Pittsburgh Penguins' defenseman Sam Girard had to make some big adjustments upon his arrival in Pittsburgh, but his game is coming around - and he and defense partner Kris Letang are helping the team win.
Back on Feb. 24, the Pittsburgh Penguins made a somewhat surprising move when they traded defenseman Brett Kulak - who they had just acquired from the Edmonton Oilers, along with Stuart Skinner, two months earlier - to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for blueliner Samuel Girard and a 2028 second-round pick.
At the time, the left-side Kulak was going strong with defense partner Kris Letang, who had struggled a bit prior to Kulak's arrival. And for the first month and a half after Girard's arrival, it wasn't exactly smooth-sailing for him and Letang as it was for Kulak and Letang.
But, in this recent stretch of games in late March and early April, the Penguins are 5-2 in their last seven and two points away from clinching their first playoff berth since 2022 - and Girard is a big reason why.
In his first 10 games alongside Letang - according to data from Natural Stat Trick - the pair contributed to exactly a 50 percent expected goals share. And in those seven games since? A team-leading 60.93 percent expected goals share. Girard himself has six points in 17 games as a member of the Penguins, with four of those points coming in the last five games.
And that tracks with Girard admitting that things were a bit of a struggle at first for him to adapt to an entirely new system and new teammates.
"Obviously, I would say the first, like, seven games, it's kind of like an adjustment, you know?" Girard said. "New system, new team, new teammates. I was in Denver for nine years, so I'd been playing the same system for nine years and come here, and they play a different way. I play with a different partner as well.
"But I feel like the last four or five games have been probably my best games so far since I've joined the team here. So, yeah, I feel like it's going to get better and better, and, I mean, we're just focusing day by day, [focusing] on every game."
The system was one thing: Colorado plays a man-to-man defensive system, whereas Pittsburgh plays more of a zone-style defense, which was a big adjustment for Girard to make. He's still adjusting, too, even if things have gotten significantly better and easier as time has gone on and as he has gotten more games under his belt.
But playing with a new partner was a big adjustment, too. The 27-year-old defenseman had watched and admired Letang growing up, but it was a whole different ballgame to have the opportunity to play with him.
Luckily, Girard said that the ease of playing with someone like Letang - as well as the fact that they can speak French to each other on the ice - has helped a lot with the adjustment.
Samuel Girard and Kris Letang have come around as a defensive pairing in the Penguins' last handful of games and are getting increasingly more comfortable with each other. Credit: Mark Alberti-Imagn Images"At the beginning, [speaking French helped] a little bit," Girard said. "You know, little details, like faceoffs. They have special names for faceoffs that I didn't know when I joined here, so he helped me a lot with that. Some calls, too,breakouts, little stuff like that, was very helpful because there was a few that I didn't know [what they were], but that's why it's nice to play with him. He helps me a lot on the ice."
He added: "He's been great so far. He's such a great player, he's fun to play with, easy to play with as well. But I feel like our game's been growing, so I guess we're just going to have to keep playing like we've been playing the last four or five games and make sure we bring that every night."
Another thing that has helped the 5-foot-10, 170-pound blueliner adapt to playing in Pittsburgh after so many years with the same team and same people is the coaching staff. Head coach Dan Muse - as well as defensive coach Mike Stothers and the rest - have garnered high praise from Penguins' defensemen all season long, in large part, because of their individualized approach to coaching and the fact that they somewhat seem to have catered their system around the group of players that they have.
Erik Karlsson has enjoyed his breakout year as a Penguin this season with 14 goals and 64 points in 73 games, and he was named the NHL's Second Star during the month of March as well as the Penguins' Team MVP for the 2025-26 season. Ryan Shea has also had his best season in a Penguins' uniform, shattering previous career-highs with six goals and 31 points in 77 games, playing prominent roles in the lineup and on a formidable Penguins' penalty kill unit, and finding consistency on a good bottom pairing with Connor Clifton. 28-year-old Parker Wotherspoon has gone from a fringe player in the league to a top-pairing, shutdown defenseman who logs big minutes and is trusted to play in a ton of key situations.
That approach has been the same with Girard. He is an offensive defenseman by nature, and they're not asking him to be something he isn't - but there is also a certain structure to the way they want their blueliners to play within their system. They didn't just expect him to perform mistake-free right away, as Muse acknowledged there are tangible differences between not only man-on-man coverage and zone coverage, but also within those schemes, depending on the team.
"I think for ours, we knew that would be something that would take a little bit of time, a little bit of adjustment. The neutral zone as well, like, the neutral zone is different for him," Muse said after the Penguins' 9-4 win over the Florida Panthers, in which Girard registered an assist. "And you're talking 10 years of doing the same thing, it's kind of ingrained in what you do. But, at the same time, these guys are smart players, and he's picked it up really well. I think early on, you're going to see some of those times that, alright, you know what he's doing and that it's just a little bit of explaining where it's going to be different and just point him through. Because, even from the start, what you don't want to have happen is someone overthinking the game. If you're thinking too much on the ice, you're a bit in-between.
"So, I'd rather somebody be committed to doing the wrong thing but do it with condition than caught between it being the 'right' thing, and I think Sam did a really good job with that in terms of just playing and not overthinking it. And, now, as time's gone on, he's continued to just really blend in and pick up the way that we want to have it done."
Girard's coach has liked what he's seen from him, and the veteran blueliner came to Pittsburgh with a Stanley Cup Championship and a drive to help the team win. It may have taken the Girard some time to get accustomed to that entirely new system, but Girard appreciates that the coaching staff understood that adjusmtent period yet made sure he was ready for game action from the jump.
"It's been great. The first day I got traded here, they just talked to me and made sure everything was okay," Girard said. "Those little details like the faceoffs, I was struggling with that because, obviously, there's more than one. They communicate a lot with me, which is very helpful. It's a great coaching staff.
"They make my job easier, that's for sure. They didn't just throw me out there, they made sure I was ready for it. They've been great to me so far, and I feel very grateful."
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