Penguins: Winter is Coming!

We are now just 1-month away from this years sneak-peak of the Penguin’s future, the Prospects’ Challenge in Buffalo. During last years Prospects’ Challenge Jordy Bellerive, Sam Militec, and Alex D’Orio impressed the coaching staff enough to earn themselves contracts. Bellerive and Militec built on their Prospects’ Challenge performance with very, very strong junior years, both scoring over 90 points. D’Orio struggled back-stopping a team of new, young kids. Most of his team from the previous year had grew up and moved on.

I had the opportunity to watch the majority of the Penguins Prospects’ games, so I saw why the Penguins offered those players contracts. However, they were not the only players that impressed me. Daniel Sprong, Zach Aston-Reese, Dominik Simon, Lukas Bengtsson, Antti Palojarvi, and Adam Johnson all showed me something. Sprong, Aston-Reese, and Simon all earned some time and had pretty good success in limited ice time and game experience last year in the NHL. Bengtsson struggled with physical ailments but had pretty good success on the ice when healthy in Wilkes Barre – Scranton (WBS) but chose to returned to the European Leagues this off-season (maybe he left due to being demoralized by watching a certain veteran turn-style continually get the lion’s share of the ice time even though he consistently was out of position and turned pucks over, while defensively solid defensemen where run out of town). Adam Johnson started out the AHL season inauspiciously but did start picking it up near the end of the year. Palojarvi played over in Europe and had an unremarkable year.

I hope the Penguins stream these games again. The dog days of summer are wearing heavily on me and I need a Penguins fix. I want my sneak-peak before training camp. The players I want to get a look at are (in reverse order);

10. Calen Addison

Addison was the Penguins’ 1st Pick in the 2018 Entry draft (a 2nd round pick 53rd over all). No, I am not going crazy. I am not all that thrilled that the team drafted another under-sized Defenseman (5′-11″, 178lb), particularly with the UFA signings this past off-season. I am sick of watching Anders Lee harass Penguins’ Goalies and now that John van Reimsdyk has signed with Philadelphia it will only get worse. I am just resigned to Mike Sullivan’s desire to find the next feel good, David – Goliath story defenseman. So, what I am interested in seeing is can Addison maybe get the team to take their Letang colored glasses off. I can’t imagine any player being worse than Letang in his own zone.

9. Tobias Lindberg

Lindberg is the other player the Penguins received in the Ryan Reaves – Ian Cole trade. The scouting report on Lindberg is that he is a young (23 year old), big, strong (6′-3″, 217lb) Winger (can play either flank) with good passing skills and a heavy, accurate shot. The Hockey News also suggests that he has good skating ability. During the dark days of this long, hockeyless summer I read an article that said the Penguins promised Lindberg a real chance at playing in the NHL. What I am interested in seeing is; what is Lindberg’s real potential (see for myself) and will the Penguins really give him that opportunity they promised, now that they have signed so many aging veterans.

8. Alex D’Orio

The discussions I have read about D’Orio was that his Junior team had an influx of young players because the previous years team was loaded with older players and D’Orio was under siege almost every night, often times facing nearly 20 shots in a single period. What I am interested in seeing is how all of that has affected D’Orio (particularly since the NHL version of the Penguins tends not to play real defense either). Has the workload broken D’Orio? Is he mentally worn out from all of the shots he has faced? Or has all of this toughened him up. With the team throwing Filip Gustavsson away in the Derick Brassard trade and Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith pretty much in a make or break situation, I am wondering if there is anything left in the Penguins’ Goalie pipeline.

7. Adam Johnson

At last years Prospect Challenge, Johnson impressed me with his puck handling skills in traffic, his aggressiveness, and his willingness to go into the dirty areas. However, he appeared to be so skinny that he reminded me of a scarecrow on skates. What I am interested in seeing here is if Johnson has put on any muscle mass. If I were the Penguins, my goal would have been to get him to put on 5 or 10 pounds of muscle during this past off-season.

6. Anthony Angello

Angello was the Penguins’ 5th round draft pick from the 2014 Entry Draft. He is a 6′-5″, 209lb, 22 year old Center. He played his college hockey at Cornell, so I haven’t seen him play yet and I really want to see what he can do. He got a chance to play a couple of AHL regular season games and couple more post season games for WBS last year and potted to goals in his 2 play-off game appearances. Because he is so big, I can’t help but think that his time here is going to be short. I am not saying big equals good, but it has been a long time since the Penguins really gave a legitimate shot to a player over 6′-2″ tall who wasn’t already a “Blue-Chip” player.

5. Filip Hållander

Hållander was the Penguins’ 2nd – 2nd round pick in the 2018 Entry Draft (58th overall). He is a 6′-1″ 190lb Forward that can play either Wing or Center. The scouting report on him says that he is a strong skater who passes and shoots the puck equally well. Elite Prospects also write that he works hard and fore checks and back checks impressively. They also go on to say that he is a team player and plays smart in all 3 zones. So where is the down side? I don’t know. I want to see this kid. If he is half as good as the scouts say he is I guess the only remaining question would be is he mature enough to step into the NHL and even if/when he is will the team prefer to bury him in the junior/minors to allow aging veteran fringe players an opportunity to steal money and time off of the team.

4. Sam Militec

Militec impressed at last years Prospect Challenge and built on that with a strong final Junior season. What I am hoping to see from Militec is exactly how his maturation has progressed. I am wondering if I will be beating the drum to bring him up should the parade of veterans fail?

3. Kasper Bjorkvist

Bjorkvist was the Penguins’ 2nd round draft pick in the 2016 Entry Draft (61st overall). He is listed as 6′-1″, 198 lbs and can play either Wing. He still has 1 more year of college hockey to go, but I am hoping to get a chance to see him play. Penguins’ Director of Player Development, Scott Young called him “a specimen”. However, what intrigues me with Bjorkvist was what he did last year. He had a really slow start to his North American hockey experience. His 2016-2017 season in Providence was less than stellar (3G and 6A in 30GP) and started out the season last year equally unimpressive. He only had a handful of goals at the half point of the season but then all of a sudden, as if a light clicked on, he finished the season with 16Gs in 40GP. What may be more important is that he appears to have a shoot first ask questions later mentality, something the Penguins can surely use. Even though it may be another year before we can legitimately expect to see him wear a Penguins’ sweater, I want to see what he can do. That is why I list him above Militec. I haven’t seen him at all yet.

2. Teddy Blueger

Although Blueger impressed many at last years Prospect Challenge and training camp, I wasn’t all that impressed. He went on to score 21Gs and 45Pnts in WBS last year. He followed that with a very strong showing in the International Tournament, receiving rave reviews, with some saying he was the best player on the ice for Latvia. He built on that success with another strong showing in “Da Beauty League” with Jake Guentzel just a few short days ago. I want to see how this kid has progressed.

Like I have mentioned several times, I am not holding out any hope that the Penguins will give him a real chance at an opening night roster spot, not with all the veterans they have signed. I am resigned to the idea that Blueger may be another player that I will be clamoring for the Penguins to bring up when the frustration starts to mount from under-performing veteran players.

1. Jordy Bellerive

I was really hoping to see Bellerive come in here and explode this year. Now I will be ecstatic just to see him recover. I list him number one here because if he will be ready to answer the bell, I can’t wait to see him play again.

With so few or really no “Blue-Chip” young players in the Penguins’ organization, the laws of probability are against most of these kids. Maybe it is because they all wear Black-and-Gold but I am hoping to see them all beat the odds.

Winter is Coming!