Michael Bunting’s offensive resurgence making big impact for Penguins

That is especially true on their power play.

Through the first month, maybe the first month-and-a-half of the 2024-25 season, I am not sure there was a bigger individual disappointment on the Pittsburgh Penguins roster than forward Michael Bunting.

It was not that I had super high expectations for him, it was just that I anticipated him being something closer to the player he was at the tail end of the 2023-24 season after he came over from the Carolina Hurricanes in the Jake Guentzel trade.

He brought a different element to the forward group.

He had that garbage goal mentality where he could park himself near the net and score the ugly goals the Penguins had been lacking.

I am not saying he is this good of a player (because he is not), but he brought a little bit of the Chris Kunitz/Patric Hornqvist ugliness that the Penguins had been lacking since this two had left the team.

Early on this season the Penguins were not really getting much of that. They certainly were not getting any sort of production from him. He had just one point in the Penguins’ first 12 games (an assist) and even found himself as a healthy scratch at one point.

Now they are getting it.

After finally scoring his first goal of the season he has 11 goals in 25 games (a 36-goal pace over 82 games), and is now up to a 25-goal pace for the season as a whole. That is about where you might expect him to be. He has four goals over the past three games and has really started to make a gigantic impact on a rapidly improving Penguins power play.

After scoring two more power play goals in Sunday’s 3-2 win over the New York Islanders, the Penguins power play is now fourth in the NHL for the season at more than 25 percent, and has taken a complete 180 from where it was a year ago when it was not only one of the worst units in the league, but played a major role in the team missing the playoffs. Over the past 17 games (where the Penguins are 10-6-1), that power play percentage is up to over 32.6 percent.

Do you know who leads the Penguins in power play goals during that stretch?

It is Michael Bunting.

He has six of them during that stretch.

Nobody else on the team has more than two during that stretch.

His seven power play goals for the season as a whole are also tops on the team, and three more than anybody else on the roster.

Even better, when he is on the ice during the power play the Penguins are scoring more than 11 goals per 60 minutes of power play time when Bunting is on the ice. Of the 10 players that have logged at least 25 minutes of power play time this season for the Penguins, only newcomer Philip Tomasino (18 goals per 60 minutes) has been on the ice for more goals per 60 minutes.

It is a trend that goes back to last season, where the Penguins averaged nine goals per 60 minutes of power play time when Bunting was on the ice, by far the highest number of any player on the team.

Over the two years combined the Penguins are averaging more than 10 power play goals per 60 minutes with him on the ice, while he has scored eight of them in only 129 minutes. That is over 3.7 goals per 60 minutes.

Again, only Tomasino (in a far smaller sample size) has been more efficient as a player and goal-scorer.

He has not only been one of the Penguins’ best players on the power play, he has been one of the most productive in the league.

It is an important development for two reasons.

The first is that if the Penguins have any hope of contending for a playoff spot (and while management might not be in that mindset; the players on the ice certainly are) they need their power play to succeed. The 2023-24 team was built on the premise that it could make the playoffs on the back of a strong, dominant power play to help balance out the scoring from the top-six. It did not get that power play performance, the offense struggled, the team did not meet expectations.

Now that the power play is starting to click, wins are starting to become more frequent and the team is inching its way back into playoff contention.

Bunting and his playing style is taking on a sizable role in that.

The other important development is that if the Penguins do not continue their recent surge in the standings and slide back out of playoff contention, Bunting’s improved play and production could make him an extremely valuable trade chip going into the trade deadline season. A net-front cage rattler that is scoring goals and producing? One that has term remaining on his contract at a pretty affordable rate? Teams might pay something for that.

The Penguins were lacking somebody that played like Bunting, and not having that sort of trash-man mentality around the net was hurting the offense on all levels. Goalies will stop what they see, and if there is nobody there to collect rebounds you are not going to be as efficient offensively as you can be, even if you are generating a lot of shots and chances.

He is not going keep scoring at the 35-goal pace he has been on over the past month-plus, but if he can get to 25 goals for the season and keep playing the way he has been since that opening 12-15 game stretch of the season that is a nice player to have.