Hopefully Dan Bylsma doesn’t have to make this decision in the playoffs, but players do get injured, probably more in the playoffs than any other time. The Penguins will most likely have to call someone up from the WBS Penguins, who it’ll be is the big question.
On one hand the Penguins have Miroslav Satan, who probably has the highest paying contract in the AHL right now, and on the other they have Janne Pesonen who is getting paid peanuts compared to Satan, especially if the pay was based on production.
In Satan’s first game for the WBS Penguins he had a goal and 3 assists and it looked like he was going to prove to the world that the Ray Shero made a big mistake sending him down. In the four games since then, Satan has 1 assist. He hasn’t registered a point and?is a minus 2 in the last three games. The mistake that he proved that Shero made was the mistake of signing him in the first place.
Janne Pesonen has already crushed the WBS Penguins scoring record for points scored in a season and keeps adding to it, he registered another two goals last night.??Pesonen has 5 goals and 2 assists in the five games since Satan arrived on the farm.? For the season with the WBS Penguins, Pesonen has 29 goals and 44 assists and that was with missing a bunch of games because he was called up to play with the big boys.
Pesonen played 7 games with the Pittsburgh Penguins this season registering 0 points. In his defense, Therrien used him very sparingly and mainly in defensive situations. His average ice time per game was 7 minutes and 27 seconds, generally you see players, let’s use Satan for example, get over twice that amount of ice time per game.
So if for some reason an injury results in the Penguins having to call up someone for offense, do you call up the experienced NHLer or do you call up the guy who is unproven yet a scoring machine in the AHL?
Maybe Ray can trade Pesonen on draft weekend for some construction material for the new arena
If Pesonen has suitors during the off-season…and you’re right, he very possibly could…he needs to go there.
Unless GMRS has a plan for Pesonen..and he’s in on it…there just doesn’t seem to be room for him in our organization.
This goes without mention that Pesonen has been in NHL systems for a while now and just hasn’t been able to make a lineup…and he’s 26.
I’m thinking that GM’s around the league have seen this guy for a while…and unless a GM thinks that he can immediately fill a role at the NHL level…he’s just another Daigle…who’s done less.
The whole Pesonen thing is confusing, it would be nice if the Penguins would call him up to check him out, but I would bet that Bylsma has seen him play enough and knows what he is capable of. With Pesonen setting records in the AHL I bet he will have some suitors next season.
I still want to believe that Janne Pesonen is a dangerous playmaking winger out of Finland that will contribute in the NHL…
And I’d be right about the Finland part.
But still waiting to be proven wrong.
Bring up satan, you never know when someone might get hurt. Messing with Pesonen’s head anymore…call up, don’t play, back down…might really screw any chance we have at resigning him…if Shero would want to anyway.
Personally, I’d call up Satan… strickly a business decision and someone just might claim him. If they didn’t I’d send him right back down. Bylsma has to know whether Pesonen can handle NHL play more than anyone else except for Pesonen. I’m not thrilled with what I saw granted he didn’t get much ice time. Pesonen may be visiting the land of Chris WellsJoe Dziedzic, Domenic Pittis, Chris Wells, Chris Wells. Robert Dome… I better stop there or I’ll start having nightmares of Craig Patrick coming back!