As the NHL prepares for a new season scheduled to start in mid-January, the Tribune-Review will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 48 individuals under NHL contract with the organization, from mid-level prospect Niclas Almari to high-profile trade acquisition Jason Zucker.
Evan Rodrigues
Position: Center
Shoots: Right
Age: 27
Height: 5-foot-11
Weight: 184 pounds
2019-20 NHL statistics: 45 games, 10 points (six goals, four assists)
Contract: One-year contract with a salary cap hit of $700,000. Pending unrestricted free agent in 2021.
Acquired: Free agent signing, Oct. 9, 2020
Last season: Even by the bizarre standards all of us experienced in 2020, Evan Rodrigues’ calendar year was a doozy.
A few days before New Year’s Eve of 2019, Rodrigues had requested a trade from a Buffalo Sabres team that was going nowhere fast.
Having failed to enamor new head coach Ralph Krueger, Rodrigues was a healthy scratch for 17 games on a team that was one of the NHL’s worst.
“If you’re not playing and you’re not getting the chance to do your job, you want to go somewhere to try to do that,” Rodrigues said of his request.
Just prior to the trade deadline on Feb. 20, Rodrigues’ request was granted and he was dealt to the Penguins.
Joining a team racked with injuries throughout its lineup, the malleable Rodrigues found what he was looking for with the Penguins as he was used at all three forward positions as well as the penalty kill.
Appearing in seven games (out of a possible eight) with the Penguins, he scored his lone goal for the team March 10, two days before the NHL halted the regular season because of the coronavirus pandemic.
When the NHL staged its postseason tournament in August, the Penguins’ lineup was mostly healthy and as a result, Rodrigues was a spectator for all four of the Penguins’ playoff games as a healthy scratch.
But that’s when things got really interesting for Rodrigues.
A handful of weeks after his team’s embarrassing upset in the preliminary round at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens, general manager Jim Rutherford made his first transaction in reshaping his roster and re-acquired former forward Kasperi Kapanen in a multi-player trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Rodrigues, then a pending restricted free agent, had his signing rights dealt to Toronto as part of the transaction.
Given that the salary cap remained flat due to the league’s economic issues related to the pandemic, Rodrigues, previously signed to a one-year contract with a cap hit of $2 million, was one of many restricted free agents around the NHL who did not receive a qualifying offer and the Maple Leafs opted to allow him to become an unrestricted free agent Oct. 7.
Two days later, he re-signed with the Penguins.
The future: When the Penguins re-signed Rodrigues, Rutherford suggested Rodrigues would ideally work as the right wing on the third line. But those plans have already gone sideways.
Oddly enough, with the Finnish-born Kapanen unable to join the Penguins for training camp to this point due to immigration issues, Rodrigues is filling in for him so far in practices and scrimmages on the right wing of the top line alongside Sidney Crosby at center and Jake Guentzel on the left wing. He’s also filling in for Kapanen on the second power-play unit.
That will probably be how the 2020-21 season goes for Rodrigues. Given his ability to play all three forward positions, he’ll be utilized in a variety of roles during a season in which lineups are bound to be different on a game-by-game basis due to absences potentially related to coronavirus concerns.
Even if he doesn’t have a set role with the Penguins, Rodrigues has found a way to fit in with them.
Follow the Penguins all season long.
Seth Rorabaugh is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Seth by email at srorabaugh@triblive.com or via Twitter .
Categories: Penguins/NHL | Sports
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