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Penguins’ Brazeau Thriving With No Pedigree; So Who Is This Guy?
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- Penguins’ Brazeau Thriving With No Pedigree; So Who Is This Guy?
Justin Brazeau. Credit: Philip G. Pavely-Imagn Images
Dan Muse couldn't help but smile and try to stifle a little laugh Monday. The Pittsburgh Penguins coach was asked if he was shocked that a player with winger Justin Brazeau 's size and hands went undrafted.
Brazeau, 27, is not part of the Penguins' ballyhooed corral of prospects. He's not a reclamation project – no pedigree and just 95 NHL games on his resume when he signed with the Penguins as a free agent last summer. He's not a holdover.
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What he is, is a player who has matched his career high, set last season, with 11 goals in just 23 games; who has shown skill mixed with responsible play; and who developed good chemistry with future Hall of Famer Evgeni Malkin . He got three of those goals Sunday for his first career hat trick during the Penguins' 7-3 win in Chicago .
"Yeah," Muse said of the surprising incongruity of a guy with Brazeau's attributes going undrafted, "but also when you get to know him as a person, he's just a guy who you can tell — based on his personality, based on his day-to-day — it's no surprise that he's a guy that's gotten to the point where he is. There's a lot there from a physical standpoint, from a skill standpoint, but sometimes when you go through not being drafted, you find your path the hard way, and that makes you who you are."
Brazeau can't argue with that.
The 6-foot-6, 232-pounder has been a good fit in his first season with the Penguins, so perhaps going undrafted as well as a few other times he's been overlooked has driven him to become a solid NHL player.
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"You could say I was a bit of a late bloomer, I guess," he said. "I was a late-round pick to the OHL. My first year (with the North Bay Battalion) I had 13 points in 65 games.
"But I think that type of stuff is good for me. I was put into a role there when I was 17, 18, maybe not as a scorer but my coach trusted me and my linemates for defensive stuff and being able to play against other teams' best players. As a player, that's nice because now I feel like I can do both.
"I probably didn't have my good seasons until it was a little bit too late (to get drafted)."
He signed with Boston and then Minnesota before landing with the Penguins – where he had a relationship with president of hockey operations/general manager Kyle Dubas, who signed Brazeau to an AHL deal while Dubas was with Toronto .
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Brazeau signed a two-year contract with the Penguins with a salary cap hit of $1.5 million, but he was not exactly seen as a prime person to watch going into training camp. Then he drew attention as part of a towering second line with Malkin and Anthony Mantha before he missed all of November with an undisclosed injury, and now he is continuing to thrive despite Malkin being injured.
"He's around the net so (effectively) that it's hard for (defensemen) to handle him there," said Tommy Novak , who lately has been centering Brazeau and Mantha. "Playing with him is fun. You can throw it around the net, and he's probably going to get a whack on it. He's got good finishing ability. He's shown that so far this year."
Brazeau did not use his "in" with Dubas to ask upon his signing to, say, get a shot to play with Malkin. He just wanted a chance to fit in with all those prospects, reclamation projects and holdover veterans.
"I never brought up anything like that," he said, smiling. "Obviously, that was nice. From everything I had heard from them, it was just the opportunity. I wasn't going to be pigeonholed into one type of role. I was going to have the chance to show what I can do. I think that really spoke to me."
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He spoke back, and it was somewhat sassy, picking up six goals in his first 12 games. Who know he had such silky mitts? Well, he did.
"I feel like I've always had a pretty good skill set that way," Brazeau said. "I don't think I have hands like the (Connor) McDavids, the (Sidney Crosby s) and stuff, but I feel like in tight around the net I'm able to put pucks in spots where only I can get them and not other people. Obviously, having the reach helps."
Brazeau had a growth spurt around age 15, adding about five inches and nearly 40 pounds. That was while growing up in New Liskeard, Ontario, a town five hours north of Ottawa so small that it since has merged with two other communities to form Temiskaming Shores, which still only has around 10,000 people and, not surprisingly, is hockey-crazed.
"We played a lot of the small teams up north," he said. "It's only A hockey. But it's also all we ever did as kids. I had an outdoor rink as a kid for a couple years, and then my hometown, there were probably four outdoor rinks where you could just go skate anytime. There's a lake. We kind of lived it our whole life."
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It's also where he had a picture of Crosby on his wall.
Now he can look across the locker room or down the bench and see the all-time great, and know that he's doing the most with a chance to fit in as Crosby's teammate.
The post Penguins' Brazeau Thriving With No Pedigree; So Who Is This Guy? appeared first on Pittsburgh Hockey Now .
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