Here’s a look at how former Penguins have fared thus far in 2016-17. Stats include games played through Saturday, November 5.
Marian Hossa leads all ex-Pens in scoring with 9 points, followed by Lee Stempniak, Mark Letestu, Brandon Sutter, and Alex Goligoski with 6 points each. Hossa tops the list in goals (5), with Stempniak and Matt Moulson tied for second (4).
Goligoski paces the black-and-gold alum with 6 assists. “Go Go” also leads former Penguins defensemen with 6 points, one ahead of Matt Niskanen. Deryk Engelland and Brooks Orpik lead all skaters in plus/minus (+7).
Among the goalies, Mike Condon heads the list in goals against average (0.00) and shutouts (1). Thomas Greiss and Chad Johnson each have a pair of victories.
A number of ex-Pens and prominent former draft picks began the season in the American Hockey League, including forwards Ken Agostino, Paul Bissonnette, Chris Conner, Bobby Farnham, Brian Gibbons, Tanner Glass, Kasperi Kapanen, Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond, Colin McDonald, Cal O’Reilly, Zach Sill and Eric Tangradi and defensemen Alex Grant, Nate Guenin, Scott Harrington, Zbynek Michalek, Philip Samuelsson, Rob Scuderi and Brian Strait.
Mark Arcobello, Andrew Ebbett, Christian Ehrhoff, Marcel Goc, Ben Hanowski, Dustin Jeffrey, Rob Klinkhammer, Maxim Lapierre, Kael Mouillierat, Sergei Plotnikov, Nick Spaling, Max Talbot and Dominik Uher are playing in Europe.
Andrew Ference (hip) and Joe Vitale (concussion symptoms) opened the season on IR. Simon Despres also has been placed on the IR due to recurring concussion-related symptoms. Taylor Chorney is with Washington, but has yet to dress. Steve Downie and Tyler Kennedy are unsigned free agents.
| SCORING | ||||||||
| Player | Team | Pos | GP | G | A | PTS | PIM | +/- |
| Marian Hossa | CHI | RW | 11 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 2 | 2 |
| Lee Stempniak | CAR | RW | 10 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 5 |
| Mark Letestu | EDM | C | 12 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Brandon Sutter | VAN | C | 12 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 0 | -4 |
| Alex Goligoski | ARI | D | 11 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 4 | -8 |
| * Matt Moulson | BUF | LW | 11 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 0 |
| James Neal | NSH | LW | 11 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 11 | -5 |
| Jaromir Jagr | FLA | RW | 12 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 1 |
| Matt Niskanen | WSH | D | 11 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 4 |
| Dominic Moore | BOS | C | 11 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 10 | 1 |
| David Perron | STL | LW | 12 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 | -6 |
| Deryk Engelland | CGY | D | 13 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 7 |
| Jordan Staal | CAR | C | 10 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 6 | -2 |
| Brooks Orpik | WSH | D | 11 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 7 |
| Jarome Iginla | COL | RW | 10 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 27 | -2 |
| Daniel Winnik | WSH | C | 7 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Blake Comeau | COL | LW | 10 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 14 | -2 |
| Jussi Jokinen | FLA | LW | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | -2 |
| Paul Martin | SJS | D | 12 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 | -4 |
| * Jake Muzzin | LAK | D | 12 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 12 | -3 |
| Beau Bennett | NJD | RW | 9 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -1 |
| Adam Clendening | NYR | D | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Ben Lovejoy | NJD | D | 10 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -1 |
| Michal Rozsival | CHI | D | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Robert Bortuzzo | STL | D | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Mike Condon | PIT-OTT | G | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Simon Despres | ANA | D | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Thomas Greiss | NYI | G | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| * Chad Johnson | CGY | G | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jayson Megna | VAN | C | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 |
| * Joe Morrow | BOS | D | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | -1 |
| Trevor Smith | NSH | C | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Chris Thorburn | WPG | RW | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | -3 |
| Jeff Zatkoff | LAK | G | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Harry Zolnierczyk | NSH | LW | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| GOALTENDING | ||||||||
| Player | Team | GP | MIN | GA | SH | AVE | W-L-OT | |
| Mike Condon | PIT-OTT | 2 | 80 | 0 | 1 | 0.00 | 1-0-0 | |
| * Chad Johnson | CGY | 4 | 247 | 11 | 0 | 2.67 | 2-1-1 | |
| Thomas Greiss | NYI | 5 | 251 | 12 | 0 | 2.87 | 2-3-0 | |
| Jeff Zatkoff | LAK | 3 | 137 | 10 | 0 | 4.38 | 0-3-0 | |
| Italics—Draft pick or free agent who began his pro career with the Penguins | ||||||||
| Asterisk—Draft pick who didn’t appear in a regular season or postseason game for the Penguins | ||||||||
Hi Rick,
Great job in keeping all these statistics on former Pen’s Players. Like to see your home office where you keep all this information. You are a modern day historian when it comes to the Penguins. Keep it up.
In reviewing your list, it always amazes me on the players that ” got away ” and have had success in other organizations. Jake Muzzin, Mark Letestu, Lee Stempniak to mention a few. Jake Muzzin was not even on our radar and he went on to LA to have a great career. Letestu plays fourth line center, but the three guys ahead of him , Mc David ,picked # 1. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, also picked # 1, and L. Draisaitl picked # 4, are the stars .Yet Letestu still gets 11 to 14 minutes of ice time. Somebody in Edmonton likes him !
Stempniak never played like does now when he was with the Pen’s. ??
A second observation on your list are the players I thought would be in the NHL by now and or have great careers… but have yet to materialize.
Joe Morrow of Boston and Toronto’s Scott Harrington are two great examples.
I really thought Morrow would have been more of an offensive threat, yet he has 50 games in the league and has not yet reached his potential at the age of 23. Harrington, was a defense partner of Olli Maatta in junior, and he Captained the Canadian WJC team one year. He was labelled as a can not miss prospect, yet he too has not reached his potential.
It shows just how difficult it is at the NHL level when you draft 18 year old’s and try to predict what type of players they will be 5 years later. It is not easy to do.
Good luck on your election in 2 days. All we here up here in Canada is the US election and how the events change daily. It is like a Soap opera !
Be sure to vote my friend. You to Coach. The world needs a strong America !
Cheers…
PS: I do not envy you on the choices you have to make.
Thank you, Jim.
I’m always curious to see how guys are performing. I figured I might as well share it with our PP readers … 🙂
As you pointed out, there are always some surprises. Although it’s still early in the season as Other Rick mentioned, James Neal and Jaromir Jagr seem to be off to sluggish starts, although it’s truly a wonder No. 68 still plays as well as he does at age 44. Shades of “Mr. Hockey”, Gordie Howe.
I agree about the surprises. Morrow absolutely dazzled at his first Pens training camp…there was serious talk of him making the team as an 18 year old.
While I didn’t know all the details about Harrington (thanks for sharing … 🙂 I knew he was highly regarded. Watching him during a cameo with the Pens in ’14-15, he seemed to have trouble with the speed of the NHL game, both skating-wise and making reads. Sometimes players can overcome that … sometimes they can’t. There are an awful lot of good hockey players who simply can’t progress past the AHL.
Thanks for the well wishes on our election. Couldn’t agree with your sentiments more, including the PS …
Hope all is well … 🙂
Rick
Hey Rick,
As always, thanks for this leg work. There are many times I do wonder about some ex Pens but with so many things happening I don’t get a chance to look them up, so I appreciate articles like these to keep up on them.
Maybe around the 1/4 or 1/3 point of the season I will no doubt bring up some of them to talk about what you think about their absence from the Pens sweater, but it is still to early in the season for that.
I will also be interested in what Jim has to say, but again right now it is too early. I am too busy enjoying a strong start, in terms of Ws/Ls (as you noted some of those Ws weren’t so pretty but they were Ws)
Thanks, Other Rick.
I was curious about how some of the players were doing, and once I got started I figured I might as well make it “official” and just do an ex-Pens update … 🙂
Rick
Hey Coach,
Totally agree. A win is a win. We need 108 + points come April 1st.
This time last year we could not buy a win even if they were on sale at Walmart !
What a difference a year makes !!
Enjoy your election my friend.
Jim
Hey Jim,
Now that’s funny Jim, “we could not buy a win even if they were on sale at Walmart !” and was true!
Thanks for the well wishes on our circus, I mean election.
Just saw that Oleksy and Ruhwedel were brought up and Sestito sent down. The PG made it sound odd, but it seems to me a logical move with Sheary back, The D seems to be the more vulnerable of the positions to injuries. Ruhwedel had 2Gs and 5As, I believe down in WBS. And Oleksy may be exchanging muscles for Sestito.