Penguins make late night trade for Maxim Lapierre
The Penguins made a trade after the game against the Jets last night with the St.Louis Blues trading fourth line center Marcel Goc for a more physical, similar role player in Maxim Lapierre. Lapierre is a confident and physical play-off performer which is something that Johnston has mentioned in the past as a skill set that we need to bring in. Lapierre has 137 points in 579 games along with 15 points in 75 play-off games.
Marcel Goc has the same number of points in 59 play-off games but has struggled to produce with the Penguins since being traded from the Florida panthers with 8 points in 55 games. This is partly due to him being hampered with poor line-mates, something which Johnston and Rutherford have set out to change with more forward depth.
Goc's most common line-mates this season have been Craig Adams with 148:29 TOI and Zach Sill at 98:01 TOI. Together Goc has just two points with them. Sill and Adams are both offensively inept and Goc actually pulled them up in terms of on ice-effectiveness. Looking at their CF% we can see that Adams improved his from 47.4% to 53.3% but Zach Sill's reduced from 48.3% to 42.1%. That reduction for Sill is no surprise when you consider it took over 50 games to get his first point.
Goc will fit well on the Blues as will Lapierre on the Penguins. His gritty, physical play will be vital come the play-offs and will also help the Penguins in the highly physical battles against their intra-division rivals. Lapierre's biggest asset will be his ability on the penalty kill. Lapierre is a game time decision to play tonight against the Capitals.
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