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Brandon Sutter gets unenviable job of replacing Jordan Staal

Brandon Sutter - Penguins

Newest Pittsburgh Penguins forward Brandon Sutter met the press today at CONSOL Energy Center, donning the black and gold for the first time. Sutter has the task of taking the place of Jordan Staal after their draft day trade for each other, a tall order to say the least.

Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette caught up with Sutter to find out what he expects his role to be with the Penguins.

“I think where I was before, I liked my role there and I feel it’s going to be kind of similar here. I think at the same time, there was times where I didn’t get very much offensive opportunity at all. There was no power play, no nothing ever. Which is fine if you’re winning. But when you’re not winning, that can be kind of frustrating I guess. I haven’t had a chance to talk to Dan about that yet but I think it’s going to be clear what I’m going to be doing.”

What he’ll be doing is holding the fort down on the Pens’ third line. Getting the opportunity to play the power play shouldn’t be too hard as Dan Bylsma will load up his first unit with both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

Filling Staal’s shoes will be hard, but he might just be better suited for the role than Staal was. Sutter has played the third line role in Carolina whereas Staal was a top six player having to play the third line because there were better guys ahead of him.

(Photo courtesy of Pittsburgh Penguins)