Evgeni Malkin to Return to the Pens’ Lineup on Saturday? by Sonny Sachdeva

Lost among the rollercoaster of emotions that has been the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 2014-15 season has been the surprisingly solid play of third-line center Brandon Sutter.

While the Pens have again been labeled a top-heavy team at times this season, the team’s depth is notably improved from previous years, as the third and fourth lines now feature legitimate NHL forwards rather than simply a mix of AHL call-ups.

Pivotal in guiding the Pens’ bottom-six has been Sutter, who’s quietly having his best season since coming to Pittsburgh – and in fact, one of the best seasons of his career.

Through 72 games, Sutter has posted 17 goals and 29 points, already surpassing his previous best as a Penguin – the 13 goals and 26 points he tallied last season.

Sutter’s best campaign came back in 2009-10, when he tallied 21 goals and 40 points.

The seven-year veteran has also improved his play beyond offensive production.

Tasked with taking key draws for the Pens, Sutter has posted a faceoff-percentage of 53% – tied for the best of his career, and by far the best since coming to Pittsburgh (he put up 49.5% in 2013-14 and has already won 72 more faceoffs than last season).

Sutter’s blocks (44), hits (71), and takeaways (35) also rank as the best since joining the Pens, and the numbers have the bottom-six pivot nearing the quality totals he posted during his tenure as a Carolina Hurricane.

Pittsburgh currently boasts the third-best penalty-kill in the league, sitting at 85.4%, due in no small part to the reliable play of Sutter.

He currently leads all forwards in shorthanded time-on-ice (and sits third overall amongst the Pens) with 176:27.

He hasn’t been too bad at turning those penalty-kills into offensive chances as well – his 4 shorthanded goals are a career high and lead the Penguins.

While fans have decried the depth pivot at times as not an adequate option behind Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin (especially in comparison to former Penguin Jordan Staal), Sutter is demonstrating this season that he’s still on the rise and surely hasn’t peaked yet.

At only 25 years old, with a reasonable cap hit of $3.3 million per year, Sutter need only be reliable and steadily improving for him to be worthwhile to this club.

Thus far this season, he’s lived up to that bill, providing excellent penalty-killing for the Pens and chipping in on offense when needed.

With eight games remaining in the season, he has a good chance of topping 20 goals for the second time in his young career, and still has time to grow into a quality two-way player for the Pens.

Assuming Sutter keeps up his pace and brings back the strong postseason play he showed last season, he could be primed for a big step forward in 2014-15.