{"id":84444,"date":"2020-09-01T09:46:33","date_gmt":"2020-09-01T13:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/?p=84444"},"modified":"2020-09-01T01:40:39","modified_gmt":"2020-09-01T05:40:39","slug":"dylan-demelo-makes-most-sense-penguins-defence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2020\/09\/01\/dylan-demelo-makes-most-sense-penguins-defence\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Dylan DeMelo Makes the Most Sense for the Pittsburgh Penguins"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite making a trade<\/a> for forward Kasperi Kapanen<\/a><\/strong>, the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> still have the biggest hole they must address going into the season: bottom-pairing defensive help. The Penguins third pairing was an absolute disaster the last couple of seasons and it was chief among reasons as to why they lost in the qualifying round. To start, Jack Johnson<\/a> <\/strong>was an offensive black hole and was on the ice for virtually almost every goal the Canadiens scored. Justin Schultz<\/a><\/strong> wasn’t much better as he was also getting caved in shift after shift while providing no offense either.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh was paying that third pairing almost $9M between the two players and that’s just way too much money for a contending team to be paying two not-so-good defenceman. With Schultz walking and Johnson potentially on the trade block, it is essential the team has a functioning, cheap, third pairing going into next season. One of the options in free agency is Dylan DeMelo<\/a><\/strong> so let’s take a look as to why this would be a great fit.<\/p>\n

Why Dylan DeMelo Makes the Most Sense for a Penguins Defensive Upgrade<\/h2>\n

He’s Not a Liability<\/h3>\n

DeMelo spent most of the season with the Ottawa Senators<\/strong><\/a> before being traded to the Winnipeg Jets. When the Jets went up against the Calgary Flames<\/strong><\/a> in the qualifying round, he was perhaps their best defenceman. According to Natural Stat Trick, in just a little over 65 minutes of ice-time against Calgary, his xGA (expected goals against) was 1.71. His xGF of 1.75 doesn’t look good (since the Jets aren’t a good offensive team), but he wasn’t allowing anything in his own zone when he was on the ice. He was also pushing the play offensively as his CF% was 55.14 percent throughout that four-game series. Even better, he was doing this while playing on the top pairing with Josh Morrissey<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Those numbers suggest he would be a monstrous upgrade over Schultz as he was outscored 5-2 at 5V5 when he was on the ice. Schultz also had a 28.57 GF% and a CF% of 46.2 percent which were all dreadful. Schultz was actively causing goals to be scored on Murray or Jarry as he was just an absolute tire fire in his own end. An example of this comes from a Jonathan Drouin<\/a><\/strong> goal in Game 3 of their qualifying round series (skip to around 3:20):<\/p>\n