The 30-year-old winger was a full participant in practice for the second day in a row on Wednesday at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex. After slotting in on an extra D pairing during Tuesday's morning skate, Zucker skated on a line with Evgeni Malkin and Rickard Rakell this afternoon.
"He's a north-south guy that plays really well in the battle areas and in traffic," Sullivan said. "He's great on the forecheck, he goes to the net, makes it hard on our opponent's goaltender. I think that's an important element to have on Geno's line."
He slotted in on the left, with Rakell moving over to the right. The newest Penguins forward said he's comfortable on both sides, and feels like he's really starting to build some chemistry with Malkin after two games together.
"We've had some really good looks," Rakell said. "I'm starting to learn where he is on the ice and where we can combine our strengths. I'm excited. I think it's a lot of fun, and just think it's gonna get better."
The more that Rakell plays, the more instinctive he becomes, and that has been evident with some of the skilled plays he's made offensively. Both he (twice) and Zucker (once) have hit the 30-goal mark in their careers, so they each bring the ability to finish.
That's also a key to playing with Malkin, as he has the ability to distribute the puck well and find his linemates in good areas of the ice. Having first Rakell and now Zucker as options to play in the top six adds to the Penguins' depth, balance and versatility.
"They just make us that much deeper with respect to our ability to generate offense, but also just being harder to play against," Sullivan said. "They add to our team speed, they both have a physical dimension of their game. There's a number of ways that those guys help us when they're in the lineup."
The ripple effect of adding Zucker included Bryan Rust reuniting with Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel on the first line; Evan Rodrigues moving to the third line with Jeff Carter and Kasperi Kapanen; and Danton Heinen slotting in on the fourth line with Teddy Blueger and Brian Boyle. Radim Zohorna was the odd man out.
As of right now (knock on wood), Brock McGinn is the only player currently sidelined for the Penguins. The bottom-six forward has missed the last nine games with an upper-body injury.
"We're starting to get healthy. We're going to have some decisions to make on what our line combinations look like," Sullivan said. "We're always looking for the balance, so that we're harder to play against. We're looking for complementary skill sets and things of that nature."
On the back end, Mark Friedman worked on the third defensive pairing alongside Chad Ruhwedel, with Marcus Pettersson rotating on a fourth one with Zohorna and Anthony Angello.
Sullivan said Friedman - who has been a healthy scratch six of the past seven games - is always in the conversation when it comes to their D corps, and will continue to be.
"He's played well when we've put him in the lineup," Sullivan said. "He's a real mobile guy. He's a competitive guy. I think he defends well. He's willing to block shots. He can help us on the penalty kill. There's a number of areas where I think Freids has helped us when he's gone in the lineup. The starts that he's gotten to this point, he's earned."
Here is the workflow…
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Zucker-Malkin-Rakell
Rodrigues-Carter-Kapanen
Boyle-Blueger-Heinen
Dumoulin-Letang
Matheson-Marino
Friedman-Ruhwedel
Pettersson-Angello-Zohorna
