After the 2024 NHL trade deadline, Pittsburgh Penguins POHO and GM Kyle Dubas traded captain Sidney Crosby's best winger in Jake Guentzel. It seemed to be the first domino to fall in an effort to sell off the team's marketable, talented assets to begin pushing toward the future.
Luckily for Crosby - and the Penguins - there wasn't a repeat of the same thing at the 2025 trade deadline.
Crosby's "new" best winger this season is Rickard Rakell, who is in the midst of a career year having played with the captain for most of it. Rakell has 31 goals and 59 points in 68 games on the season, and that's second on the team only to his linemate and one of hockey's best and most consistent players.
And having the consistency together as linemates this season - the two spent only a few weeks on separate lines at the very beginning of the season - has helped both of them find even more chemistry than they've had in previous campaigns, when they played together on an irrregular basis.
"I think any time you’re together with linemates for an extended period of time, usually, it’s a good thing," Crosby said. "That’s always a good sign. Just trying to read off of one another, you know, you’re talking about certain plays, and then, obviously, the power play, we’re together there... so, that can carry over to five-on-five sometimes, too.
"It definitely helps, and you want to get better as the season goes on. You play different teams, and you want to find a way to be productive.”
And Rakell, too, knows that when his name is on the lineup card next to Crosby and Bryan Rust, he can expect to get some good scoring chances throughout the course of a game.
“I think it helps to be playing with each other for a long time," Rakell said. "And, for me, just playing with Sid and Rusty... I know I’m going to get a few good looks every game, so I just try to stay ready for it.”
And he has, in fact, been ready for it. The duo has combined for 54 goals and 132 points on the season - including 12 goals and 26 points in the 12 games since the 4 Nations Face-off break - and they don't appear to be slowing down.
They've also contributed an expected goals for share of 54.63 percent together, which is the best expected goals share for any regular forward duo on the Penguins' roster.
When the duo plays away from each other? Rakell has an expected goals share of just 44.61 percent, while Crosby has a mark of 46.37 percent.
A few times in the past, head coach Mike Sullivan has referenced Rakell's ability to "make something out of nothing." One of the things - aside from his lethal shot - that makes Rakell a dangerous player is his ability to expose the soft areas of the ice.
Crosby agrees.
“I think just being aware and finding that open ice," Crosby said. "He’s got a great shot, really good hands... so he’s able to maneuver the puck pretty well in small space and doesn’t need a lot of time to get a shot off. He’s proven that a lot this year.”
Feb 27, 2024; Vancouver, British Columbia, CAN; Pittsburgh Penguins forward Rickard Rakell (67) and forward Sidney Crosby (87) celebrate Rakell s second goal of the game against the Vancouver Canucks in the second period at Rogers Arena. (Bob Frid-Imagn Images)As for what makes Crosby so dangerous? Well, it's more than documented at this point how high-IQ and lethal a playmaker Crosby is. But, for Rakell, Crosby's consistency and ability to sustain such a high level of play in a general sense is remarkable.
The Penguins' captain is just seven points shy of setting the NHL's all-time point-per-game seasons record at 20, which would break Wayne Gretzky's previous mark of 19.
“I mean, it’s so impressive to be doing it for, what is it, 20 times?" Rakell said. "He’s one of the best to ever play this game. He shows why. It’s such a hard game, and for him to do it every year, it’s pretty nuts.”
Crosby and Rakell's chemistry this season is pretty nuts, too. And thanks to Dubas's decision to keep the duo intact - at least for the rest of the season, and, perhaps, beyond - it will only have the potential to reach even higher heights.
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