Maatta looks to perform for Blackhawks after down season with Penguins
As reporters swarmed Andrew Shaw, the latest former Blackhawks player to return to Chicago, Olli Maatta sat alone at an equally small table not far away in a third-floor room at the Hilton.
Don't assume, however, that the Finnish defenseman was feeling lonely or unloved.
His seat couldn't have been colder than the one in the press box at the end of last season. Maatta was a healthy scratch for Pittsburgh's final three games of its opening-round playoff series against the New York Islanders, who swept.
"It was really frustrating," Maatta, a key member of the Penguins' Stanley Cup-winning teams in 2016 and 2017, said Friday night as the Blackhawks convention kicked off. "You don't want to be watching games in the stands. It's hard."
Maatta's 2018-19 campaign wasn't easy. He was limited to 60 games due to a shoulder injury late in the season, after playing in all 82 regular-season contests in 2017-18, and fell out of favor with the team that drafted him 22nd overall in 2012.
He understood the Penguins' apparent disappointment. Which explains why he feels he has something to prove after an unsatisfactory 14-point season.
"I feel like I'm a better player than I played at the end of last year," said Maatta, traded to the Blackhawks for winger Dominik Kahun this summer. "I think I didn't produce enough offensively the whole year. I definitely want to produce way more offensively, but at the same time, I know what my game is. It's a pretty simple game. I want to defend well, make sure nothing (bad) happens in my own end."
The Blackhawks had too much bad happen in their own end of the ice last season. To help shore up their defense, Maatta and fellow veteran Calvin de Haan (acquired from Carolina) were brought in. Maatta (6-2, 206) turns 25 next month. De Haan (6-1, 196) is 28 and is also a former first-round pick (12th overall by the Islanders in 2009).
Both Maatta and de Haan carry a salary-cap hit of more than $4 million.
"From what I have seen and what I know, they're smart D-men that can play shutdown roles, penalty-kill, but also can make that crucial first pass out of their own zone," Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews said. "They're maybe not the offensive type of D-men that Erik Gustafsson is, but they're good puck movers, and you know what you're going to get from those guys every single night. I think that's what we're looking for - depth guys that can also add to your locker room."
De Haan's career-high in points is only 25 (2016-17), and he has just 13 career goals. But the native of Carp, Ontario, thinks he can contribute offensively. His lone goal last season came against the Blackhawks.
"I like to think I'm a two-way guy," de Haan said. "I'm not going to put up a thousand points a year but just try to play simple hockey, steady, get the puck out of the zone. They're not going to score if it's outside of our blue line, right? That's always been my philosophy since I started playing defense when I was younger."
De Haan's game has been compared to that of former Blackhawks defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson. Last season, de Haan blocked 106 shots and his 187 hits easily would have led the Blackhawks.
"That's quite the compliment," de Haan said of the Hjalmarsson comparisons. "He's had a great career. Every defenseman should aspire to be a player like him. He does everything right - simple, solid. That's kind of a guy I try to model my game after, and also try to be my own player."
Maatta is out to show the Blackhawks that he can contribute to a Stanley Cup winner again.
"I was pretty sad to leave the guys in Pittsburgh," Maatta said. "I appreciate all the years I was there. It's a great organization. But at the same time, I think I got really lucky. Whoever I talk to, I haven't heard a bad thing about Chicago and the organization."