The Pittsburgh Penguins went out and signed a few players in free agency mostly for bottom six depth and also a backup goaltender. They also made a splash at the NHL draft when they traded James Neal for Patric Hornqvist and Nick Spaling. Let's take a look to see which Penguins will make the biggest impact this coming season.
Patric Hornqvist
Hornqvist is going to be a beast this year if the Penguins since he will be playing with either Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin. Hornqvist's game is going to the net and scoring and if he does that a ton, he will get a lot of goals. Crosby or Malkin will feed him the puck a lot and he should get between 30-40 goals for the Penguins this year if he stays healthy. He also will make an impact on the power play if Mike Johnston decides to put him on there since he goes to the net a lot and that's where the puck is going to be most of the time. Let's hope he lives up to his potential this season.
Christian Ehrhoff
Ehrhoff came to the Penguins via free agency on a one year deal worth four million. General Manager Jim Rutherford wanted to get a defenseman to replace Matt Niskanen who left via free agency and he did just that. He's most likely going to play with Olli Maatta this season who was the best Penguins rookie last season. Ehrhoff's biggest impact will come on the power play. He has a cannon of a shot on the point and can really quarteback a power play almost as good as Sergei Gonchar did back when he was here a few years ago. Him and Letang on the power play could just be deadly as they both are very good offensive defenseman. If Ehrhoff has a great season, expect the Penguins to sign him to a long term contract after the season is over and it's rumored he would be interested in signing again if things go well.
Steve Downie
You guys may be surprised as to why I think Downie will make a huge impact but it's simple. He's a very physical forward who can lay out huge hits and can also score. He said last week that there will no liberties taken on Crosby and Malkin this season which sounds good to me. He will lay out anyone who tries to lay a hand on both of them. He also can bring scoring to this team which is something he did under Rich Tocchett in Tampa a couple years ago when he had a 20 goal season. Can he regain that magic under Tocchett in Pittsburgh now? Anything is possible but this was a good signing for the Penguins.