Schultz credits turnaround with Penguins to Gonchar's teaching
Pittsburgh Penguins rearguard Justin Schultz has been at the center of trade deadline conversations for a few years now.
First, Schultz spent a couple campaigns as potential trade bait. Then came the 2016 deal that sent him to Pittsburgh for nothing more than a 2016 third-round pick. One season later, the Penguins have helped the 26-year-old become the player he was projected to be before he joined the NHL ranks.
Heading into the home stretch, Schultz has posted the seventh-most points of any defender in the league (39 through 57 games), playing a crucial role on Pittsburgh's injury-riddled blue line.
It seems another former Penguin is to thank for Schultz's resurgent performance this season. Asked about his turnaround, the former Edmonton Oiler heaped praise on former Pittsburgh defender Sergei Gonchar, who's currently serving as a defenseman development coach for his former club.
"Sergei just preached all the little details of the game," Schultz told NHL.com's Dan Rosen. "Like stick position, where your feet are when you're on the offensive blue line. It's all the little things you never really think about. I started to focus on that and it helped me with my overall game and I started feeling better. He's been huge for me. I'm sure glad he's here."
Gonchar is certainly no stranger to the finer details of the game. Attention to those details allowed the Russian star to rack up 811 points over the course of his career in the big leagues - the 16th-most in NHL history. He posted 259 of those points in Pittsburgh, and won the Stanley Cup with the club in 2009.
Now mentoring the next wave of Penguins blue-liners, Gonchar has the new generation following the lead of some of history's best.
"We were watching guys like Nicklas Lidstrom and Erik Karlsson, some of the things they've done offensively," Schultz said. "We watched things they did with the puck, how they played the game. We started focusing on things like that and it helped me out a lot ...
"He just wanted to show me with Lidstrom, his position all the time in the defensive zone, and he never got beat. He wanted to show me that you don't have to run over guys or anything, just be in good position, good stick position. Like I said, it's the little details."