"We think he brings that speed dimension that I think is complementary to Sid and Jake's game," Sullivan told The Scoop podcast. "And he's shown the ability to finish. He's scored 20 goals in this league (2018-19). He has elite speed, he has good size, so he brings a size dimension (6-foot-1, 194 pounds) to that line as well. So when we play in games that tend to be heavy in nature, I think Kapanen is]*
Crosby scored 47 points (16 goals, 31 assists) in 41 games last season, missing 28 games recovering from core-muscle surgery he had Nov. 14, 2019. Guentzel scored 43 points (20 goals, 23 assists) in 39 games. He had shoulder surgery Dec. 31, which ended his regular season.
When together, Crosby and Guentzel played mostly with
Dominik Simon
at even strength last season. The season prior, when Guentzel scored 40 goals and Crosby 100 points, Bryan Rust was often their linemate.
"I don't think it's any secret that speed has been part of the fabric of the identity of this group," Sullivan said of Kapanen. "We're trying to surround our core with as much speed as we can, and he's going to help us in that capacity. He has some finish, he's a good penalty killer, he's got good size, so he makes us a little bit bigger, which is an area we think we could improve. He checks a lot of boxes.
"We think we'll start [Kapanen] with Sid and Jake. We'll see how it goes, and if we have to make adjustments, we'll make adjustments. But when you look at our top six right now with Sid, Jake and Kapanen and then Geno (Evgeni Malkin), Rust and [Jason] Zucker, it's a pretty solid top six."
The Penguins (40-23-6, .623 points percentage) finished fifth in the Eastern Conference last season and lost in four games to the Montreal Canadiens in the best-of-5 Stanley Cup Qualifiers. They scored eight goals against the Canadiens after averaging 3.20 goals per game in 69 regular-season games.
