The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins finished the 2017-18 AHL regular season in second place in the Atlantic Division with a record of 45-22-9—good for 99 points. Coach Clark Donatelli’s Baby Pens ranked fifth in offense with 252 goals for and 18th in defense with 223 goals against.
Rookie sensation Daniel Sprong paced the Baby Pens in all major offensive categories with 32 goals, 33 assists and 65 points. Jean-Sebastien Dea was the runner-up in assists (32) and points (50). Second-year pro Teddy Blueger finished second in goals (21).
Kevin Czuczman topped the defensemen with 35 points, nine ahead of rugged newcomer Andrey Pedan. Pedan led the team’s rearguards with nine goals. Fellow blue liner Zach Trotman paced the club with a sparkling plus-24, followed by forwards Zach Aston-Reese (plus-21), Ryan Haggerty and Dea (plus-20 each).
Garrett Wilson was the most penalized Baby Pen (139 PIM), followed by Tom Sestito and Wilkes-Barre native Patrick McGrath with 95 each.
Among the regular goalies, Anthony Peters posted the lowest goals against average (2.71). Casey DeSmith finished close behind with a 2.73 GAA. DeSmith led the way in save percentage (.910) and shutouts (2).
| SCORING | |||||||||||||
| Player | Age | Pos | GP | G | A | PTS | PIM | +/- | |||||
| Daniel Sprong | 20 | RW | 65 | 32 | 33 | 65 | 28 | 4 | |||||
| Jean-Sebastien Dea | 23 | C | 70 | 18 | 32 | 50 | 69 | 20 | |||||
| Teddy Blueger | 23 | C | 70 | 21 | 24 | 45 | 43 | 16 | |||||
| Garrett Wilson | 26 | LW | 69 | 17 | 25 | 42 | 139 | 11 | |||||
| Ryan Haggerty | 24 | RW | 47 | 16 | 21 | 37 | 22 | 20 | |||||
| Kevin Czuczman | 26 | D | 71 | 4 | 31 | 35 | 48 | 15 | |||||
| Christian Thomas | 25 | LW | 51 | 18 | 16 | 34 | 14 | 6 | |||||
| Gage Quinney | 22 | LW | 57 | 14 | 19 | 33 | 18 | 5 | |||||
| Adam Johnson | 23 | C | 70 | 11 | 20 | 31 | 16 | 5 | |||||
| Z. Aston-Reese | 23 | LW | 41 | 9 | 20 | 29 | 49 | 21 | |||||
| Andrey Pedan | 24 | D | 52 | 9 | 17 | 26 | 87 | 19 | |||||
| Jarred Tinordi | 25 | D | 62 | 5 | 16 | 21 | 86 | 19 | |||||
| Thomas DiPauli | 23 | C | 58 | 12 | 8 | 20 | 38 | -1 | |||||
| Jarrett Burton | 26 | F | 52 | 9 | 10 | 19 | 25 | 6 | |||||
| Tom Kostopoulos | 38 | RW | 31 | 5 | 14 | 19 | 31 | -1 | |||||
| Colin Smith | 24 | C | 35 | 5 | 13 | 18 | 12 | 1 | |||||
| Zach Trotman | 27 | D | 49 | 7 | 10 | 17 | 25 | 24 | |||||
| Ethan Prow | 24 | D | 40 | 4 | 13 | 17 | 16 | 2 | |||||
| Dominik Simon | 23 | C | 21 | 4 | 13 | 17 | 14 | 0 | |||||
| Tom Sestito | 29 | LW | 37 | 6 | 9 | 15 | 95 | 11 | |||||
| Lukas Bengtsson | 23 | D | 37 | 0 | 15 | 15 | 8 | 7 | |||||
| Frankie Corrado | 24 | D | 32 | 1 | 13 | 14 | 18 | 11 | |||||
| Joseph Cramarossa | 24 | C | 28 | 6 | 6 | 12 | 28 | -5 | |||||
| Greg McKegg | 25 | C | 28 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 10 | 10 | |||||
| Chris Summers | 29 | D | 64 | 1 | 10 | 11 | 51 | 5 | |||||
| Frederick Tiffels | 22 | LW | 12 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Josh Archibald | 24 | RW | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | -4 | |||||
| Reid Gardiner | 21 | RW | 10 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | -2 | |||||
| Sam Lafferty | 22 | RW | 9 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 0 | |||||
| Cody Wydo | 26 | F | 9 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Patrick McGrath | 24 | RW | 19 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 95 | -3 | |||||
| Kevin Spinozzi | 21 | D | 16 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 3 | |||||
| Josh Jooris | 27 | RW | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | -1 | |||||
| Jan Drozg | 18 | LW | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |||||
| Tristan Jarry | 22 | G | 16 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Kevin Schulze | 24 | D | 12 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Jeff Taylor | 23 | D | 14 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 8 | -1 | |||||
| Dylan Zink | 24 | D | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Niclas Almari | 19 | D | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |||||
| Anthony Angello | 21 | F | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Dane Birks | 22 | D | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||||
| Cameron Brown | 24 | F | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Casey DeSmith | 26 | G | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Troy Josephs | 23 | C | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||||
| Michael Leighton | 36 | G | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Sean Maguire | 24 | G | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Etienne Marcoux | 23 | G | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Anthony Peters | 26 | G | 24 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | |||||
| Colin Stevens | 24 | G | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| GOALTENDING | |||||||||||||
| Player | Pos | GP | MIN | GA | SH | AVE | SVPCT | W-L-OT | |||||
| Etienne Marcoux | G | 2 | 114 | 4 | 0 | 2.10 | 0.900 | 1-1-0 | |||||
| Sean Maguire | G | 4 | 192 | 7 | 0 | 2.19 | 0.924 | 1-1-0 | |||||
| Michael Leighton | G | 6 | 383 | 17 | 0 | 2.66 | 0.913 | 5-0-1 | |||||
| Anthony Peters | G | 24 | 1330 | 60 | 1 | 2.71 | 0.907 | 12-7-1 | |||||
| Casey DeSmith | G | 27 | 1562 | 71 | 2 | 2.73 | 0.910 | 16-8-1 | |||||
| Tristan Jarry | G | 16 | 963 | 49 | 0 | 3.05 | 0.901 | 9-5-0 | |||||
| Colin Stevens | G | 1 | 63 | 4 | 0 | 3.82 | 0.879 | 1-0-0 | |||||
Hey Rick,
Considering how many Penguins on the Big League roster played the whole 82GP compared to previous years, it is interesting how many players WBS had to go thru. Although the G situation isn’t all that surprising. After Jarry and DeSmith, the Penguins didn’t have much AHL depth. I was waiting to see Gustavsson but hopefully Brassard will get the Pens to the Cup. It will be interesting to see what D’Orio can do when he gets up to the AHL.
I promise I will not go any farther than say, seems to me Sprong had a very strong year.
Did you see Sam Militec is joining WBS for the playoffs? I think I am not only going to enjoy seeing how far the big ‘guins go in the playoffs I am also going to be watching WBS closely. The players I am going to keep an eye on are; Sprong, Militec, Angelo, Drozg, Johnson, Blueger, Bengtsson, Pedan, Prow, Tinordi, and Banks.
I will also be interested in seeing if the Big Pens offered Haggerty a contract next year. This past year he was only contracted to WBS.
I am hoping the Baby Pens can make a strong run this year.