I was on twitter every game, and I saw the tweets. I saw the calls for him to sit minutes, be scratched, be traded, bought out. I understand the "Free Bortuzzo" movement and hey, I like Bortuzzo a lot too. But all that said, I still believe in Rob Scuderi.
If you are reading this sentence, I applaud you for at least hearing me out. Like I said in the opening, this post would cause a lot of people to get fired up. Regardless, lets get back to the story at hand.
I still believe in Rob Scuderi. I still believe in "The Piece." And call me crazy, but I still believe he can be an asset to this team. He was signed last offseason to a 4 year, 13.5 million dollar deal. He was expected to slot in next to Kris Letang and provide stability for the Pens defensive star. He was supposed to provide stability to the defense as a whole.
I personally was pumped for the return of Rob Scuderi. I thought, even with all the good defensemen in the pipeline, it was a good signing. Scuderi knows how to win. He has been on winning teams the majority of his career. He has won two Stanley Cups. He left Pittsburgh for the money in 2009, something that many may still be holding against him. But he became an even steadier defenseman in Los Angeles. He was a key piece to a defense that helped the Kings win the 2012 Cup. But most importantly, he helped groom young defensemen in Los Angeles like Drew Doughty, Slava Voynov, Jake Muzzin into very good defensemen. That was part of the reason he was brought back to Pittsburgh last offseason, to help groom this pipeline of prospects. It was a smart move.
Then the season started. Kris Letang missed the first month with a knee injury. So Scuds was paired with Matt Niskanen. Both were solid in October, playing good defensive hockey. Finally Letang gets healthy, and Scuderi breaks his ankle 35 minutes into Letang's return. The Piece was shelved for close to two months. He returned, probably too soon, to help lessen the burden on Matt Niskanen (a number 5 defenseman that was thrust into a number 1 role) and Olli Maatta (a 19 year old rookie that was playing more games and more minutes than ever), who were thrown to the top pair with injuries to Martin, Orpik, Letang and himself.
He came back to soon. That ankle was never quite right and he definitely didn't have the speed to keep up. But he battled through, was he great? No. Was he good? Ehh, that would be generous. Was he as bad as twitter made him out to be? No. The fact was, he was never the right choice for Kris Letang's partner. People are complaining about his speed. Guys, he was never near as fast as Matt Niskanen, let alone Kris Letang. He is a defensive defenseman that works best with the same breed. Its why you saw him play better when he was paired with Robert Bortuzzo and play abysmally when with Letang.
Look, if you ask me did Rob Scuderi struggle this season? I'm not a moron, I watched every game. He did struggle after his return. Did he struggle to the level many have put him? Absolutely not.
Many are calling for him to be bought out this offseason. Let me put that to rest right now, his contract doesn't apply to the amnesty buyout clause. Many of you are calling for him to be traded. That's fair. Moving his contract would certainly help the cap situation this team faces. But I still think he has a lot to offer this team.
The Pens are changing their system to a more defensive, trapping system. Having a veteran like Rob Scuderi to implement that will help. The Pens are losing one of their best PKers in Brooks Orpik, and more importantly his voice in the locker room. Scuderi has been vocal, and his leadership will be valuable with Orpik moving on both, on and off the ice. Finally, there are going to be more Olli Maatta's in the next three years for the Pens. Derrick Pouliot will be here soon, maybe as early as next year. Brian Dumoulin and Scott Harrington are popular choices to come up as well. Scuderi can help groom these guys, especially Harrington who is a defensive defenseman.
What I am getting at here is Rob Scuderi is still an asset to this team. If you remember, two years ago we were calling for Paul Martin's head on a stick with the way he played in 2011-12. Last year, Matt Niskanen was the whipping boy on the defense. Those two were our best defensemen this year. Will Rob Scuderi be as offensively productive as those two? God no! But mark my words, his play will have a turn around and people will jump back on his bandwagon like they did for Niskanen and Martin, mark my words. But for now, I still believe in Rob Scuderi.
Photo courtesy of the Pittsburgh Penguins.