Pierre McGuire Unleashes Dumbest Quote on Hockey Analytics Yet
By Charles Nason
After the Pittsburgh Penguins signed former Jets forward Brandon Tanev to a ridiculous 6-year, $21 million contract, the hockey world responded with a fair amount of critique. Entering his fifth season in the NHL, Tanev has had a fairly mediocre career thus far in Winnipeg.
Well, with so many people assessing the deal as an overpayment for a bottom-six forward someone had to come to the defense of the Penguins decision. That person just so happened to be NBC analyst and former Penguins assistant coach Pierre McGuire.
Loved this quote from Pierre McGuire on @937theFan regarding critics of Tanev signing "I love the pundits--who I don't even know who these people are--that write stuff. I've been in the league 31 years. I wonder how many of these people saw Tanev play."
— Eric Hagman (@esh714) July 2, 2019
Pierre has been made his fair share of bold comments throughout his career. However, questioning whether other analysts and analytics experts have actually seen Tanev play is up there for one of the most ambitious and unnecessary comments he's ever made.
Most would agree that the Penguins' signing of Tanev was a, for the lack of a better word, questionable move. Who knows if McGuire actually believes that the deal was a good move for Pittsburgh, but he easily could've said that without calling out a majority of the hockey-writing community.
McGuire on the analytics nerds, "these people are really fouling up hockey. They really are."
— Eric Hagman (@esh714) July 2, 2019
The second half of his statement about analytics experts is wildly more perplexing than the first. Forget questioning the knowledge of other experts, now Pierre has gone as far to say that these people are ruining hockey.
We're not even a month into the NHL offseason, and McGuire has already given fans another ludicrous statement to jump on. Hopefully the offseason is filled with many more wild Pierre comments that we can all take time to laugh at.