Including games played through Christmas Day, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Baby Pens lead the AHL Atlantic Division with a 21-5-1 record and 43 points (second overall). They’ve scored 98 goals (third most in the league) and allowed the second fewest (53).
Rookie Dominik Simon leads the Baby Pens with 27 points. He ranks fourth in the AHL in scoring. Scott Wilson has 15 goals—tied for the league lead. Conor Sheary tops the team 19 assists, good for fourth place among AHL setup men. Wilson, Simon, and fellow forwards Jean-Sebastien Dea, Tom Kostopoulos and Carter Rowney presently are on pace for 20-goal seasons.
Derrick Pouliot leads all Baby Pens defensemen in goals (5), assists (12), and points (17). Rowney and Niclas Andersen head the list at plus-16. Steve Oleksy has 49 PIM.
Recent addition Brian Foster posted the lowest goals-against average (1.44), followed closely by rookie Tristan Jarry (1.50). Mainstay Matt Murray is tops among goalies in wins (12) and shutouts (4).
The Baby Pens enter the New Year under a brand-new coach. Former NHL player and Wheeling Nailers coach Clark Donatelli will assume the reins from associate coach Jay Leach, who guided the Baby Pens to a 3-0-1 mark after Mike Sullivan was promoted to Pittsburgh.
| SCORING | ||||||||||||||
| Player | Age | Pos | GP | G | A | PTS | PIM | +/- | ||||||
| Dominik Simon | 21 | C | 27 | 11 | 16 | 27 | 16 | 14 | ||||||
| Conor Sheary | 23 | LW | 24 | 6 | 19 | 25 | 4 | 8 | ||||||
| Scott Wilson | 23 | LW | 25 | 15 | 9 | 24 | 12 | 8 | ||||||
| Derrick Pouliot | 21 | D | 26 | 5 | 12 | 17 | 16 | 13 | ||||||
| Tom Kostopoulos | 36 | RW | 26 | 7 | 9 | 16 | 26 | -2 | ||||||
| Carter Rowney | 26 | RW | 26 | 7 | 9 | 16 | 8 | 16 | ||||||
| Jean-Sebastien Dea | 21 | C | 27 | 8 | 7 | 15 | 10 | 10 | ||||||
| Kael Mouillierat | 27 | C | 25 | 6 | 9 | 15 | 30 | 6 | ||||||
| Will O’Neill | 27 | D | 26 | 4 | 11 | 15 | 18 | 6 | ||||||
| Oskar Sundqvist | 21 | C | 27 | 5 | 8 | 13 | 10 | 1 | ||||||
| Tom Kuhnhackl | 23 | RW | 17 | 6 | 6 | 12 | 16 | 11 | ||||||
| Tim Erixon | 24 | D | 23 | 2 | 9 | 11 | 8 | 10 | ||||||
| Kevin Porter | 29 | C | 16 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 4 | 11 | ||||||
| Niclas Andersen | 27 | D | 24 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 16 | ||||||
| Steve Oleksy | 29 | D | 23 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 49 | 11 | ||||||
| David Warsofsky | 25 | D | 13 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 5 | ||||||
| Dominik Uher | 22 | C | 27 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 27 | 2 | ||||||
| Bryan Rust | 23 | RW | 10 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | -4 | ||||||
| Josh Archibald | 22 | RW | 22 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 12 | 11 | ||||||
| Matia Marcantuoni | 21 | C | 5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Ty Loney | 23 | LW | 5 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | ||||||
| Clark Seymour | 22 | D | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 3 | ||||||
| Tyler Biggs | 22 | RW | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 1 | ||||||
| Tom Sestito | 27 | LW | 9 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 16 | 1 | ||||||
| Matt Murray | 21 | G | 17 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Reid McNeill | 23 | D | 23 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 28 | 6 | ||||||
| Tristan Jarry | 20 | G | 9 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Sahir Gill | 23 | F | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Brian Foster | 28 | G | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| GOALTENDING | ||||||||||||||
| Player | Age | Pos | GP | MIN | GA | SH | AVE | WLOT | ||||||
| Brian Foster | 28 | G | 2 | 125 | 3 | 1 | 1.44 | 1-0-1 | ||||||
| Tristan Jarry | 20 | G | 9 | 519 | 13 | 2 | 1.50 | 8-1-0 | ||||||
| Matt Murray | 21 | G | 17 | 981 | 30 | 4 | 1.84 | 12-4-0 | ||||||
Hey Rick,
WBP have lost a few games of late.( At least 3 in a row ). It is tough when you use lose a Goalie like Murray and Jarry gets injured again and the top two forwards and d man are playing on the big club,… plus lose their NHL caliber Coach. WBP is in for a tough time I am afraid to say moving forward.
So is the big club! Murray is playing really well.The truth is,even if MAF was in goal these past 6-7 games, the result would still be the same.Murray has shown in the games he has lost, that the Team in front of him was to blame. NOT HIM ! You lose by 1 goal to Toronto in a shoot out. You lose by 1 goal to the Jets in a penalty shot.How many goals did Murray stop because of the poor play in front of him? To many… Rick,this Murray is the real deal.
Keep him up. Move Jeff Z.
Here is the problem.. Do you keep Murray in Pittsburgh and let him play every 3rd game ? I would. But what happens if he does really well and MAF slips a little ? It does not look to good for Mario that your future net minder, who is 21, makes about 15 % of what MAF earns, and he can out play him ?
All the while your paying 5.7 million a year for MAF for the next 4 years.
Very similar situation to Letang. Paying him 7.5 million a year for 6 more years and he can not play defense physically because he is to small and has serious concussion issues.Every time Letang gets a serious body check with head contact the Coach has to take him off the ice and submit him to a NHL mandatory screening process. Same with Crosby. I think Sid Crosby is under contract for 9 more years at a cap hit of 8.7 million.
Which raises another point. Although Crosby’s actual salary in later years of his contract declines to 3 million dollars a year, the CAP hit is still 8.7 million per year for the remaining 9 years of his contract.Meaning that if you were to trade Crosby, the longer you wait,the harder it will be to get a decent return.
In a Canadian market team, you might be able to trade a 34 year old Crosby with a salary Cap hit of 8.7 million, but I am not so sure.
On any other Team you would be laughing out loud at the situation.How could this happen ? Over and over again.
The season is almost half over and we are still a bottom third of the league team. This is reality folks. No draft picks…No cap space. No elite talent in the farm system.Over paid, under performing players on long term contracts.
No plan for the future accept to sell the team for all the money you can… and tell all your fans that all we need to win the Cup again is a new Coach and a new GM and maybe just one more d man.
Tough days ahead Rick. Time to take off the ROSE colored glasses and face reality. The CORE of the Team needs to be changed ….but very, very carefully.
Lets Go pens…
It’s good to see the Baby Pen’s doing so well, the disappointing part is that fact that we have no prospects playing in the world juniors.