The Penguins shouldn't take Kennedy up on his wish to return

The Penguins shouldn't take Kennedy up on his wish to return

Tyler Kennedy played his last game with the Pittsburgh Penguins on the 7th June 2013. He was traded in the preceding weeks to the San Jose Sharks on the 30th June for a second round pick in that years draft. That pick ended up being the 44th overall, Jarry was picked and Kennedy moved on.

His career has declined since then, he has struggled scoring 31 points in 105 games for the San Jose Sharks and, after being traded on 2nd March 2015, the New York Islanders. His goal scoring took a hit in the first season dropping from 6 goals in 46 games the previous year with Pittsburgh to just 4 in 67 games with San Jose. He improved this season to 6 goals in 38 games but it is a far cry from his 21 goal season for Pittsburgh in 2010-11.

Part of the reason is the way that Kennedy played with a center like Jordan Staal. Staal was on our third line but was more than capable of playing on the second. The 2010-11 season was when the line most dominant and all three players, Kennedy (56.5CF%), Staal (54.7CF%) and Cooke(51.9CF%) had high CF% which is perfectly mirrors the possession game the line played. Kennedy brought that with him to San Jose and New York.

Rutherford was quoted as saying that he wanted four scoring lines and Kennedy is someone who shoots the puck a lot. This season he had 79 shots in 38 games, around 2.07 a game. Over the course of the season he has had 1201 shots in 477 games, which is around 2.5 per game. Whist it is good that he takes a lot of shots, he also misses a lot. A low shooting % of 6.5% last season along with a career % of 7.2% indicates this. To put in perspective, last season on 64 shots Rob Klinkhammer had a S% of 7.8%. On 79 shots Kennedy had a S% of 6.9%.

In essence, I believe there are better players out there available than Pittsburgh. There are players in Wilkes-Barre that deserve to be given a chance, even if it is on the fourth line. The players called-up tend to bring more energy and effort. Signing Kennedy should be a last resort. Kennedy will get a deal in the NHL, no doubt about it. But it shouldn't be here.