Pittsburgh Penguins: 3 storylines to watch this season
theScore's NHL editors take a look at three storylines to watch for each NHL team heading into the regular season.
The health of the stars
The Pittsburgh Penguins owe much of their recent success to two players: Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Between the two of them, Crosby and Malkin own four Art Ross Trophies and three Hart Trophies while being the most efficient point-producers in the league.
But Crosby and Malkin can only be effective if healthy, and having both superstars in the lineup at the same time has been a challenge in recent seasons. The two players have a combined 200 man-games lost between them since the start of 2010-11 as Crosby missed over 100 games with concussion issues and Malkin has dealt with various knee and shoulder injuries.
It appears concussions are a thing of the past for Crosby, who played 80 games in 2013-14 and won the Hart with a league-leading 104 points. Malkin has been less fortunate, missing most of training camp due to a mystery ailment.
The Penguins are thin at center beyond their two top scorers. Any lengthy injury absences by Crosby or Malkin could derail Pittsburgh's quest for a third consecutive division title.
Can Greiss supplant Fleury in net?
Pittsburgh parted ways with veteran netminder Tomas Vokoun after he missed most of the 2013-14 season recovering from surgery.
Vokoun was brought in to provide stability behind Marc-Andre Fleury, who has earned a reputation as an untrustworthy starter. Fleury's inconsistency is magnified in the playoffs, where he has kept his save percentage above .900 only once in the last five seasons.
Fleury is entering the final year of a contract with a cap hit of $5 million, making this season his chance to prove he still deserves the starting job. Competing with Fleury for starts will be one of Pittsburgh's offseason signings: Thomas Greiss.
Greiss signed a one-year, $1-million deal with the Penguins after establishing himself as one of the best backup netminders in the league. Greiss compiled an impressive statistical resume as a backup in 69 appearances with the San Jose Sharks and the Arizona Coyotes, posting an even-strength save percentage on par with 2013 Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky.
This season in Pittsburgh represents Greiss' best opportunity to usurp a starting job, like Anton Khudobin did with the Carolina Hurricanes last season. Any struggles or injuries from Fleury will open the door for Greiss, who could end up being the most valuable free-agent signing of the offseason.
New depth, no Neal
As part of their goal to add depth to a very top-heavy roster, the Penguins parted with one of their top goal-scorers, trading James Neal to the Nashville Predators for Patric Hornqvist and Nick Spaling.
Neal scored 77 goals over the three full seasons with Pittsburgh, tying him with Chris Kunitz for the team lead. A team-high 30 of those goals came on the power play. Hornqvist, a large part of Nashville's admittedly lackluster offense during his time there, will be given the chance to replace Neal, but fans shouldn't expect the same level of production.
The Penguins are wagering that the boost to their depth will offset what they lost in Neal. The team also signed Blake Comeau and Steve Downie and upgraded their blue line by signing Christian Ehrhoff after letting Brooks Orpik and Matt Niskanen walk.
Pittsburgh's power play should survive as one of the league's best without Neal thanks to the talent of Crosby and Malkin, while Spaling, Comeau and Downie should provide an improvement over the old bottom six. However, if the Penguins scoring takes a noticeable hit in the absence of Neal, fans could start wondering whether or not this team is heading in the right direction.