The Departed - Alexei Ponikarovsky - 08-06-10
"The Departed" series on Empty Netters is a set of "eulogies" for former Penguins who have passed away... to other teams. Essentially, we look back on their time as a Penguin, examine their contributions to the franchise and as real eulogies occasionally do, exaggerate a bit. Today's eulogy is dedicated to Alexei Ponikarovsky.
The legend of Penguins general manager Ray Shero has grown partly due to his acumen at the trade deadline.
In 2007, he felt his team needed toughness. He brought in blood and guts Gary Roberts and the strongest fighter in the NHL, Georges Laraque. That helped the team reach the postseason for the first time in six years.
In 2008, he felt his team needed scoring and skating on the top line as well as a a physical presence on the blue line. He brought in one of the best talents in the world in Marian Hossa, speedy Pascal Dupuis and big Hal Gill. That helped the team reach the Stanley Cup final for the first time in 16 years.
In 2009, he felt his team needed more scoring on the top line as well as a net-front presence. He brought in battling Bill Guerin and feisty Chris Kunitz. That helped the team win the Stanley Cup for the first time in 17 years.
In 2010, he felt he needed a scoring winger with net-front presence for the second line. Unfortunately he brought in anemic Alexei Ponikarovsky. That helped the team... well... it didn't help the team.
Alexei Ponikarovsky came into a wonderful situation here in Pittsburgh. He left a rotten environment in Toronto where there wasn't any sort of hope for postseason play and he was surrounded by a roster full of borderline NHL-caliber talent. He was coming to a Stanley Cup contender in Pittsburgh. And he was going to play with one of the top centers in the world in Evgeni Malkin. He had a chance to compete for something meaningful for the first time in half a decade and he was surely going to be the beneficiary of some superb play by an elite center.
And he was scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent. On top of everything, he was playing for meal money. He was hungry. Or should have been. Everything was set up for him to succeed.
But from the start, something just didn't seem right. The Penguins acquired the big Ukrainian winger (6-foot-4, 229 pounds) March 2, one day before the trade deadline, in a deal which sent forward prospect Luca Caputi and spare-part defenseman Martin Skoula to Toronto. But Ponikarovsky couldn't even legally enter the United States due to a work visa issue for a few days.
He missed one game before debuting with the Penguins in a 6-3 home win against the Stars. Ponikarovsky would collect a pretty meaningless insurance goal late in the contest doing pretty much what he he was brought in to do. Playing around the net and cleaning up garbage.
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The next day, in a game marred by an ugly check by Matt Cooke on Boston's Marc Savard, Ponikarovsky would collect the only assist on Evgeni Malkin's game-winning goal as the Penguins edged the Bruins, 2-1. It was a marvelous start for Ponikarovsky and it only seemed to raise the already lofty expectations of him. But it pretty much went downhill from there.
He would only end up collecting two goals and nine points in his 16 regular season games with the Penguins. His meager production was partially attributed to the sporadic absence of Malkin from the lineup who was dealing with a foot ailment. And while Ponikarovsky did bring a strong defensive presence on the backcheck, he simply failed to produce offensively at a consistent pace. Adding to his problems was a two-game suspension on a dangerous hit against Islanders forward Josh Bailey during a 7-3 rout of the Islanders in the final regular season game at Mellon Arena:
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There were hopes that he would begin show off his offensive ability once the playoffs started and once a presumably healthy Malkin returned to the lineup. And he did produce a key goal in a 4-2 win in Game 3 of an Eastern Conference quarterfinal series win in Ottawa:
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But he simply wasn't contributing enough. His play deteriorated so much that he was benched in favor of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton call-up Mark Letestu for Games 5 and 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Canadiens.
Ponikarovsky would return for Game 7 and even generated a re-directed goal by Jordan Staal which gave the Penguins some hope. But it was too late as they eventually fell, 5-2, in a series- and season-ending defeat at home.
But in the end, it was clear this was a rare miss for Shero. He had done the right thing his first four trade deadlines and those moves directly led to significant improvement for the franchise. This one was a miss. And it hurt.
Last month, Ponikarovsky signed with the Kings.
(Photos: First and second-Justin K. Aller/Getty Images; Third-Peter Diana/Post-Gazette)