Penguins' young players are bearing the brunt of limited minutes

With the Pittsburgh Penguins currently approaching the bottom of the league standings, it would make sense for them to start ushering in more youth and give those guys increased opportunities to make an impression in their NHL lineup.

As it turns out, that hasn't exactly been the case.

While the Penguins flounder in the standings with several veterans underperforming, their youngest players seem to be bearing the brunt of limited ice time. 

For example, in the team's most recent tilt against the Utah Hockey Club, these were the five lowest time on ice totals (TOT):

The thing to keep in mind here is that Hayes was playing in his first game back from a week-to-week injured reserve stint that kept him out since Nov. 5, and Nieto was playing in just his fifth game after missing nearly a full calendar year of hockey. 

Poulin and Pickering are the two youngest players on the roster, and Puljujarvi is older than only Drew O'Connor, Valtteri Puustinen, and Jack St. Ivany. O'Connor was next on the list with just 13 minutes and seven seconds of ice time, and the latter two were healthy scratches.

Over the last three games - adding in forward Vasily Ponomarev, who was just reassigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Pittsburgh's AHL affiliate - these players seem to be getting less and less ice time. What's odd about Pickering's deployment, in particular, is that he was placed on the top defensive pairing with Kris Letang against Utah, and Letang saw 23:47 of ice time in comparison to Pickering's 12:09.

The sample size is too small at this point to really read into anything too much, and there have already been a lot of injuries that factor into ice time as well. In addition, there is a bit of a correlation with whether or not players are deployed on special teams units.

However, that's not necessarily the biggest issue. The primary issue is that several of these players - namely Pickering and Puljujarvi - have seemingly earned more minutes through their play. In addition, over the last three games against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Winnipeg Jets, and Utah Hockey Club, the fourth line has seen more minutes than the Penguins' third line, which isn't typical.

And despite playing on both special teams units, O'Connor's ice time has dwindled in recent games. Head coach Mike Sullivan has reiterated that performance is the ultimate dictator of lineup decisions, and O'Connor has struggled at five-on-five this season.

In terms of average time on ice per game throughout the entire season, only two of the 10 skaters with the lowest average ice time are over the age of 30. Eight of the ten players leading in average ice time per game are over the age of 30, with the only two exceptions being Marcus Pettersson and Jack St. Ivany, both of whom are defensemen.

While it's true that most of the team's best players are also its oldest players, this doesn't mean that some of the young guns aren't deserving of an extended look. If the Penguins continue their free fall in the standings, ice time may be something to keep an eye on moving forward - especially in anticipation of potential trades.