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Wednesday’s announcement met a tiny portion of the fanfare that accompanied the last time Schultz signed as an unrestricted free agent, when the much-ballyhooed college free agent penned a two-year pact with Edmonton for the rookie maximum and max bonuses. The willowy rearguard immediately stepped into a major role with the Oilers, playing top pairing minutes from his rookie season well into Year 4 before finally getting scaled back by coach Todd McLellan in the weeks before his departure from the organization.

The Penguins placed him in a role much more appropriate for his skill set, third-pairing minutes when he was in the line-up and a frequent healthy scratch when a full complement of regular blueliners was available. Fair to say Schultz thrived in the role, and made the most of his greatly-reduced minutes to be a useful complementary player — something he never got a chance to be in Edmonton.

In a splendid summary article of the post-Edmonton portion of his season, the SBN blog Pensburghopened:

Players without any weakness are rare. But just because players have weaknesses doesn’t mean that their strengths aren’t valuable. Especially if their strength is creating offense. Justin Schultz is a perfect example of that.

The Penguins used his strengths as a scalpel to precisely target where their opponents had their softest weak spot. The Oilers tried to use the scalpel to cut down trees, and then acted surprised when the scalpel broke.