Penguins' Rickard Rakell Will Likely Regress In 2023-24
It's hard to imagine Rickard Rakell will produce as much for the Pittsburgh Penguins as he did last season
From the moment Rickard Rakell was acquired by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2022, it was evident that he was a great fit with the team's top six. He finished fourth on the Penguins with 60 points last season, splitting time between Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin's lines throughout the year.
An important part of Rakell's success with the Penguins has been his involvement in their top power play unit. Last season, Rakell supplanted Bryan Rust on the first power play unit and proceeded to score a career-high 11 power play goals and added ten assists, making up 35 percent of his total points.
With the Penguins' addition of Erik Karlsson, those power play numbers for Rakell could take a hit. While Karlsson is expected to take over the point position on the top unit, several players could challenge Rakell for his spot on the left half-wall, including Kris Letang and newcomer Reilly Smith.
Without those power play minutes, Rakell's point totals could dip in 2023. However, with rebuilding the Penguins' forward lineup, Rakell should see more ice time with Crosby and Jake Guentzel on the Penguins' top line.
In 631 minutes of ice time with Rakell, Crosby's underlying numbers took a massive jump. The Penguins had 55.63 percent of the shot attempts and 58.19 percent of the expected goals with those two on the ice together. Without Rakell, Crosby finished with 52.78 percent of the shot attempts and 52.6 percent of the expected goals.
Rickard Rakell remains one of the Penguins' best options on the wing entering the season but is unlikely to match his stats from last year.
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