The Penguins had three practices this week to open up training camp before today’s mandated off day. Nick Robertson has lined up as Sidney Crosby’s winger in all three practices, stacking up all the drills and groundwork for the future.
Robertson has seemed to make the most of the opportunity.
Robertson offers the pure finishing ability that has been rare for the typical Crosby linemate, outside of Jake Guentzel. It would be a big stretch to stand Robertson up too closely to a player of Guentzel’s overall class and ability but the youngster does have two-straight seasons of 15+ goals in a limited role with Toronto recently.
The overarching effects of Robertson finding a spot with Crosby will help the rest of the team too, should it come to pass. That would leave Rickard Rakell able to swing into a center role at times, which the team has done in the past when they need a lift for other lines. Or, as it’s worked out so far in camp, it frees Bryan Rust to add his talent and give the Ben Kindel line an added dimension of skill and further spread the talent into three impressive looking offensive lines to keep rolling out at the opponents.
Another element in play is the success Kyle Dubas has found bringing over talent from his former team in Toronto. The Pens helped the Maple Leafs get out of a cap crunch and it saw Pittsburgh pick up Connor Dewar and Conor Timmins for just a fifth round pick. Dewar has been an extremely useful player and Timmins was already flipped for a second round pick (Peyton Kettles). Pittsburgh only had to give up a fourth rounder to get Robertson after Toronto finally gave up on trying to find out where he could help them.
Such moves can be the boring ‘brick by brick’ building as Dubas has described it, yet continuing to stack value adds will increasingly help the team. For just fourth and fifth round picks in the two trades combined, the Pens have found two valuable NHL pieces (Robertson and Dewar) plus a quality prospect in Kettles. Progress can be slow to turn that paper clip into a house, but the process continues.
It could take a huge jump depending on just what the Pens get out of Robertson this season. We can preach patience and pumping the brakes at this point since it’s only been a handful of practices that don’t necessarily mean much in isolation, but if Robertson keeps his spot and can become a productive player with Crosby, the benefits and gains could be massive.
