Penguins Prospects Update

I was thinking (always a bad thing), our good friend and fellow contributor here on Penguin Poop, Rick Buker, will often peruse the league statistics to keep us up on how former Penguins’ players are doing. Well, to that end, with one month of the season under our belts, I decided to go check out what signed and unsigned Penguins, who are not on the big league roster but are still within the Organization, are doing. So, without further ado;

Name	Team	League	Po	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM	(+/-)
Addison, Calen	Lethbridge	WHL	D	15	2	14	16	20	-7
Almari, Niclas	HPK U20	Jr. A SM-Liiga	D	2	0	1	1	2	3
Almari, Niclas	HPK	Liiga	D	5	0	1	1	0	-2
Almeida, Justin	Moose Jaw	WHL	D	13	3	18	21	0	1
Angello, Anthony	WBS	AHL	C/R	6	3	2	5	4	3
Aston-Reese, Zach	WBS	AHL	C/R	8	3	0	3	14	4
Bellerive, Jordy	Lethbridge	WHL	C	15	8	11	19	14	2
Bengtsson, Lukas	Linkoping HC	SHL	D	14	3	6	9	4	7
Birks, Dane	WBS	AHL	D	1	0	0	0	0	1
Birks, Dane	Wheeling	ECHL	D	0	0	0	0	2	0
Bjorkqvist, Kasper	Providence	NCAA	W	6	2	2	4	0	5
Blueger, Teddy	WBS	AHL	C	8	4	0	4	2	0
DiPauli, Thomas	WBS	AHL	C	8	0	2	2	0	1
Drozg, Jan	Shawinigan	QMJHL	W	15	16	13	19	6	-14
Elliot, Stefan	WBS	AHL	D	8	0	5	5	0	-3
Haggerty, Ryan	WBS	AHL	RW	3	0	0	0	2	-1
Filip Hallander	Timra IK	SHL	C/W	13	2	5	7	0	2
Hayes, Jimmy	WBS	AHL	RW	8	1	3	4	2	1
Johnson, Adam	WBS	AHL	LW	8	2	3	5	2	-1
Lafferty, Sam	WBS	AHL	C	8	1	4	5	6	4
Lindberg, Tobias	WBS	AHL	RW	5	1	0	1	0	1
Miletic, Sam	WBS	AHL	LW	8	3	3	6	0	5
Olund, Linus	WBS	AHL	C	8	1	1	2	0	0
Palojarvi, Antti	Lukko U20	Jr. A SM-Liiga	D	13	3	5	8	2	5
Palojarvi, Antti	Lukko	Liiga	D	3	0	1	1	0	0
Pavlychev, Nikita	Penn State	NCAA	C	5	2	4	6	6	3
Pedan, Andrey	AK Bars	KHL	D	17	1	6	7	24	14
Philips, Clayton	U of Minn	NCAA	D	3	0	4	4	2	3
Prow, Ethan	WBS	AHL	D	8	3	0	3	4	9
Reilly, William	RPI	NCAA	D	5	1	2	3	2	-1
Summers, Chris	WBS	AHL	D	8	0	5	5	6	-2
Taylor, Jeff	WBS	AHL	D	5	0	2	2	2	5
Trotman, Zach	WBS	AHL	D	8	0	1	1	21	0
Wilson, Garret	WBS	AHL	LW	8	3	4	7	22	0

Goalies

Name	Team	League	GP	GAA	GAAvg
D’Orio, Alex	Saint John	QMJHL	14	4.68	0.882
Jarry, Tristan	WBS	AHL	4	2.72	0.913
Muse, John	Wheeling	ECHL	2	2.89	0.914

Forwards
I have been keeping an eye on Anthony Angello. I love his size. I am hoping to see him up with the big club. I am hoping that he can transition to a bottom 6 winger that can help wear down opposing teams and chip in on the scoring sheet; so far, so good. It is still early yet but Angello is putting up good offensive numbers while his defensive numbers suggest he is being responsible. I can’t say that I have been able to get to see any Wilkes Barre – Scranton (WBS) games live, the highlights that I have caught seem positive as well.

Zach Aston-Reese, Teddy Blueger, and Adam Johnson started off rather slow but are starting to pick up their games and still may contribute to the big club before the season ends.

Sam Miletic was another player that I had high hopes for when camp open but sort of fell of my radar. However, he too is picking up his game and may be the best of the players with a chance of making it to the big league at this point, at least statistically. He is leading the way in scoring with 6 points and is a +5.

Among the forward prospects that are playing in college or juniors; recent draft pick, the diminutive Justin Almeida leads the was with 21 points in the WHL after 13 games. Jordy Bellerive seems to be recovered from his off-season injuries now. His training camp was not as explosive as I would have hoped, no doubt suffering from the a fore mentioned injuries. However, now, he seems to be gaining traction again. Jan Drozg’s numbers also stand out. Offensively he is putting up big numers 19 points in 15 games, but defensively he may need a little work. He is a -14. (although his numbers seem to suggest that he would fit right in on the big league club that swarms the offensive zone but doesn’t seem to understand anything about protecting their own net.

Defense
Bellerive’s team-mate, and Penguins’ top draft pick this past off-season, Calen Addison leads the way, accumulating 16 points in 15 games. Addison, like Drozg, would seem to fit right in on the big Penguins, showing little regard for defensive responsibility.

I was surprised to see that according to Elite Prospects, the Penguins still retain the rights to Lukas Bengtsson. I was under the impression that since I only recall the Penguins making Andrey Pedan a qualifying offer, he was the only one to which the team retained the rights. If this is true it could be a good thing. He is starting off the season rather well with 9 points in 14 SHL games. and is a +7. Andrey Pedan is also having a decent season in the KHL as well.

I wonder, had either of these 2 players stayed in Pittsburgh, would Mike Sullivan give them the opportunity to try and resolve the absentee defensive schemes. To add a little more fuel to that fire, let me present the following list of players I had proposed that the Penguins’ consider to help shore up the right side of their defense (yes, I am going there);

Name	Team (League)	Po	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM	(+/-)
Hersley, Patrik	SKA St. Petersburg (KHL)	D	22	11	15	26	4	7
Larsen, Philip	Salavat Yulaev Ufa (KHL)	D	23	6	8	14	8	7
Mozik, Vojtech	Vityaz Podolsk (KHL)	D	19	4	7	11	45	-2

Patrik Hersley is the player I wanted most. He is reputed to have a cannon of a shot, something I would love to see in a Penguin uniform. He already has 11 goals and 26 points in 22 KHL games and is a +7. And although Vojtech Mozik is a -2, I still would love to see his 11 points in 19 games be for the Penguins. With Mozik’s size and his 45 penalty minutes would suggest that teams would think twice about trying to run Penguin Goalies.

With one month down, our Penguins top the Metropolitan Division but it doesn’t hurt to keep an eye on the kids.

Go Pens!