He has obviously benefitted from playing with great players and the extra space afforded to him, but the opportunity has made him a better and more consistent player in his own right. While those are valid points, it does a disservice to how much Rust’s game has changed this season (even if he won’t admit it) and what’s led to him becoming a strong finisher. With Rust only earning a point on 56 percent of goals scored while on the ice at evens, there’s an argument to be made that his totals are a byproduct of spending a lot of time with two of Pittsburgh’s best offensive players, Evgeni Malkin and Jake Guentzel. Rust’s on-ice shooting percentage at 5-on-5 is a ridiculously high 13.8 percent at 5-on-5 and on the power play he has four goals on just nine shots.
This may be a legitimate breakout in some respects, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for regression. Rust has the tools to be a lethal goal scorer with his blazing speed, dogged puck pursuit, accurate shot and his innate ability to find space – but some of his numbers still look too good to be true. When a player comes out of nowhere like this there is always reason for healthy skepticism that the current performance is just a hot streak and nothing more. Somehow and someway are the important caveats in that last sentence. Rust – if he can somehow, someway, manage to keep this up – could join that company. Since 2007-08, only eight players have had a 40-point pace jump and the biggest year-to-year jump in point pace is 55 points by Nathan MacKinnon in 2017-18, going from 53 to 108. Through 20 games Rust has been on absolute fire turning into a lethal finisher by scoring 13 goals, good for a blistering 53-goal pace while adding 11 assists for a 98-point pace. This season is bringing back that same feeling from the 2016 playoffs, where again I have to ask who is this guy and how is he doing this, only this time Rust is doing it on a near-nightly basis.
He’s averaging 21:11 over that stretch which is fewer than just eight other forwards. With the Penguins still plagued by injuries, that minutes bump has been increased even further over the last 11 games where Rust’s lowest ice time was 19:33, one of just two times he played fewer than 20 minutes. Rust has gone from a 16-minute forward to one that’s getting 18:38 this season – and rising. “I think he came into camp in great shape, he’s worked extremely hard, he’s been arguably one of our most consistent players from Day 1 of training camp.”įrom a crowded depth chart up front, Rust has risen above the rest, emerging as a crucial member of the team’s attack up front and has received a big jump in usage as a result. “I give Rusty a lot of credit,” coach Mike Sullivan said. This season, though, Rust has been entirely different and has gone from just a guy to one of The Guys in Pittsburgh. Rust was a guy – nothing more, nothing less. There were stretches where he showed those flashes of being able to do more but also stretches where he sort of faded the inconsistency that’s to be expected at times from a forward of his stature. From 2016-2017 to 2018-19 he scored at a 40-45 point pace while being an average possession driver. He does the little things right, using his terrific speed to get to pucks first and chips in a few goals along the way. Since then, Rust has worked hard to entrench himself as a very capable middle-six forward, one who can fit anywhere around the lineup. His first season wasn’t anything to write home about, but the flashes were there and that Game 7 where he became a Pittsburgh hero was his coming out party. Even in the minors he wasn’t scoring so it was difficult to imagine him as an impact NHLer – most players at his level at that age don’t go far. In 2016, Rust was a 22-year-old third-rounder without a strong history. Every season it feels like Pittsburgh faces injuries to key players and every season it feels like it doesn’t matter because the next man up usually becomes a decent contributor.
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