One of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ newest players helped them achieve a promising 5-2-0 start.
Right winger Justin Brazeau signed with the Penguins on July 1 after spending last season with the Boston Bruins and Minnesota Wild. The 27-year-old posted 22 points in 76 games during his first full NHL season, which saw Boston move him to the Wild at the trade deadline.
Brazeau is giving the Penguins a nice early return on their investment, surging out to a five-goal, eight-point performance in seven games. The power forward has points in five of those games, including two goals in the season opener and three points on Tuesday.
As crazy as it sounds, Brazeau is Pittsburgh’s leading goal-scorer, and he’s tied for second in points with Sidney Crosby, trailing Evgeni Malkin and his 10 points. And the really crazy thing is, Brazeau is doing it while averaging 13:07 in ice time.
While Penguins GM-hockey operations president Kyle Dubas has started to focus on the long term by giving their younger players more opportunities, he now has an interesting situation with Brazeau, who’s on a two-year contract worth $1.5 million annually.
If Brazeau continues to produce anywhere close to this level, Dubas may want to hang onto him for the long term. He could be one of the league’s better bargains, and as the Pens try to find their way over the long haul, Dubas may figure out how to extend Brazeau and have him join the new core.
That said, given that Brazeau doesn’t have any no-trade or no-move protection, the best thing for the Penguins as a franchise may be to trade him while his value is high.
Dubas’ mandate requires him to build for the present and the future, and Brazeau may be a better tradeable asset than a difference-maker. You have to be cold-blooded with some of your roster decisions, and NHL teams love a power forward who can score and hit. The 6-foot-6, 232-pound Brazeau has 12 hits this season, which are the third-most on the team.
If we get to the trade deadline and Brazeau’s numbers regress to last season’s rate, Dubas’ asking price will be significantly lower than it would be than it could be in December or January. Boston received Jakub Lauko, Marat Khusnutdinov and a sixth-round pick for Brazeau last season, and Pittsburgh could fetch more than that now.
It’s imperative, then, that Dubas start trying to cook up a market for Brazeau’s services right away and see where they’re at with him, say, six weeks from now. If he’s still thriving, Brazeau will provide the Penguins with a problem they’d love to have – keep him in the fold for many more years, or cash in on his solid season while there’s still time to, and give the Pens someone with a higher ceiling in the long term.
We’d choose the latter option, but time will tell what choice Dubas will make on Brazeau. They’re happy to have him in Pittsburgh, but it may be a fleeting love affair.
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