The center position has been the cornerstone of the Pittsburgh Penguins organization since this current run of success started back with the 2006-07 season. Not only with the top-two superstars, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, but the championship level teams have always gone three and four deep down the middle. Whether it was Jordan Staal, Max Talbot, Nick Bonino, or Matt Cullen the great Penguins teams always had an ability to roll four lines and outmatch pretty much any opponent in the NHL.
This week TSN’s Travis Yost looked at the center depth of every team in the NHL and placed the current Penguins roster on the second-tier (out of five tiers) behind Edmonton, Toronto, and Florida, and on the same level as Colorado, Tampa Bay Boston (with Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci back), New York Rangers, San Jose Sharks, New Jersey Devils, Minnesota Wild, and the St.