Most of you know by now that the Pens have recently inked Jay Mckee. The big question  is, how is he going to stack up against Scuderi? Now it was said on Pensburgh that Mckee does have the advantage in blocked shots. But here is a rough comparison from the season stats posted by the NHL website. Be aware that these stats are from the regular season due to the Blues having a lackluster performance at best in the playoffs.

Scuderi: GP   G     A        P    +/-     PIM   PP  SH  GW   S    S%

                81    1    15     16    23     18     0      0     0     51   2.0

McKee. GP    G      A      P   +/-     PIM   PP   SH   GW   S    S%

               69     1      7      8    11     44      0      0      1     43    2.3

On the surface, Scuds defintely looks like the better player. But it also needs to be understood that McKee was playing on the Blues. And, being from Kansas, I see this team on FSN all of the time. They're a team that just made the playoffs (thanks to a dramatic turnaround).  They're prone to dropping games and that will hurt the stats of any defensemen no matter how good they are. The stats of McKee are very good given the team he was playing for.

On the negative side, McKee is injury prone. This was also shown last season in the 69 games played statistic. However, this stat is pretty difficult to gauge for the next season. You can't go out there and assume he'll get injured while playing for the Pens. You also can't assume that he'll be perfectly fine. All you can do is hope that he remains healthy through the season. However, the very fact that Pens fans should be hoping that he doesn't get hurt is a negative to his team value overall.

There is one advantage that McKee has over 'The Piece.' This is the gift of experience. Scuderi was not really considered to be a fantastic player until this season. He finally stepped up and got his game going. Though the experience of winning the cup is great, McKee has played consistently for years (when he's not injured of course). He may not have the Staff Sgt experience like Guerin has, but he does bring more depth to the team. This will probably prove to be a great plus when you bring Goligoski into the picture. Though Goligoski is a great player, he is still a rookie in most of our minds. Mckee is just the player we need to help Goligoski mature.

On the negative side, we don't quite know what Mckee's dedication level will be on the Pens. Though anyone who is 4th in blocked shots brings a level of dedication, Scuderi brought us something that can't be replaced. Hopefully his experience and being on a cup winning team will help that out.

Overall, I believe that McKee is a great addition to our team. His experience will help the younger players, and he had some solid stats. Though his dedication to the team and injuries are a worry, these are things that we can't predict will happen or not happen. Those fears should be put on the sideline and I believe we should be happy that Shero made another amazing deal.

So, how do you feel about McKee?