Steve Downie Is the Type of Player the Pittsburgh Penguins Need in 2014-15

The one-year, $1 million pact between Steve Downie and the Pittsburgh Penguins is one of the most sensible deals of the offseason, one that makes exceptional sense for both parties.

For the Penguins, a top-heavy team in need of capable NHL forwards to round out its roster, it represents an opportunity to land such a player on the cheap. Given how close the team sits to the NHL's salary cap, the dollar figure on this deal was paramount.

For Downie, who has a long and deserved reputation as a talented but troubled player, it’s a chance to get his career back on track. He’s bounced between three teams in three seasons, his scoring has plummeted and, in the middle of it all, he lost virtually the entire 2012-13 campaign to a knee injury.

For him, the likelihood of sticking with one team—he has a modified no-trade clause—and playing with a quality pivot—Pittsburgh has a bunch of those—should represent a welcome change of pace.

On those factors alone, this was a sensible marriage between player and team, but there’s more.

Keith Srakocic/Associated Press

After losing his way with his first NHL team, Downie became a major league player under the watch of Rick Tocchet, then the coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Tocchet, who won a Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh as a player in 1992, rejoined the organization as an assistant coach in June.

Not only is there a level of familiarity between player and coach, but Downie made it clear to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Seth Rorabaugh that Tocchet commands his respect:

"

He demands a lot. He pushes you. He played the game a hard way and he knows what it takes. When he speaks, you listen. ...

It’s instant respect for a guy [with Tocchet’s playing career]. He played for so many years as hard as he could. He was a hard-nosed player. He wasn’t afraid of anyone. He put the puck in the net all the time. To try to look up to someone like that and play like that person, it’s pretty hard to do. He’s taught me a lot in my career and I hope it continues.

"

What can the Penguins expect from Downie if all goes well? At his best, the winger has been a quality top-six forward who contributes much more than just a physical game:

Season	QC Rk.	Zone Start	Corsi Rel.	5v5 PTS/60
2009-10	3	55.7	6.7	2.17
2010-11	5	50.0	5.9	2.34
2011-12	3	51.1	12.2	1.92
2013-14	6	48.9	0.5	1.41

It’s important to remember that those shiny scoring totals—two points per even-strength hour is fringe first-line territory or elite second-line production—came in years when Downie was playing with Steven Stamkos and Martin St. Louis on a regular basis, and it isn’t terribly likely that he was the offensive driver on that line.

But Pittsburgh is a team with elite talent, so Downie doesn’t need to drive results in the Steel City. All he needs to do is play a complementary role, and he’s proven in the past that he’s more than capable of that.

It’s also worth mentioning that Downie has outperformed his team’s puck-possession totals in each of the past four seasons, sometimes by a lot—again, linemate caveats are worth noting.

Last season, Pittsburgh struggled to find forwards outside of its top six who could play minutes without getting killed on the shot clock, so even if Downie doesn’t end up with Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin, there’s a pretty good chance he can help.

He’s a good fit for Pittsburgh, and the Penguins are a good fit for him  Now it’s just a matter of waiting to see if the results on the ice look as good as this match does on paper.

Advanced stats via Behind The Net. Salary information courtesy of CapGeek.com.

Jonathan Willis covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter for more of his work.