2023-24 Season In Review: Kris Letang

Kris Letang had a slightly different role this season but still produced at a very high level.

Vitals

Player: Kris Letang
Born: April 24, 1987 (Age 37 currently, 2023-24 was his age-36 season)
Height: 6’ 0”
Weight: 201 pounds
Hometown: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Shoots: Right
Draft: 2005 third round (62nd overall) by the Pittsburgh Penguins
2023-24 Statistics: 82 games played, 10 goals, 41 assists = 51 points
Contract Status: Letang is signed for four more seasons at a salary cap number of $6.1 million per season. His contract runs through the end of the 2027-28 season and contains a no-movement clause.

Monthly Splits

via Yahoo!

Story of the Season

For just the second time in his career Letang was able to play a full 82-game schedule. But as we found out this week, he did so while playing through a finger injury that ultimately ended up requiring offseason surgery.

Overall his performance was not as consistent as it has been at times throughout his career when he was at his peak, but the production was still mostly there offensively. What makes the production from a raw numbers standpoint so impressive is that he got there while playing a vastly different role. The arrival of Erik Karlsson bumped Letang off the top power play and into more of a penalty killing role. Despite that, he still reached double digits in goals and topped the 50-point mark. His 5-on-5 scoring numbers were some of the best of his career.

Regular season 5v5 advanced stats

Data via Natural Stat Trick. Ranking is out of nine defensemen on the team who qualified by playing a minimum of 150 minutes.

Corsi For%: 50.9% (4th)
Goals For%: 52.3% (2nd)
xGF%: 50.2% (5th)
Scoring Chance %: 50.2% (4th)
High Danger Scoring Chance%: 50.5% (6th)
5v5 on-ice shooting%: 9.39% (5th)
On-ice save%: .912% (4th)
Goals/60: 0.35 (2nd)
Assist/60: 1.05 (1st)
Points/60: 1.41 (1st)

— There are still a lot of very high level numbers here, including his individual production and the fact the Penguins still outscored teams by a pretty solid margin when he is on the ice.

Charts n’at

Via HockeyViz and JFresh Hockey

This is where you can kind of see Letang’s decline a little bit in the defensive zone, at least compared to previous seasons. The offensive impacts are still there.

While his 5-on-5 performance showed some flaws defensively, his penalty killing work was very strong and impressive, especially when considering it has not really been one of his primary roles over the years. He adjusted well to it.

There are still some good numbers here overall, but his overall WAR rating has dropped with his defensive shortcomings at 5-on-5 really starting to show. That has to be expected for a player at age 37 with his mileage. In some ways, he might finally be the player his biggest critics have always thought him to be — a great offensive player with serious defensive issues. It only took nearly 20 years.

As the microstats show in terms of zone exits and and passes he can still move the puck at a pretty high level, and he can still help generate a lot of scoring chances.

Highlights

Kris Letang recorded his 700th career point early in the season.

Questions to ponder

Given the struggles of the power play this season, a new assistant coach coming into run it, and the desperate need to fix that unit I wonder if the Penguins will consider giving Letang more run on the top unit? The addition of Karlsson changed things pretty dramatically there, and not always for the better. The other big question is whether or not he can stay on the ice for another full season, and if that offseason finger injury can help get him back to 100 percent.

Ideal 2024-25

Ideally Letang will stay healthy for another 82-game season, continue to be a big-time offensive contributor and perhaps see a little bounce-back in his defensive game during 5-on-5 play. If he can give the Penguins that, he is still a high-level performer at his salary.

Bottom line

Letang is not the Norris-level defensemen he was at his peak, or even from a couple of years ago. There are definitely some age-related warts starting to appear in some aspects of his game. But there are also still an awful lot of positives here and as long as he is healthy he is still able to contribute and impact the game in a meaningful way. I think it says a lot that his 5-on-5 offensive production is still so strong at this stage of his career, especially when he was playing through a finger injury for a portion of the season.