The NHL arrived in Sin City last night with predictable glitz and fanfare. The Vegas Golden Knights officially revealed their picks last night at the NHL Awards Show before a hometown throng at T-Mobile Arena.
Under the direction of owner William Foley and general manager George McPhee, the Golden Knights plucked 30 players from their NHL brethren in the expansion draft.
The centerpiece was Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. When his name was announced with the next-to-last pick, the willowy goalie appeared on stage, to the delight of the crowd.
“I just want to come and play hockey,” Fleury said in his typically soft-spoken manner. “Obviously, we’ve got great fans already having sold out the season tickets and with the reception here tonight.
“I’ll give everything I’ve got to win some games and give back to the community and the people,” he said.
Along with a raft of draft picks—including two first-rounders—nine additional players were added through trades and free agent signings, for a total of 37 (19 forwards, 15 defensemen and three goalies). Along with Fleury, Vegas chose four other former Pens, including rugged defenseman and Las Vegas resident Deryk Engelland and forwards James Neal, David Perron and Chris Thorburn.
“There were two objectives,” McPhee said. “The first was to put an entertaining and competitive team on the ice. … The second objective was to acquire prospects and surplus draft picks that can help us draft our way to success.”
Here’s a list of the Golden Knights’ picks, signings and acquisitions.
| Forwards
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (PHI), Connor Brickley (CAR), William Carrier (BUF), David Clarkson (CBJ), Reid Duke (MIN), Cody Eakin (DAL), Mikail Grabovski (NYI), Erik Haula (MIN), William Karlsson (CBJ), Brendan Leipsic (TOR), Oscar Lindberg (NYR), Jonathan Marchessault (FLA), James Neal (NSH), Tomas Nosek (DET), David Perron (STL), Teemu Pulkkinen (ARI), Reilly Smith (FLA), Chris Thorburn (WPG), Alex Tuch (MIN) |
| Defensemen
Jake Bischoff (NYI), Alexei Emelin (MON), Deryk Engelland (CGY), Jason Garrison (TBL), Brayden McNabb (LAK), Jon Merrill (NJD), Marc Methot (OTT), Colin Miller (BOS), Griffin Reinhart (NYI), Luca Sbisa (VAN), David Schlemko (SJS), Nate Schmidt (WSH), Clayton Stoner (ANA), Shea Theodore (ANA), Trevor Van Riemsdyk (CHI) |
| Goalies
Jean-Francois Berube (NYI), Marc-Andre Fleury (PIT), Calvin Pickard (COL) |
It was difficult, if not downright heartrending, for teammates and Pens fans to watch the beloved Fleury join his new team. On the bright side, the black and gold freed up $5.75 million in salary cap space and retained the services of players like Ian Cole, Bryan Rust and Scott Wilson, who’d been exposed in the draft.
Excluding the contracts of our pending free agents, Penguins GM Jim Rutherford now has an estimated $20 million in cap space to work with.
And the Winner Is…
The Penguins—Sidney Crosby in particular—didn’t fare especially well during the awards portion of the show. Sid lost to Edmonton phenom Connor McDavid in the voting for the Hart Memorial Trophy (MVP) and Ted Lindsay Award (players’ MVP). McDavid captured the Art Ross Trophy (scoring title) as well.
Sid avoided a shutout by garnering the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy, thanks to his league-leading 44 goals. He also earned a berth on the Second NHL All-Star team. McDavid nabbed first-team honors.
Rutherford, who won the General Manager of the Year Award in 2016, wasn’t a finalist this year. Likewise, coach Mike Sullivan wasn’t in the running for the Jack Adams Award (coach of the year). Goalie Matt Murray, still technically a rookie, wasn’t a finalist for the Calder Trophy.
A tender moment amid the hullabaloo? How about when Ottawa goalie Craig Anderson received the Bill Masterton Trophy, to the thunderous applause of attendees. Anderson’s wife, Nicholle, battled a rare form of throat cancer during the season. Now cancer free, she attended the awards show with Craig.
Here are the award winners and All-Star picks.
| Trophy/Award
Hart Art Ross Lindsay Norris Richard Calder Selke Vezina Jennings Byng Masterton Adams GM Messier Clancy Foundation |
Winner
Connor McDavid (EDM) Connor McDavid (EDM) Connor McDavid (EDM) Brent Burns (MIN) Sidney Crosby (PIT) Auston Matthews (TOR) Patrice Bergeron (BOS) Sergei Bobrovsky (CBJ) Braden Holtby (WSH) Johnny Gaudreau (CGY) Craig Anderson (OTT) John Tortorella (CBJ) David Poile (NSH) Nick Foligno (CBJ) Nick Foligno (CBJ) Travis Hamonic (NYI) |
1st Team
Left wing Center Right wing Defense Defense Goalie |
Brad Marchand (BOS) Connor McDavid (EDM) Patrick Kane (CHI) Brent Burns (MIN) Erik Karlsson (OTT) Sergei Bobrovsky (CBJ) |
| 2nd Team
Left wing Center Right wing Defense Defense Goalie |
Artemi Panarin (CHI) Sidney Crosby (PIT) Nikita Kucherov (TBL) Victor Hedman (TBL) Duncan Keith (CHI) Braden Holtby (WSH) |
Draft Day
The Penguins will participate in the NHL Entry Draft at the United Center in Chicago tomorrow and Saturday.
Barring trades, Rutherford and his staff presently have six picks to work with, including the 31st overall. While strong on the wings and in goal, the Pens lack organizational depth at center and defense.
Hey Coach
Why? Why? Why God are you punishing me.
Our 51 st pick we just got lucky and traded for a defence man. Problem is he is a 143 rd to 170 th rated pick depending on which agency you talk to.Lauzon from the QHL. Happy, happy, happy !
We get a 30 year old dead weight winger and a 6 th round pick..
Hey Coach…All the NHL pundits are calling us crazy.
Take note who was drafted 31st and 32 ND. The NHL said Hogue was rated 25 th and a steal and Ratcliff was rated 27 th and was a for sure prospect.
Cheers….
What !?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
On a team that has Kessel, Hornqvist, Rust, Sprong, Rowney, Archibald, Kuhnhackl, Sheary, and Aston-Reese, we trade a 1st round pick and Oskar Sundqvist for a RW!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Okay so the team was never going to play Sundqvist and this isn’t particualrly that deep of a draft, but another RW!?!?!?!?!?
I don’t care that he is 6’1, 235, he is 30yrs old, and the Pens never really play big guys anyway. I was hopeful when I saw players I wanted still on the board, but I can’t express my disappointment in strong enough terms. Antoski anyone!
Hague, a big Dman was still on the boards and from everything I have read on him, he may not be karrlson, he is projected to be a top D and he would be a big body on the Blue line.
Hey Coach….old buddy
You had better be on your third bottle of that fancy stuff you drink because I am about to come unglued…. Ryan Reeves….Is that the best we can _ _ _ _
( you fill in the blank) well do ??
A 30 year old cement head who is a natural right winger that scores 5 goals a season. I thinks his career high is 8 !!! Our great leader said before the draft we had LOTS of wingers in the system but we needed DEFENSE and Center men. I thought we could add left wingers with size as well, but he is the Boss so i will agree with him to keep peace in the family.
So I am watching like your were Coach. About the 25 th pick I started thinking, holy crap we might just get something good. Phili screws up and drafts a kid rated 45- 50 th that nobody heard tell of and then Ottawa has a seniors moment and drafts a center men that will take 4 years to develop if he ever does.Chicago drafted a talented but small d man from Finland .
Now I am really excited… One more pick and we got 3 really good players to pick from.Nobody can screw this up.!! 1.Hague a 6’6″ 215 # really big and tough d man. 2.Left wing Issac Radcliffe at 6’6″ 200 #. 3. My favorite…Klim Kostin 6’3″ 196 # Russian Right winger who can play both wings. He was injured and fell from 8 th to 31 st. Healthy now and can score goals and play physical.Perfect fit for Geno.
What the hell happened ???
I know it must be a dream , no make that a nightmare and I am going to wake up…..
We get a 30 year old, 6’1″ 224 # who costs 1.25 million a year that is a 4th line player at best….Why not just dress Sestito every night ?? He is cheaper and we still would have had Hague, Radcliffe or heaven forbid and take a chance on Kline, who could become a 40+ goal scorer and set up 50 more playing with Geno and Phil.
Oh yeah we get to draft 51 st and that is supposed to make me feel better.
Whoppeeeeee !
Just maybe, JR knows Bones is coming back and so is Cullen and that is why Oskar is expendable.
Makes NO SENSE !!!
Any more rants Coach……I am just getting started.
Hey Jim,
Let’s add to that list of sterling accomplishments of the man we traded (Hague Kostin, or Radcliffe for averages only a hair over 8 min a game. We mortgaged the future for a guy who, if he plays will only prevent the team from rolling 4 lines. We threw it all away for a guy we could have gotten for just Sundqvist! (I still would have been disappointed but only fractionally to where I am now!)
I understand if JR wanted to make a statement to the league over their idiotic complicity to goon hockey, to Hansen brothers hockey, to circus/galdiator hockey but this move is as bad as players whining to the ref over non calls. All of the hard work Sully went through to toughen the team up and get them stop their whining gets totally undermined when the GM goes brain dead and makes a move like this.
With one fell swoop JR has made the team a laughing stock by trading a 1st round pick for a used up goon.
This has been an extremely black week for the Stanley Cup Champions. First the business side of hockey forces the Pens to let MAF go for nothing. Yes, the move makes total 100% sense. You don’t pay a back more than your starter and you don’t pay your back up $5.75 mil regardless. But worse than giving him away, a class act of a guy and owner of all your goalie records away, you throw away a future draft pick as well, because you get bluffed into thinking they wouldn’t take him. You give Vegas a top 10 goalie and a draft pick because you are afraid they might take a bottom 6 F or bottom 3 D man and worse than that on D you really aren’t that deep on D anyway and could make it up on FA anyway even if Vegas was stupid enough not to take Fleury.
Then you throw away a shot at least 2 if not 3 players who should have been mid first rounders and 1 of them Hague who just may have been able to compete for a position on pathetically weak D corps.
Let’s remember Letang is no sure thing coming back. Yes, he may suit up, but after neck surgery and with his concussion history he is far from a sure thing to be back as a top pairing. No, the Pens didn’t need him last year during the playoffs, when the cap goes away, but during the regular season when his $7mil bites a big chunk out of cap space, any D man who could be half way decent at a mil or less is a huge bonus when the $7 million dollar, half a season man gets hurt again.
If JR was all fired up about being stupid, and St louis was not on Letang’s limited NTC he could have shipped him there and used the money to go after Shattenkirk, who may not have all of the intangibles that Letang has, but who has a better probability of suiting up and the Pens still could have kept that draft pick.
The huberis of winning. Buckle up because, barring a miracle, at this rate, should the Pens falter this year, JR may have shot them in the foot for several years to come by his panic moves this week.
Wow guys. I thought you guys would be jumping through the roof excited. When Bettman announced the trade last night my first thought was “who the hell is Ryan Reeves” I have a group of guys I play hockey in a text group who all sent question marks to each other. Then we looked him up.
This guy is a fighter who fills a regular spot on the Blues. A team that is known for only playing responsible players. The thing that really sets him apart from fighters the Penguins have employed over the last ten years is that this fighter WINS fights. He intimidates other teams players. I really think anyone who thinks of injuring our star players on purpose will think twice now.
I believe that this guy is a must for the Penguins regular season and I’m willing to bet that Sullivan/Tocchet can work some magic with him to make sure his actions are always justified. Not only that, I’m predicting that you guys will be cheering him and his actions.
I believe I have always let my thoughts known how useless Sundqvist was to the Penguins. He’s not going to be a top two center, especially on the Penguins, and he doesn’t have the balls to be a third or 4th line center.
The draft pick? I don’t care. 31st or 50th, drafting is a crap shoot. 19% of draft picks have a career in the NHL. They are saying that first round picks have went down from 63% to below fifty percent make it in the NHL now.
Why? Silver spoon kids who have everything handed to them unlike the hardcore kids who grew up playing at midnight just to get ice time.
These new kids come in, had it great when they were 6’3″ treated like kings with the best equipment in the world playing against smaller kids. They get a wake up call when everyone is that size and they are sent to the minors. They can’t cut it. Look at the kid drafted first round who couldn’t do a pull up at the combine.
I’ll take the real player that the Penguins can use for a draft pick any day of the week. The Pens have 4/5 more years to compete for a Cup before they need to do a complete rebuild again.
If he was a LW and we had given up a RW where have depth to burn instead of draft pick, I would be cautiously optimistic.
I was never as down on Sundqvist as you were but had realized last year that he was never going to play in Pgh, so they could even have thrown him in on the deal as well as one of the RWs but not a 1st round pick, particularly when there were still at least 2 who should have gone in the middle of that round still available
Hey Phil
There has to be an easier way to get some muscle?
A first rounder with a chance to get Hague or Kostin does not make sense to me.
In about 2 weeks we could get a free agent just as good or better…for Free…
This was a spur of the moment mistake….
Just my opinion.
Hague is a big defenseman. Everyone is looking for big defenseman. Why was he passed over so many times? It’s just a real guy for a chance a guy will pan out in a few years. I’m really hoping the Pens go all in for a Three-peat and I don’t know why they wouldn’t.
It could be something Crosby talked about wanting to Rutherford. Everything they have done has worked so far. Yes, even the Lovejoy trade. I’m not going to second guess them… yet.
I am sorry, I have to disagree with you here.
RW is log-jammed with player, even if you deal Hornqvist at the trade dead-line, there are more RWs in this org than can play in both Pgh and WBS.
And although I agree, draft pick can be a pig in a poke, Reaves had his best year last year; he had 7 G and 6 A and was a +4, that is hardly and equal trade. He is a bottom 3 player. You don’t trade away a chance for a future star even if it is a pig in a poke chance for a bottom 3 at best player. especially when you have a glut at his position.
Bottom line we paid way too much for him.
And although I respect what JR did with the Daley, Hagelin, and Kessel trades, I also remember he was the guy that hired MJ.
Also, Craig Patrick Engineered 2 Cups and blew the chance to 3-peat with some questionable moves, so I may give some leeway, I don’t give free passes.
Hey Phil,
With all due respect to Jim and Other Rick, I agree with you 100 percent.
This isn’t a deep draft. So I don’t think it matters a darn whether you’re picking 31st or 51st.
After seeing a little something in Sundqvist back in ’15-16, I was singularly unimpressed with him last season. No great loss.
C’mon guys, show a little faith in Rutherford. I think he’s earned at least some trust by now. He’s very careful to add only character guys to the locker room. And perhaps he’s got some things in the works we don’t know about.
Rick
PS–Apparently when this deal was made, Tyler Kennedy tweeted that Ryan Reaves is absolutely the toughest guy in the NHL. As you mentioned Phil, he scares guys on other teams.
No more worries about dweebs like Tom Wilson and Adam Lowry.
So who do you sit? Kessel, Hornqvist, Rust, Sheary, Who get’s to toil in WBS, Archibald, Rowney, Kuhnhackl, Sprong, Aston-Reese. And how long do these guys toil in WBS before you bring them up/back up?
You can try and dress it up anyway you want but this is pretty much Naslund-Antoski all over again. This was a bone head over paid trade.
Hey Other Rick,
No room for a response to your message, so I’ll respond to mine.
I do understand your concerns. Again, we’re at the front end of a three-month process. It’s a little like dipping a finger into the cake batter just after adding the eggs and saying you don’t like it, way before the cake even gets baked and frosted.
Instead of jumping all over JR, let’s wait and see how this plays out. And honestly, what did we lose in this deal? The 31st pick in the draft? Please. It’s not like we blew a shot at a franchise player.
And Sundqvist? Frankly, he was unimpressive. Almost like Gregory Polanco on skates, tripping all over himself.
Again, I think we have to trust our staff. If they thought this kid could contribute, he’d still be here. The very fact that they traded him even though we’re liable to be short of centers is a testament to how little they thought of him.
Again, what did we lose?
Rick
And Jim, I wish I had several shots of the good stuff in me right now, I could talk myself into thinking it was all just a nightmare induced by what I drank but the stone cold sobering fact is, it isn’t.
Hi Coach
Woke up an 2 hours ago…Pinched myself to make sure I am awake…Read your post, All 3 of them…twice ! Read over my draft notes from last night. I have been trying to finish my post but this is the 3rd call I got from my friends asking me if I was OK ? You know you got a few Washington fans you know really well…same idea.
Dallas got the top rated d man in the draft in 3rd spot and them moved up to 26 th and took the top rated Goalie….Jake Otteninger. Why ? Because they need defense men and Goal tending. I thought that was what you did in the first round of the Hockey draft. Fill your NEEDS !! Before I forget, great job Dallas, you did well last night.You filled your needs and your fans are very, very Happy !!
Vegas Knights. They needed everything. They drafted a solid two way center, a great play making right winger and a small, but highly mobile Power play quarter back. Over all a good job.
Their fans are very pleased as well. They filled their needs. Welcome to the NHL.
How about St.Louis ? They need more forward depth ? So they draft at 20th, two way skilled center Center Rob Thomas and then at 31 st they get the steal of the draft, Klim Kostin. At one point last year he was the top rated right winger in all of minor hockey but due to a serious injury he fell in his standings. The average of all 5 major hockey ratings services had him rated 18th over all on June 15 th.
I just talked to my friend in Jake Allen’s family and they are excited. Jake’s Uncle said his inside connection told him St.Louis were going to get rid of Reeves any way because he no longer fit their needs. A first round pick and Oscar S.??? We are good friends, he jokes with me and said ” maybe we can sign Justin Schultz in free agency and then take Daniel Sprong off your hands because you won’t need him any more with Hornqvist, Kessel, Rust, and now Reeves. What are doing with Sheary as well” ?
This move makes no sense Coach. Reeves will play in maybe 60 games for 6- 8 minutes at best. Then Sprong or even Sheary will sit in the Press box all year.
That makes me feel REAL good.
AND the most important thing we needed was Defense men and Centers according to the wise one … And we traded away one of the only young Centers with size we have. He will go to ST.Louis and flourish on the fourth line and get 30 points a season for the next 10 years. We get nothing !! Did we fix our Center problem? Did we fix our more serious D problem ? NO.
As a fan are you really happy like Dallas, Vegas, St.Louis and even LA, who got lucky and drafted 5 th rated 6’3″, 204 # center Gabe Vilardi at the 11 th spot.
I am not. As another buddy just said Why bother coming on Friday night because you Pen’s guys are scared to make a trade in the first round! You always trade them away .
Not a great morning Coach….. As a tea drinker I think I am having a hang over.( Head hurts, feel lousy )
Maybe we get lucky today and we can trade Letang for Victor Hedman and Tampa’s first round pick for the next 3 years.
Think that will happen…. But we get to draft at 51 st… Another 5’10” 190# Smurf…. Happy, happy, happy, !!
Anxious to see what Reverend Buker and Dr. Phil has to say….
And all the rest of the gang…. 55,p4e , and let us not forget our feminine side.. Can’t wait for her comments….
Cheers
Jim,
If Reaves plays more than 12 games I will be surprised and attribute it to Sully being pressured into it so that his boss doesn’t look as big an idiot that he does right now. This week will go down as bad as the week he hired MJ!
AS for filling their needs, just this week I read that the Pens drafting strategy has not been to fill needs but take the best player available. Unfortunately they weren’t given the chance. JR chose to ignore that strategy, No way in the world this guy is better than any player taken between now and when the Pens finally take a player.
The only hope I see of crawling out from under the waste material JR just heaped on this team is that Sprong and Aston-Reese are ready between now and the trade deadline and Hornqvist is having a good enough season for the Pens to trade him for a 1st round pick.
If Reaves was at least a LW, but he is a RW.
If JR really wanted to toughen up all he needed to do was get the RFA rights to Zadorov, then he could have addressed both his D needs and a tougher guy who can still contribute to his position and not added a road block to player development by glutting an already over-full position with a player who is a bottom 3 at best on a team that already has at least 7 players better than him at that position.
I like it guys.. a tough guy to protect Sid and co. but he is a UFA next year and only at 1.2 mill he will be gone if he doesn’t work out.
We need someone to police out there and he had 239 hits this past season
Hi P4E
Respect your opinion…I think we paid way to much for what we got back.
When Kostin is ripping up the league and Geno still has a converted AHL winger trying to masquerade as a real NHL star…..We will all remember this day
Jim
Agreed Jim. This team only has 1 LW capable of playing top 6 and he is a converted C. Add to that the ? at D with your old 1 D man coming back from neck surgery, your current no 1 an RFA with 2 players who easily could fill either need and both much better than the player traded for.
I do agree pen’s4ever that the team needs to toughen up, but not this way.
While complaining about this a moment ago to a friend, he reminded me that JR has just Engineered 2 Cups, so although he didn’t like the price tag he was going to trust JR. However, when I reminded him that JR was the same guy who also hired MJ, that took the stuffing out of his confidence.
Hey Rick,
FYI,
As of 7 pm et tonight the Knights are drafting in the first 2 rounds as follows.
6th , 13 th, 15th, 34th, 45 th, and 62 nd.
They are working on a trade for the Dallas Stars 3 rd pick over all with players and not picks the media is saying. Plus they expect other picks to move as well. That puts a lot of talent on the ice in a few years. Some right away.
I am assuming that Methot is at the center of that Dallas stuff? At least that is what I read.
Hey Coach,
That and one other player is what the sources are saying. Not a done deal yet.
Plus there is a lot of chatter about Vegas moving up in the standings and they have a lot of pieces to do it.
For example, their 34 th pick with 62 nd and Pens 2nd pick in 2020 which they own, that could become a 20th over all pick very quickly.
Or coach, take their 15 th, add the 62 nd in 2017 and the Pens 2020 2nd and move up to 9 th or 10 th spot. That gives you 3rd.6th.9th,13th, and 34th and 45th. That is a lot of talent and I do not care how light a draft this is.
You now own the top rated d man in the draft, 4 th best center man, the top rated left winger and the second best right winger in the draft. At 34 th you take the top or second best rated Goalie in the draft and at 45 th a defensive d man with size.
That is a pretty good days work Coach plus they still have a bunch of 3,rd to 6th round picks to build prospects from.
This is why they Knights are going to be scary soon.
We by contrast have one pick at 31 and not again to 93 rd .
Then we draft 5th round. 152nd I think and 155 th in the fifth round.
Yet we have this false illusion everything is just fine. Nothing to worry about.
152, 155, 186 …Why bother drafting…Just to fill your AHL roster for a few years. They are never going to play in the NHL..
Our star d man Letang is recovering from Neck surgery and he also had at least 1 more concussion this year. He is one check into the boards the wrong way from being permanently injured for life. Our star center had another concussion that also is very worrisome. He is not 100 %. Our second Center has been battling injuries for the past two years. So we can sit here and lie to ourselves about HOW GREAT WE ARE….But that means nothing now.
It is an all new ballgame staring tomorrow night. I hope I am wrong but i do not believe JR and Mario have the courage to trade one of the stars for high draft picks and young players. We are going to continue to get older, remain one of the smallest teams in the league and keep praying Crosby or Letang does not get to beat up or a career ending injury.Our enforcer, with the most penalty minutes on the team Geno will have to take care of it.
Sorry Coach I am a little upset…..
No worries Jim,
I read one Pundit projecting the Pens take Comtois. A At different sites I have seen him listed as 6’2 and anywhere between 195 and 204. They were also saying he could fly and could play any style you wanted, run and gun or tight checking. But they are saying his scoring dropped off near the end of the season and his stock has dropped.
Have you heard anything about him? Also, what jf anything have you heard or know about the guys Pen’s 4ever mentioned PO Joseph or J Gadjovich?
Thanks to MAF!!!
As far as draft weekend and the 31st pick..
three players I would like to see picked by Pen’s
1. D-man Uhro Vaakanainen
2. LW Jonah Gadjovich
3. D-man Pierre-Olivier Joeseph
Both d-men are puck moving offensive minded, Jonah is a bigger version of Hornqvist.
Like I said this is my favorite time of year!!
Hey Pen’s4ever
Interesting choices. The Finn may be gone by the time the Pens draft. I haven’t seen any of these guys play, but judging from what I read about PO Joseph, he may be Sully’s type of guy. The reports I read had him going somewhere between the mid-first and late second rounds. so he may still be around.
Gadjovich is the interesting guy you mention. He already has some serious size 6’2, 201 from what I read. They ubiquitous they who write those scouting reports said that his skating and consistency is a bit suspect at this point and they suggest that Suziki may have had something to do with his success. I must say I would love to see the Pens score a LW and a big man at that, but I am always leary of that since big players don’t ever seem to get much ice time.
He may still be on the boards by the second round and if his he may be a good pick there and since he is young he may be able to work on his skating for a year or two.
Agreed, this is a great time of year.
Hey Rick,
Good recap.
Funny that the Pens won the Cup and they were barely mentioned in the awards ceremony. Have the awards become nothing more than consolation prizes for those sent to the tees early?
Did you see Vegas is already dealing? TVR was sent to Carolina and Montreal grabbed Schlemko for picks.
I saw Eberle to NYI for Strome also.
I would have agree with most of your assessment, the Pens are deep in organizational depth in G and on RW, but I am not so sure about LW. I did see they signed their 6th pick from a few years back Fredrik Tiffels. He is a LW but I am not so sure they have all that much depth here, particularly if Kunitz jumps. They may have to have players play off wing; although for Kuhnhackl I believe he is a L shooting RW so he may be the best answer.
I also saw Ruhwedel resigned. Nothing earth shattering there, but he did his share this past year filling in. The Pens need a lot more help but he could fill a utility 6th or 7th spot.
Another thing, did I see Condon is UFA? If so do you try and resign him as an insurance policy?
Who is your 1st pick for the Pens in the Entry Draft?
Oh and one more comment about the Vezina and the 1st and 2nd team All Star Goalies, neither had a Sv% over 0.900 this spring when the played the Pens.
Hey Other Rick,
The Pens sure have a way of humbling goalies, don’t they? Even the really good ones.
Rick