Drive to the Net: Orpik gets assist on St. Ivany's development

"Yeah, that's all-time," St. Ivany marveled.

Now, St. Ivany is all of 10 games into his NHL career. He's not throwing hits or blocking shots or defending like Orpik was at his peak. But he's certainly showing a lot of beginnings of a similar style.

St. Ivany records hits at a higher rate than any Penguins defenseman this season at 10.26 per 60 minutes of ice time:

That rate of 10.26 is almost a full hit more than the No. 2 leader of John Ludvig at 9.42, and a big leap from the No. 3 spot of the traded Chad Ruhwedel at 7.12. From there, it's a massive, massive drop off to the next guys in Marcus Pettersson and Kris Letang at 3.76.

That's not including moments like these, when St. Ivany uses his physicality to box opponents out of the Penguins' crease:

When it comes to blocking shots, St. Ivany is blocking shots at a rate of 5.13 per 60 minutes, good enough for the third-best on the team -- right behind Pettersson at 5.16, and Ryan Graves at 6.63. And he's eating those pucks at some important times too, like when he blocked three shots in less than a minute to protect a lead on a 4-on-6 situation in the Penguins' 5-4 win over the Lightning:

"He's played really well," Sidney Crosby told me Wednesday of his impressions of St. Ivany. "Solid. You know, he looks really poised, especially early on in his career here. He's a guy that plays with a lot of confidence, a lot of poise, can skate well and I think he's just been really steady."

Kyle Dubas mentioned after the trade deadline that one of the reasons Ruhwedel was traded was to free up a spot for St. Ivany. That was part of the stated goal to get younger, but St. Ivany didn't get a spot in the lineup because he's 24. He got a spot because he earned it,

"Throughout the rest of the lineup, you can get younger, but they have to be better players that can add something to the team and help improve the team," Dubas said on his radio appearance with Penguins play-by-play broadcaster Josh Getzoff on Wednesday. "It's on me because I'm the one who says we need to get younger, but we need to get younger, and we need to continue to get better. And then we need to develop all of our people -- younger, older alike to help them maintain or reach their potential."

St. Ivany made the Penguins' defense corps younger. He also made them better, too, which is what actually matters. He adds things like a layer of physicality, the ability to clear the crease that were lacking before.

Given that Crosby's one of the few players still around who played with and against Orpik, I mentioned to him that Orpik was St. Ivany's defense coach and asked him if he sees any early similarities in St. Ivany's young career yet.

"I think Ivy's got a really good stick, and he's probably not as physical as Orps," Crosby said. "But I mean, if that's his trajectory, then he's on a really good path."