Penguins general manager Ron Hextall sided in favor of experience over youth with his defensemen on the day of the NHL’s trade deadline.
Hextall’s reasons for acquiring former Anaheim Duck Dmitry Kulikov on Mar. 3 in exchange for Brock McGinn and a 2024 third-round pick included the former’s ability to kill penalties and play both sides of a defensive pairing. But after making his Penguins debut in Pittsburgh’s 5-4 overtime win against the Columbus Blue Jackets, it’s clear Kulikov was picked up in part to replace 23-year-old Pierre-Olivier Joseph in the starting lineup.
Though Joseph still skated in the Penguins’ latest victory, it was as a seventh defenseman because Pittsburgh only deployed 11 forwards with Bryan Rust (birth of his second son) and Mikael Granlund (illness) both out.
Joseph had a season-low 6:22 of ice time, including none after the second period. Kulikov, meanwhile, had over 15 minutes skating alongside Jan Rutta to comprise the Penguins’ third defensive pairing.
“We’re all professionals here. We know what the situation is,” Kulikov said of the dynamic between himself and Joseph. “Hopefully, it can make everyone better.”
Rutta came off long-term injured reserve prior to the Penguins’ 3-2 overtime win over the St. Louis Blues on Feb. 25. He partnered with Joseph for that contest and the four ensuing games with mostly positive results. Per Natural Stat Trick, the Penguins were expected to score over half a goal more than their opposition when Joseph and Rutta were on the ice together.
But over the larger sample size of the entire 2022-23 season, that number flips; with Joseph and Rutta sharing the blue line, Pittsburgh has been expected to give up over 1½ more goals. Enter Dmitry Kulikov.
The 32-year-old veteran whom coach Mike Sullivan called “reliable” has crafted a 14-season career for himself thus far because of his defensive-minded style of play, which comes with an innate ability to block shots. He led the Ducks with 70 of them during his time in Anaheim this season.
Now with his eighth NHL franchise and sixth in four seasons, Kulikov has become quite familiar with bringing his style of play to whichever team requests his services.
“I just feel like as a young player when you’re coming into the league, you need to learn how to play consistently and I think I’ve done that in the past, over the years, just adapting to different coaches, different systems, different styles of play,” Kulikov said. “I feel like I’m versatile in that sense.”
The process of getting up to speed in Pittsburgh wasn’t particularly difficult for Kulikov, either. He missed the first Penguins game he could’ve partook in, a 4-1 loss to the Florida Panthers, as he moved from California to Pittsburgh following the trade. But since then, he’s acclimated himself to the Penguins by watching video with the team’s coaching staff, with little to no growing pains.
“I feel like there’s not much new information because a lot of the teams have the same systems,” Kulikov said. “I’m familiar with a lot of them since I’ve played for a few teams.”
Kulikov’s role with the Penguins, as it often has been over the years, is to provide stability. While Joseph’s offensively driven game comes with its benefits, like a two-goal showing against the Ducks just under a month ago, it also can lead to odd-man rushes for the opposition that leave his partner out to dry.
For what it’s worth, Kulikov also has 16 pounds on Joseph despite being an inch shorter.
"He's a real trustworthy defenseman. He's good on the penalty kill,” Sullivan said of Kulikov. “In Anaheim, he played against a lot of teams' top players all year long. His size and his strength, I think, will help us."
Kulikov’s inaugural Penguins game wasn’t particularly noteworthy, but he contributed in the winning effort with some minutes on the penalty kill, saucered a couple of shots on net and delivered a hit. He was on the ice for one of the Blue Jackets’ goals, but a fanned slapshot by Rutta put Kulikov in a tough spot as he raced back down the ice in an unsuccessful attempt to break up a Columbus 2-on-1.
Otherwise, Kulikov helped anchor the third pairing that easily could’ve given up a few more goals because Tuesday was anything but Rutta’s night. The Penguins’ playoff push would benefit greatly from Kulikov continuing with even-keeled performances like the one he produced in an untraditional 5-4 win.
“He played a steady game and that was what we expected to get when we acquired him,” Sullivan said. “He’s just a reliable, trustworthy guy.”
Around the boards
It was a full house for Wednesday afternoon’s roughly half-hourlong practice in Cranberry at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex. Rust and Granlund both returned to action after missing Tuesday evening’s game. Ryan Poehling also practiced and wore a regular sweater a day after being retroactively placed on long-term injured reserve.
With a full cast of Penguins players in attendance, Sullivan switched up his top two defensive pairings, too, just as he did midway through the second period on Tuesday. Brian Dumoulin partnered with Jeff Petry while Marcus Pettersson operated alongside Kris Letang, pairings that were productive in Pittsburgh’s latest winning effort.
“When we make those types of changes, it’s because we’re not satisfied with where we’re at,” Sullivan said of switching the top defensive units.
Andrew Destin: adestin@post-gazette.com and Twitter @AndrewDestin1.
First Published: March 8, 2023, 7:16 p.m.
