play more than everyone else at his position. In fact, he played more often than anyone else on the entire team.
I think we can also agree that the Penguins are run by a very shrewd management team. There is no way in this world they would risk their chances to win a third consecutive Stanley Cup in some sort of futile effort to placate one of their players. That’s obviously not how they operate.
That leaves us with the obvious conclusion that they played him more often than everyone else on their back end because they believe that he is better than everyone else on their blue line.
I happen to agree with their assessment – but only when he’s healthy. He was definitely NOT their best rearguard in last year‘s playoffs and it showed. Dumoulin was Pittsburgh’s best defenseman in the playoffs. He has really blossomed into a very good top pairing type of D.
As I said, I was not thrilled with the way Letang played for most of last year either. Honestly, I think he played too many minutes and it wore him down. Really, by March, he was totally out of gas. Had also lost confidence and was pressing.
On top of all of that, I believe he was also injured. I noticed early on in the Flyers series that he was having a lot of trouble turning to his right. Philadelphia and Washington noticed that as well and they kept trying to force him to his right. You can’t play that position at that level if you can’t skate in one of your four primary directions.
However, I’m also willing to gamble that with a full offseason to rehabilitate his body after a major neck surgery and a stroke he’s probably going to be a much better player this time around.
If he is not better this year then of course you consider trading him or buying him out. I’m positive they would be able to find a taker for Kris Letang, because defensemen who play that many minutes and in that many situations are so incredibly hard to find – particularly right-shot defensemen who can do all of those things. That’s like finding a left-handed pitcher in baseball who has a plus level fastball, change up and breaking pitch – there just aren’t very many of them on the planet, so when you are fortunate enough to luck into one you should probably hold onto him for as long as you possibly can.
As I’ve said many times in the past – but only because it’s true – after Crosby and Malkin, he’s been our third most important player during this entire era.
