CRANBERRY TWP., PA (93.7 The Fan) – A 35-goal scorer making only $5 million and signed for three more seasons, forward Rickard Rakell will be in demand this offseason.
Not traded at the deadline this season doesn’t mean teams won’t ask and the Pens won’t shop. Publicly, Pens management say they want him, which is true, but what they need to do is get better. Rakell is their best resource to do that in a trade.
“Yeah, I think already at the trade deadline I said I wanted to stay, I want to be part of this team,” Rakell said on Friday as the team cleaned out the lockers. “I want to be part of it, being back in playoffs and trying to win something here. I love my teammates here and yeah, I really want to stay.”
Rakell finished with a career-high 35 goals and reached 70 points for the first time in his career this season. The Pens forward had more goals than Auston Matthews and Nathan MacKinnon and played for a lot of the season on a line with Sidney Crosby.
“He had an incredible year,” Crosby said. “Right from the start, you could tell that he was ready to go this year in a lot of different areas. Obviously, he’s known for his shot and finding the soft spot (scoring areas) there. But I think just the way he held on pucks, the way he battled, it was a lot of fun playing with those guys for a big chunk of the season.”
Rakell said the improvement this season really came from the quick start. By the end of October, he already had eight goals. Some of that credit is due to coming into camp in the best shape of at least his time with the Penguins. Rakell, who scored 15 goals in 70 games last year, said he also cleared his mind. He tried to eliminate all of the thoughts that go through a player’s head while playing. Rakell just went out and played hockey and as he put it ‘it worked out.’
It was important for him not just this season, but going forward that he was able to bounce back. That he was fairly consistent throughout the season. He believes if this team can find consistency, they showed they could beat any team in the league.
“Even though I wish we were still playing right now, I'm still pretty excited to go back to work at home and then just try to do everything I can to try to be even better next year,” Rakell said.
Eyes will be on Rakell. Will a team make Kyle Dubas an offer he can’t refuse?