Faceoff Factor

Scuderi's career path following McKee's

Zach Boslett | Pittsburgh Penguins

Oct 6, 11:08 PM | Hype this story!

Rob Scuderi turned from goat to hero in Pittsburgh over the past three seasons and he got the paycheck he rightly deserved.

Jay McKee went from hero to goat when he signed his new contract with St. Louis after being a hero in Buffalo for several seasons.

They are on opposite career paths right now, one is trying to prove he is better than he was over the past few seasons, the other is trying to live up to the large contract he received with a new team.

Early in Scuderi’s career, he was part of the vaunted Scudichar defense pairing that consisted of Josef Melichar and Robert Scuderi. The defensive pairing was an offensive black hole and could not play anything resembling defense.

It took Scuderi a few solid seasons to shake that name, and the highlight of his career in Pittsburgh being the shutdown work he did against Richards and Carter, Ovechkin and Semin, and Zetterberg and Franzen.

His best known moment was his kick save on Franzen to allow the Penguins to extend the Stanley Cup Finals to a 7th game:

Because of his performance as a Penguin, he earned himself a four-year, $13.6 million deal with the Los Angeles Kings that the Penguins could not match. He is expected to go to LA and provide a veteran leadership and presence to their team to allow them to take the next step.

McKee was in a similar situation a few years ago. He played a similar role to Scuderi during his time in Buffalo and got a similar contract as a result.

His time in St. Louis was rocky. He only played 23 games his first season in St. Louis due to injury was a -9.

During the next two seasons, he played solidly but was overpaid for what he brought to the table. Due to his contract, the Blues attempted to force him into a top 4 role and he was playing a role he was not suited for.

St. Louis bought out the last year of his contract at the end of last season making him an unrestricted free agent. He chose to sign a cheaper contract to come play for Pittsburgh over more lucrative offers from other teams, including one from Nashville.

Jay McKee brings more to the table than Scuderi did, including a physicality and nastiness that had gone missing with Hal Gill’s departure.

Scuderi and McKee have started this season off very differently with their new teams. Scuderi was a -3 in his first game with LA, a 6-3 loss to Phoenix.

McKee is a +1 and has recorded 19 PIM, stemming from an incident where he jumped to the aid of new teammate Ruslan Fedotenko after he got rocked with a big hit.

Both of these players are great role players and “pieces” to the puzzle. But neither player should be making upwards of $3 million on any team, let alone a young team struggling to make a name for themselves and earn a playoff berth.

McKee will prove that he was not a bust in St. Louis, just used incorrectly.

Scuderi will prove that he is great on the PK, but his +/- will be ugly and will likely be forced into a larger role, similar to McKee’s tough times in St. Louis.

Great job Shero.