Gary Agnew: Letang Is NHL's Best Defenseman
PITTSBURGH (KDKA 93-7 The Fan) -- Penguins assistant coach Gary Agnew joined Bob Pompeani on his show Saturday.
Agnew said that while he's biased, he thinks that Kris Letang is the best defenseman in the NHL.
"We put this guy in a lot of tough situations. He plays against the other teams best lines most nights. We're trying to get the matchup, so he'll play against (Jonathan) Toews and (Marian) Hossa (Sunday). He's put in situations where his ice time is hard ice time, and I'm not sure that's the same way with every offensive defenseman in the league," Agnew said.
Agnew said that the Pens defensemen have improved their physicality in front of their own net.
"As far as the physicality of our blue line, I'm happy with the way it looks right now. Rob Scuderi can get involved physically. I thought particularly over the last month we've been a lot better in front of our goaltender. I thought we were a little bit soft in front of that net, in front of (Marc-Andre) Fleury and (Thomas) Greiss at times. I think we've adjusted to that, and I think we do a much better job of keeping people away from the front of our net by boxing them out," Agnew said.
Agnew has been happy with the progress of Simon Despres.
"Early in the season, he made a couple of fairly huge mistakes. But we wanted to keep going with him and give him a body of work so we could make decisions on whether or not we could go with him moving forward and obviously, he's done a great job in that regard. We have a lot of confidence in the way he plays and the way he moves the puck," Agnew said.