All-Star bids in the stars?
Few players not named Crosby worthy of selection for Jan. 24-25 in St. Louis
A handful of Penguins players better keep open the weekend of Jan. 24-25.
The Penguins, who this weekend surged to second place in the Metropolitan Division with back-to-back wins against the Nashville Predators, have five players worthy of an All-Star Game invitation. And that doesn’t include the injured Sidney Crosby, who would get a vote or two if the NHL put him on that “last man in” ballot.
Compare that to last season, when the Penguins stumbled and bumbled through November and got down years from Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel. Crosby was their only player to initially earn a spot on the team. It took the “last man in” vote, in which a passionate fan base can stuff the ballot box, to get Kris Letang in.
But just because these Penguins have five strong candidates and the league’s brightest star in Crosby, that doesn’t mean that half of the Metro team will be Penguins players when All-Star rosters are revealed in the coming days.
The NHL’s rules for its All-Star Game require that all 31 teams have at least one representative. There are eight teams in the Metro but only five or six that should have someone in the game based on merit. That means the NHL will crowbar at least two players with a lesser resume than each of the five Penguins below.
John Carlson of the Washington Capitals and Artemi Panarin of the New York Rangers are locks to represent their teams. Washington’s Alex Ovechkin would be there, too, had the fanpicked Metro captain not decided to sit this one out.
The Carolina Hurricanes have three players who could get in. And while there is no slam-dunk selection from either the New York Islanders or Philadelphia Flyers, each team has a good record and a few guys with decent arguments.
So while we have seen three teams send four players to the All-Star Game since the NHL switched to the current 3-on-3 format four winters ago, it looks as if the Penguins will at best send three to St. Louis for the All-Star festivities.
Here are the cases for five Penguins not named Crosby to be selected to skate, ranked in order of likelihood in the eyes of this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette beat reporter.
• Jake Guentzel: He got another goal Saturday, winning it for the Penguins on the power play with 1:03 remaining in the game, to increase his season total to 19. Among Metro forwards, only Ovechkin, Panarin and Carolina’s Sebastian Aho have lit the lamp more often. In that same cohort, he is second to Panarin with 40 points.
With Crosby missing six weeks and counting after his sports hernia surgery and Malkin trying to play catchup after sitting out 13 games, Guentzel has compiled the best stats among Penguins. He’s a near-lock for his first All-Star Game.
• Tristan Jarry: He has been simply awesome this season, going 12-5-0 with a 1.87 goals-against average and .939 save percentage that lead the NHL by a wide margin. But has he played enough to earn an invite to St. Louis? He has started just 15 games, tied with guys such as Malcolm Subban and Pavel Francouz for 41st in the league.
But consider the stat lines of other Metro goalies. Braden Holtby of the Capitals has a bunch of wins but mediocre numbers. The two Islanders goalies split the load. Joonas Korpisalo might make it only because the Blue Jackets have to send somebody. A smaller body of work shouldn’t keep Jarry out of the game.
• Evgeni Malkin: He might not be able to overcome missing, at this point, a third of the season. But there is no debating he has played at an elite level when in the lineup.
Malkin is only ninth among Metro players with 35 points, the same total as Ryan Strome of the Rangers. But he ranks sixth with an average of 1.40 points per game. Malkin will get a long look. If he doesn’t make the initial cut, his name recognition alone should be enough to win the “last man in” vote.
• Kris Letang: He has been up and down since his partner, Brian Dumoulin, got injured four weeks ago. (Had he stayed healthy, Dumoulin might have had a case, too.) Despite that dip in play, Letang is still one of the best blue-liners in the division and after Saturday ranked sixth among NHL defensemen with 0.87 points per game.
But that still ranks third among Metro blue-liners. Carlson has a better case to get in. Carolina’s Dougie Hamilton probably does, too. Seth Jones, despite lesser numbers, could be the lone pick for Columbus. Ditto for Ivan Provorov in Philadelphia or social media darling P.K. Subban in New Jersey. So Letang might get snubbed.
• Bryan Rust: Given the candidacies of teammates above him on this list and that he has played in just 24 games, Rust is probably a long shot to make the roster.
But he ranks sixth among Metro players with 16 goals. His 30 points are further back in that pack but look at his points per game; Rust ranks 10th in the league, and ahead of Guentzel, at 1.25. If Rust skated for Columbus or New Jersey, he likely would be coasting to the first AllStar nod of his career.