Family First
Five Stanley Cups, and a Conn Smythe Trophy to go with each of them. Seven Hart Trophies. 10 Ted Lindsay Awards. And 15 Art Ross Trophies, coming in a 27-year span where the Pittsburgh Penguins became the preeminent post-expansion era franchise in the National Hockey League.
It’s quite the list of individual accomplishments.
Yet, Kris Letang’s 2023 Masterson Trophy may sit up there with the others as one of the most impressive.
And that’s saying something for a franchise whose last Masterson winner, Mario Lemieux, captured a scoring title in the same season he missed more than a quarter of its games because he was receiving radiation treatments.
Kris Letang’s Masterson Trophy win last night was more than recognition of the ridiculous perseverance necessary to return from a stroke – his second during his NHL career – in just 12 games.
It was, in Letang’s words, recognition of all his family has done to make it possible for him to return from those setbacks.
Have there been better defensemen to have played for the Penguins in the franchise’s history? Perhaps.
After all, Paul Coffey spent four years here, as did Larry Murphy, and Randy Carlyle five and a half.
However, Letang has been here since he was 19. He’s now 36, and will be 37 next April.
Letang, by the time his current contract expires, will have spent more time with Pittsburgh than Willie Stargell did with the Pirates, and as much time with our city’s sports fans as Chuck Noll spent as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
As much as the final few years of Letang’s career – presumably running concurrent with Sidney Crosby’s and Evgeni Malkin’s final few years as well – will be about taking one more serious run at the Stanley Cup, they should be just as much about recognizing what he’s meant to the franchise over the past 15 years and acknowledging his place as the organization’s greatest defenseman.
Winning the 2023 Masterson Trophy should help remind us of just how much he’s overcome as well.
Another Right Hand?
Kyle Dubas has been particularly deliberate about filling out his hockey operations staff since taking over as the Penguins’ Director of Hockey Operations, but that process continued yesterday as the organization announced Vukie Mpofu as their new Director of Hockey Operations and Legal Affairs.
Mpofu, just 27 years old, spent the last two years with the Los Angeles Kings and is expected to be Dubas’s right-hand man in assisting with contract negotiations, as well as building out what should be a robust hockey research and development department.
Mpofu is just two seasons removed from working with the Vegas Golden Knights as their Hockey Legal Affairs Intern, but at the very least has already had some interactions with Crosby.
If he’s from Saskatoon, former Penguin Colby Armstrong is a fan. I asked him about Mpofu this morning and while acknowledging he doesn’t know him well, Armstrong said “Awesome; we need more Western Canadian guys around.”
Just the Beginning for Endy
As the Pittsburgh Pirates prepare to start their final homestand before the All Star break, they got good news about their number three overall prospect, Endy Rodriguez, yesterday.
Rodriguez and starting pitcher J.P. Massey will represent the Pirates at the MLB All-Star Futures Game a week from Saturday at T-Mobile Park in Seattle.
Massey, slightly less well known than Rodriguez, made his pro debut this season after the Pirates drafted him in the seventh round out of Minnesota last year. With a 2.98 ERA in 12 games across Low-A Bradenton and High-A Greensboro, Massey has yet to be ranked as one of the Pirates’ Top 30 prospects.
On the other hand, Rodriguez, the organization’s number three overall prospect, has been clamored for by fans in Pittsburgh as they watch the major league club struggle to produce offense.
Despite a fantastic 2022 at the plate, where his OPS was just shy of 1.000, the 23-year old catcher has scuffled in ’23, his OPS sitting at just .721 with only five home runs in 226 at-bats.
Pittsburgh Connection
Less than 24 hours after the good news for Mountaineers’ basketball fans that Kerr Kriisa would be withdrawing from the transfer portal and staying in Morgantown following the naming of Josh Eilert as Interim Head Coach, the ‘Eers got less-than-great news from another player who’d entered the portal in light of former Head Coach Bob Huggins’ offseason antics.
Tre Mitchell, a bit of a basketball nomad, is headed to Kentucky.
Counting high school/prep stops, this will be the sixth stop in eight seasons for Mitchell, who began his journey at Elizabeth Forward before moving on to Woodstock Academy in Connecticut following his sophomore year.
Following two successful seasons at UMass and less than a year at Texas, Mitchell averaged nearly 12 points per game while making 32 starts for WVU last season.
Digging Out Of Trouble In Buffalo
As much as the Chiefs and Bengals have taken over as the two premier franchises in the AFC, it feels like the Buffalo Bills are struggling to keep pace with the elite of the conference, due in no small part to the disconnect between their quarterback and their top wide receiver.
Why did the Bills seem to have even the slightest bit of interest in DeAndre Hopkins this offseason? Why have there been grumblings coming from Stefon Diggs’ camp?
Perhaps it stems from this moment on the sidelines back in January when Josh Allen seemingly wanted nothing to do with an upset Diggs.
Or perhaps it’s an agent – who also represents some former players in the media – trying to position his client positively after a tumultuous spring and summer.
Hard Knocks Hostages, Not Volunteers
It sounds increasingly likely that the New York Jets, despite the protests of Head Coach Robert Saleh, will be forced in to appearing on this summer’s edition of HBO’s “Hard Knocks.”
While there is a ton of potential for quality material just based on Aaron Rodgers’ presence alone, you’ll be able to count me amongst the many surprised if we get even a single moment as good as the last time the Jets appeared on the show, in 2010.