Beauvillier: French for wildcard?

Not really, but the range of possibilities for Anthony Beauvillier this season is all over the map

Forward Anthony Beauvillier was the latest new Penguin addition to have an introductory zoom press conference last week, complete with the fun backstory that as a native of Sorel-Tracy (same hometown as Marc-Andre Fleury) that he would cheer for Pittsburgh even against the local Montreal Canadiens.

After the feel good part is over, the Pens’ official website gets into the tough topic about Beauvillier’s recent career swoon.

“It was obviously not an easy season for me, especially mentally,” Beauvillier said with a wry grin. “It was tough, just to get used to different systems, get used to different dressing rooms and different guys. Getting to know the cities and getting comfortable everywhere wasn’t easy.

“But I feel like I learned a lot last season, just to obviously get comfortable with different groups. Obviously looking for more stability now, and I feel like joining the Penguins, it’s going to be good for me.”

Penguins President of Hockey Operations and GM Kyle Dubas said they want to put Beauvillier in a position to succeed when he reports to training camp this fall and looks to get his game back on track.

“I don’t think this last stretch has gone particularly well for him by any measure. But when you watch the film and you start to dig into it, that player that was so effective for the Islanders going back to his draft year and just continuing to get better and better is still there,” Dubas said on the first day of free agency.

“We just have to provide the environment for him to show that again. So, I think he was willing to really bet on himself with a very low-money deal for one year in exchange for the opportunity to come in here and try to earn a spot in the lineup.”

Dubas’ comments are interesting, if not a bit predictable. It’s not as if he’s going to talk down a player he signed, but how much truth do the comments hold? The season history on Beauvillier paints a different picture, from Yahoo!

From 2017-21, Beauvillier was the type of player that Dubas describes. He scored 21 goals in his second NHL campaign with the Islanders in 2017-18 and strung together a couple of solid seasons after that. The pinnacle of Beauvillier’s career could be boiled down to September 1st, 2021. Coming off a playoff where he scored 13 points in 19 games (including a few important ones against the Penguins), Beauvillier signed a three-year contract extension with NYI for a $4.15 million cap hit. And hey, as far as personal highlights go, that’s not a bad one to have. But big things were clearly expected with that kind of money for the then-24 year old on the upswing.

Unfortunately, it’s been mostly on the decline since that point. Just a few months later, Beauvillier was made a healthy scratch by Barry Trotz in December of 2021 after starting out with only three goals and seven points in the season’s first 21 games. Trotz had this to say at the time:

“I look at him as a veteran player that’s still young, and you want to get past some of those inconsistencies,” Trotz said. “He’s a core player for us now and when there’s a number of people out — and it’s not only him, there’s a few core players that when people are out, you’ve got to find that next level to your game, find a way to produce, find a way to make a difference (and) not just blend in. That’s what I’m trying to get Anthony to, the next level.

“There’s more to Anthony that even Anthony probably knows right now.”

If there was more to his game, it wasn’t found on Long Island. Beauvillier sputtered around after the scratch and barely scored more points in the full 2021-22 season (34 points in 75 games) than he did in the shortened 2020-21 season (28 points in 45 games). His goal total fell from 15 in the abbreviated year to just 12 in the full year.

From there, the bloom seemed to be off the rose for Beauvillier with NYI and his spot as a “core” player went by the wayside. His ice-time was down a full minute in 2022-23 with NYI from the year prior. After that, he was gone completely, having been pawned off to Vancouver to help make the money work in the trade that saw the Islanders acquire Bo Horvat.

Luckily for Beauvillier the move to the Canucks helped out a lot — until it didn’t. Down the stretch in 2023 on a last place team, Beauvillier scored 20 points in 33 games in a big role in Vancouver (getting back up to almost 17 minutes per game). This gasp of relevancy is important to note, though contextually raises an eyebrow about the sustainability of the renewed production.

That type of output didn’t last in Vancouver, Beauvillier played decently but only produced two goals in the first 20 games in 2023-24. His place in the lineup was quickly marginalized as evidenced by his ice time being slashed to 13:39 per game with Vancouver. They chose to move on and send him to Chicago for a draft pick to clear his relatively high salary and go in different directions, having seen enough.

The nightmare continued with the bad Chicago team, complicated by a wrist injury. The Blackhawks opted to send him and his expiring contract to Nashville. The fit and performance wasn’t there, he was an occasional scratch and fringe player for the Predators. So where does it go from here? Dubas gave some suggestion of that in July when talking about the signing.

“It was more of a how can he penalty kill, defensive zone starts. His mindset, you can see, is changing,” Dubas said. “So, we hope he’ll be able to provide some speed, tenacity, forecheck as he did with the Islanders, chip in some secondary offense, give [Mike Sullivan] and the coaching staff options to move around the lineup.

“We can get him up and rolling here, and if it works out, he’s young enough, we hope that in the perfect world, he develops into someone that can be a long-term fit for us here

The past few seasons, save that stretch on a Vancouver team with nothing to play for, has re-shaped the mold of the player that Beauvillier has become. Once an ascending point-producer in the 2017-21 era, a few lackluster years and bounces across the league have left him with little choice but to play on a one-year contract whose cap hit could be buried in the minor leagues with no repercussion to the Pens outside of handsomely paying him this year.

Then again, if Beauvillier moves off the Pens in the near future, it will likely be from an opportunity missed. Pittsburgh is desperate for capable NHL forward play and Beauvillier gives some options and still has a hint of promise within. Could he perform well on a middle line role? Or even transition down to earn his spot in that tenacious PK type of fourth line position? The options are wide open. The near past hasn’t been very promising, but the Penguins will give the player a chance to show how much he has available to contribute. From there, it’s up to one of the bigger wildcards of the season to sink or swim on his own.