It is an old saying. I have said it many times, heard it many times in different contexts and in slightly different ways, but it must be said again; “Victory has a thousand fathers – defeat is an orphan.”
Like most Penguins’ fans, out of morbid commiseration I have been reading post-mortem after post-mortem these last couple of days, in the wake of the Islander disaster. Media personalities and fans are all weighing in on what went wrong and where they think the blame lies. Some of the sources try to lay the blame on GM, and some on the coach but by far most of the finger pointing has been thrown at the players.
To their credit, I have yet to read any player looking to deflect the blame to the coaches or the GM In fact, most of what I have read from the players is an attempt to insulate the Penguins’ brain trust from scrutiny.
Unfortunately, and what is starting to disturb me is I haven’t seen that same level of leadership and loyalty coming from Jim Rutherford and Mike Sullivan. Instead of taking ownership of their own gaffes, Rutherford wants to talk about the players being “complacent” and that “maybe they need to go” while Sullivan talks about there “not being enough buy into the system” and players’ “high risk offense” and “not enough” defense.
Everyone here knows that there are players whom I have criticized, so I am not going to disagree that some of the blame should go to the players. There are more than a couple of players on this current roster who would not have been on this past season’s opening night roster or who would not have made it to the end of the season. I am not going to dispute the need for a roster shake up. However, I am also going to scrutinize the Coach and the GM
When I start looking at both the Penguins’ roster and the Organization, yes Rutherford and Sullivan did win 2 – Cups with our favorite flightless fowl, but there are still 2 – players that have 3 – Cup wins as Penguins. If I am going to give credit based solely on the number of Cups won in the ‘burgh, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin get more “cred”.
Fortunately/unfortunately, depending on your perspective, I don’t have that type of sentimentality, like some people who try and deflect blame away from and defend Sullivan and Rutherford.
Who built this Team?
Of course it is the same person who built the Cup winning team, but it was you Mr. Rutherford who assembled these players. There are precious few players left that you inherited.
Yes, you made some great trades to construct the Cup winning teams; Phil Kessel (with Toronto retaining a good portion of that salary), Trevor Daley (Highway robbery), Carl Hagelin, and although it didn’t pay off immediate dividends, Justin Schultz, to win that first Stanley Cup.
The next year, you probably broke even in your moves. As great as Daley was the year before you wisely didn’t throw big money at him when he went Free Agent (FA) and picking up Ron Hainsey was shrewd. I am not sure if you tried and/or it would have been possible to resign Ben Lovejoy, but he was missed. Add to that not trying to sign Nick Bonino to an extension between the 2-Cups would seem to balance out your good moves.
An article I read on Yahoo hit the nail on the head. They said that this 2019 debacle was 2-years in the making and they were right. After that 2nd Cup, rather than working toward positioning the team for the coming expansion draft and FA during May and June of that year, nothing was really done. You rested on your laurels. Finally you paid Vegas a draft pick to take Marc-Andre Fleury, as if they weren’t going to take him. If they didn’t take him, who would they have taken; Conor Sheary? Tom Kuhnhackl? They are both gone. Bryan Rust? Okay that one may have hurt a little but it still wouldn’t have been as bad as paying Vegas to take Fleury.
On Entry Draft day you traded Oskar Sundqvist (you do know he has 4 points in his 4 games played this playoff year, which is what Crosby and Malkin have combined?) and flipped your 1st round pick for Ryan Reeves and St. Louis’ 2nd round pick. I was hoping for you to take Nicolas Hague, who was still available when the St. Louis used the Penguins’ 1st pick,, but the Penguins had to settle for Zachary Luzon several picks later. (I know he didn’t play at all last year due to injury. Question: Was that a career ending injury?)
Then you turned around and traded Reeves and Ian Cole (by the way, Cole has the best +/- of all defensemen right now in the playoffs), with several other assets to Ottawa for Derick Brassard and Tobias Lindberg. Many people on these boards correctly argued that even last year the team should have been sellers not buyers at the deadline – but you bought and paid a heavy price.
You may have salvaged some of your recent blunders when you unloaded Brassard and Riley Sheahan for Jared McCann and Nick Bjugstad, but let’s remember you are also the one who signed Jack Johnson, Patric Hornqvist, and Domink Simon to at least questionable (if not bad) deals so the Salary Cap bind the team now faces is in part your making.
Also, Rutherford’s comment in the recent season’s ending joint press conference (with Sullivan) in which you stated that the Penguins’ Defense right now is the “best defense that it has been since [you] have been here” was absurd. During your tenure, the best the Penguins’ defense has been was the 1st Cup year with Cole, Lovejoy, and Daley on it. That may have been the last time the team was able to hold opponents to less than 30 shots per game with any regularity.
If there is any lack of speed on this Penguins’ team, as some evidence strongly suggests, you, Mr. Rutherford, share in the guilt for that decline.
“Nobody wants to listen to me!”
Put your big boy pants on and own up to your culpability, Mr. Sullivan. If nobody is listening to you, it is your own fault.
Back in December, during Dupuis-gate I wrote that if there was a problem between you and 1 player, it could very well be the player. If there was a problem between you and a couple of players it could still be the players but with each and every new player added to that list, the probability now shifted to you, Mr. Sullivan. Now in your season ending Press Conference you throw your entire team under the bus complaining that they weren’t playing the way you wanted them to play. You whined that they weren’t listening to you. That makes it definitive. It is you, Mr. Sullivan, not the players.
This is not the Juniors, nor is it the College ranks where you can turn over your roster by 50% or so each year as players get drafted or graduate. The onus is on you, the coach, to play nice with your team. The onus is on you to identify the leaders on your team, the players who organize the poker games that everyone gets involved in, the players who have voices in the locker room and get them to buy into your system and they will hold the rest of the team accountable. If no one is listening to you, it is on you.
You can’t play favorites. Sheary shouldn’t have gotten all of the top 6 minutes he got last year, dragging Crosby’s line down. Simon may wow in practice (at least that is what I have heard from some sources), but he is a dud on the ice during games. What is the old saying, he hasn’t scored since the 8th grade picnic? Kris Letang just kept getting minutes and more minutes last playoffs despite gaffe after gaffe; nothing changed this playoff. Did you really expect it to change?
Many people thought Teddy Blueger beat out Matt Cullen, Sheahn, Brassard, and Derek Grant in the pre-season, but was he the 3rd line Center on opening night? No. Was he the 4th line Center on opening night? No! Was he even the 13th or 14th Forward on that roster? No! He started the season in Wilkes Barre – Scranton.
Rutherford may have traded speedy assets out of Pittsburgh but there still were fresh, young legs to put on the ice but you, Mr. Sullivan, opted not to use them. And if there were players not listening, why didn’t you sit them and play one of the kids. Ethan Prow was a 2nd Team AHL All Star, led the team in Points and +/- but he never even got a sniff of the NHL. He is a FA this summer. Do you think he is going to want to stay? Or will he leave like Lukas Bengtsson and Andrey Pedan did last summer?
A coach needs to coach the team not be a glorified baby sitter. Shuffling the deck isn’t coaching, it is babysitting. The Penguins used basically the same breakout from 2016 until December of this year. How much of the Penguins’ breakout was the players and how much of it was that the other teams knew exactly what the team was going to do? When Barry Trotz’ and Lou Lamoriello’s defense stymied the Penguins’ Zone entries, fore-checks, back-checks, and breakouts and the players looked to you for answers what was your response? Let’s switch the line combos and defensive pairings?
Perhaps the players did age a little and slow down a tad, but how much of their slowness was really from lack of speed and how much was lack of confidence in their coach and/or the trepidations of trying to figure out the opposition on their own? What is the saying “He who hesitates is lost?”
For their part, from what I have read the players are trying to protect a failing middle management but middle management is trying to throw them under the bus. The players are taking the high road and trying to remain a team. The coach and the GM are actively or passive/aggressively trying to cover their own posteriors.
He who controls process is accountable for outcome. The players do not control process. I am not saying that the roster stays exactly the same. Some changes always need to be made. Even if the team won the Cup, every season is a different season and teams eventually adjust. However, before the roster changes – changes need to occur off the ice. Even if the Personnel don’t change, their mindset needs to change. And with FAs like Erik Karlsson, Artemi Panarin, Jeff Skinner, and Matt Duchene available it is going to be a whole lot easier to change a coach and GM rather than any high profile players.
Hi TOR!
Wouah! That was not an ordinary rant! It looks like it comes from the bottom of your heart or that you are utterly pissed off! It may be a combination of both. You can correct me if I’m wrong!
Well, I just couldn’t believe GMJR when he said that the D-squad was the best he has ever seen! It could be two things: in public, he is playing a cassette to cover his blunders or he tries to have himself believe that the D-squad is really the best he has ever seen. This D-squad was certainly the slowest I have ever seen since 2009. Their D-coverage was simply awful at times (Dumo was the most stable and reliable) because they pinched a lot in the offensive zone, Letang in particular. Speaking of Tanger, his response to a question asked by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette journalist (Mackey I believe) said it all. Tanger was pretty rude to him and he said that he had no intention to change his style of play.
I think Letang has the following reasoning: I have been playing in the NHL for 13 years, I have won 3 Stanley Cups, I am a well-established veteran, who are they to tell me to change my style of play? I know what it takes to win. I’m not the only one to think that Tanger is a wee bit stubborn, Phil Bourque said the same thing in the after-game show last week. Letang, Malkin and Kessel (just to name a few) have stop listening to Sullivan a long time ago.
There is one thing that is not acceptable: the status quo. GMJR doesn’t have much room to manoeuvre because of the salary cap and a few bad contracts. Let’s hope, as you mentioned, that the management’s and coaches’ mind set will change.
Hey Jorenz,
You are right, there was more than a little emotion in that post after reading the public lack of self accountability from the top of the Penguins organizational chain. I didn’t want to write anything until this week but after their John Belushi in the Blues Brothers imitation – blaming every thing and everyone from a broken down car to an act of God – but themselves I had to write. If their is another Dupuis-gate this season, they have no one to blame (assuming the axe doesn’t fall on one or both of them). I am no fan of people that won’t accept their share of the blame, of those who, instead, go running around blaming others first. It is childish at best in my books, cowardice would be a more accurate descriptor.
Hello,
I reply to my other comment on the article. I will get to it.
I do not know where to start. It will be all over the place.
Basically explained thoughts with my others thoughts.
Penguins signs of complacency and deep issues started two to three years ago after the 2017 with them simply not going out to get 3C . They ( Mike Sullivan and Jim Rutherford thought they did not think they needed one at all. It’s interviews, articles, well know sources confirm everything . They kept saying they will let Malkin and Crosby take on everything. On cameras and in articles .
Sullivan is biggest culprit because Rutherford gave him to much lead way and never shut his foot down . It’s evident. Rutherford seems to go beyond to trade the players he wanted to keep and never replaced them. He get new players then he happen to replace them again for something worse than expected.
Because Sullivan do not want to play them nor develop play right at highest level in this league. He think every player is the same and that they should be able to move everywhere with playing with the Stars..
Simon, Wilson, Rust, Zar are his guys that are too comfortable and very. bottom 6 guys that have no place on this roster.
Sullivan is included in most trade and signings .. People think Sullivan isn’t involved and should be above criticism all the time. Bs.
Sullivan was the one who wanted Derick Brassard and he got him on the team. He didn’t do well as coach to bring the best out Brassard while making the team play above their level to be ready to jump in 2018 playoffs..
Sullivan caused these issues and somewhat make it difficult for Jim Rutherford. Rutherford isn’t innocent at all. He did keep speed and add Reaves. Yes. Hunwick turn out to be be bad because Hunwick wasn’t good and Cole got scapegoat to be force off the team.
Stars knew it. They felt it. They lost fabric keep guys that were, grinders , hungry , prepare to do anything they need to win on the ice.
Very perplexed. To see GM and coach blame their players with no accountability. I do get Rutherford stance try to sell his defense for trades.. I guess.. it was done poorly and to much emotion defensive responses..Rutherford and Sullivan cause this situation to let it go down flames..
I’m done with Sullivan. I’m not sorry. I see through Mike Sullivan. He’s tiring and stale. Players are tired of him. They should be . His comments were spot on . Players are not confident with him. They are frustrated, hate line shuffling, constantly screaming, favoritism, ego and flawed system among other things.
He’s afraid to hold Letang accountable and call him out. Everyone can make it seems like Kessel is being a pain in the butt. He isn’t. It’s Letang. He enables it and let him do whatever.
I would have been more sold with Sullivan voicing I didn’t do better to give the team the best to succeed and I didn’t let them develop chemistry with giving them to believe on the ice.. I didn’t hold right players accountable, I let them down..
Like he said.. players stop buying in and they didn’t play the right way.. They are tired..
They completely shutdown, they lost confidence and Defensemen did not effectively give the puck to them.
Biggest things that should get mike Sullivan firing he did not change his system to stop aggressively pinching, he wanted them too, he never fired the issues and try to deflect it on them..
Malkin didn’t just start to act depressed on the ice for no reason. He didn’t just to start worrying about everything on his shoulders to play how he effectively should fit . Unfocusing on he needs try to do everything and get frustrated at bad times..Sullivan did it. Real Sources And Duper told the truth about it. On the bench it was evident with bad linemates for him.
I will say this. Malkin and Crosby are very tired of Kris Letang.. It’s s different environment when he’s not playing with them… Jack Johnson too.
Rick Tocchet was the better and biggest success behind the bench that did everything that made Sullivan’s job look easy on this team. He had relationship with all Stars among others players . He handle players right in accountability and he communicates very well. Great tactics , adjustments, strategies to have players play their best with where they belong.. He understands the game better and know players very well. He practiced with every player and make himself open to players suggestions and have ways to to get them to keep the fight in ice..
Rutherford cause some bad things on this team. I think he deserves to get another chance if he trades Letang, Johnson and fires coach this offseason. Reechi and Sullivan) He better to get it right. With a vision that evolves new better supporting cast and players to build that chemistry with 5 man unit in the ice.. With some future to it. Youth that help Malkin, Crosby on the ice.
Blueger, Angello, Adam Johnson, Nikita Playchenv,Bjorkist,Bellerive would be great.
Rust, Simon,Wilson, ZAR gotta go..
College free agency signings would help.
I hope Burkle, Morehouse,Mario do step in to get a grip on everything. Because it’s a new era with teams that are getting better and make their team climb the relevance again to reach a new heights..
I believe Kessel, Malkin, Crosby should stay together til their contract ends. You can’t replace them. I’m sorry. That’s me . Trading will hurt them more than ever. It will hurt Malkin and Crosby.
I don’t think find a way to trade and fillip Letang to go after someone like Jacob Trouba to fit with Dumoulin will make them upset nor cause a weak spot for them..
I would sign Trouba to 6 million X 5 contract. Or get Pesce or Faulk from Carolina..
Letang is not on their level. People keep putting him there with bad excuses to scapegoat other players.
I hate to see Kessel and Malkin scapegoats while Letang should not be kept and reconciliation to give him more chances that Pens can livr withuhim. They can. Years and Years they have been try to get him to evolve his game and be better on the ice… etc..
Small decent defense over haul, better bottom 6 with Blueger and Angello would help,Adam Johnson with Malkin and McCann/RW with Crosby and new coaching should help this team..
My Regular Season/Postseason Grades basic on poor coaching and deploying with performance on the ice. ( scoring too)
•Crosby A+/B- or C+
•Dumoulin A+/ B-or C+
•Guentzel A+/B-or C+
•Kessel B+/B-
Malkin B- /D-
•Rust C+ /D-
•Simon D-/D-
•Zar D-/F
•Johnson F/F
•Letang B-/F
•Schultz B-/B-
•Määttä C+/incomplete
•Gudbranson B-/B+
•Hornqvist C+/C+
•Blueger B+/incomplete
•A.Johnson B-/incomplete
•Wilson D-/F
•Cullen C+/C-
•Bjugstad B-/C-
I will wait til share more..
Hey Dee,
You and I are on the same page about Sully and JR. Furthermore, I agree Tocchet may have been the man during the Cup runs.
I was planning on reviewing the whole team over the course of this week. You will see the start of my thoughts on the players in my new post. I contained my thoughts to the Centers. I will go position by position.
One place where we start splitting is over the post-season. I am sorry but even Crosby gets a failing grade. I am not really blaming him, but no one really showed up. getting swept is an embarrassment!!!!
Hello TOR,
I thought about getting him An failing grade.. I couldn’t because he was try everything to get it done with 2-3 defenders draped on him. He was deploy a lot with Johnson and Letang..
Defensemen were not getting him the puck.. I understand the complete shutdown from him and him always taking accountability..
I understand…. I’m reading it now..
Regular season for him A – plus, imo.
Hey Other Rick,
Sorry to get to the dance so late. Wow, a hard-hitting piece in more ways than one. Passionate and extremely well written and expressed.
There certainly is plenty of culpability to go around for the Pens’ shocking first-round exit. I’ll start with GMJR and echo many of your sentiments.
After the 2017 Cup, I think Rutherford was asleep at the switch…perhaps resting a bit on his laurels. With the expansion draft and so many guys up for free agency, it just didn’t seem like he had a plan in place, other than to acquire Ryan Reaves.
Still, he seemed to right himself with the Oleksiak and Sheahan trades (Riley initially worked out well). Starting around the New Year, the club had really started to jell. Then JR made the Brassard trade and it really screwed up the team. I don’t think we really began to recover until he sent Brassard packing in February.
Unfortunately, Rutherford doesn’t appear to be working to a plan like he did in 2015-16, when he set out to make us faster and more skilled. He seems to be trying to make us more balanced in terms of size and toughness, but at the expense of speed.
Then there’s Sullivan, who clearly still wants to employ the up-tempo style the team won with in 2016. Problem is, he simply doesn’t have the horses to play that kind of game any more. At least not without tweaking his system, which he seems loathe to do.
So there seems to be a subtle (or not so-subtle) disconnect between coach and GM. I think everyone needs to sit down and decide what kind of team we want to be going forward, and then make personnel moves according to that plan.
The players don’t get a total free pass, either. There’s some validity to Rutherford’s comments that some guys have perhaps become satisfied. As humans, it’s awfully hard to maintain the same level of hunger for something once you’ve attained it.
Combined with the fact that there are 30 others teams that want we had really, really badly, and will pay any price to attain it? One of the primary reasons teams don’t win Cups year after year after year.
Rick
Thanks Rick,
I think it is still a little early to be late to this dance. As I wrote to Jim, I really didn’t want to write anything just yet. I wanted the dust to settle. I wanted time for wounds to heal. Unfortunately, some of the pablum I was reading last week got stuck in my craw.
I don’t want to give the players a pass on the early exit either and neither do they. Everywhere I read, every player, to their credit looked to accept the blame and exonerate the coach and GM as good team mates are wont to do. That which caused the bile to rise in my throat was the Coach and GM pointing their fingers at the players rather than acknowledging their own culpability as if they feared for their own jobs.
And quite frankly if I had a say Sullivan would be gone. Of course I would have already had a couple sit downs with him, reviewing the slowness at which he adapts to opponents and his inability to play nice with his team, but his complaining that their was not enough buy in to his system at that last conference would be his last straw.
I like his speed game mantra. I loved to watch the team in 2015-2016. However, I question his choosing smaller players over bigger players when speed was relatively equal. Also, you can still change your zone entries, fore checks, back checks and break outs – and still maintain a speed game. You don’t have to obstinately cling to the hackneyed Xs and Os that every team has dissected to death.
As for JR, if he would move on from Sullivan, I would give him, a pass this year, but if drags his feet, then I move on from him and turn the reins over to Guerin.
As for the players, I was planning on writing about that this week but the problem with the players is that with all of the UFAs and the next pending expansion draft, trading some of the troublesome players – particularly the ones that have already come out and said they aren’t going to change will be very, very difficult, at least until the trade dead line when visions of Cups dance through many wannabees dreams.
At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Penguins have to start the season with all of the same big pieces in tacked. The only possible changes I can see possibly occurring will be bottom 6 if the Penguins get a coach willing to trust in some kids.
But since I fear Sullivan will still be here, I don’t hold out any hope of a positive change. I will be looking forward to see who the Pens will draft, the developmental camp, training camp and the prospects tournament but I am approaching opening day like the child watching a horror movie from between his fingers, hoping for the best but fearing the worst.
Hey Coach,
You laid it all out there my friend. Very boldly I might add.The GM and the Coach indeed need to be held accountable.But you forgot one very important group as well. Often over looked.
Ownership !! Mario needs to take some of the blame. He is the one ultimately responsible.Because he was a famous and fan favorite star player turned owner, the fans to often give him a pass.That is the problem when star players become owners. Paying fans to often fail to hold them accountable .
BTW, I just saw tonight Former Tampa Bay GM Steve Yzerman is returning to Detroit. Best team in the league during the regular season and now he is gone.Real ownership in action. No matter how popular or how successful employees are,owners have to take charge. Set the tone. There will be changes in Tampa reports are saying.
I just watched Colorado defeat easily the best team in the west during the regular season. They were bigger, faster and hungrier than the Flames. Another Cole Harbor kid named Nate MacKinnon led the way. 23 years old. His wingers are fast, young and big, big men who can score themselves.
We do not have a team like that and firing the Coach and changing a d man and or reshuffling 2 or 3 players in the bottom 6 WILL NOT bring us a Cup ! Our team is in real need of change. We need to get bigger,faster, younger and all lines need to be able to score goals.Not just Crosby.
The Islanders # 4 line shut down our top line. Our second line did no better. The bottom 2 lines were also silent. It does not matter what you do in the regular season as long as you make the play offs, but when they start you need to be able to OUT PLAY your opponent, no matter what style of Hockey they play!! We could not match the Islanders defensive style and aggressive fore check.
I for one Coach do not expect to win a cup in 2020 given all the younger, bigger and stronger teams now in the NHL.We need new blood to make us competitive moving forward. My fear is we do just enough changes to make the fan base happy and we still get beat in the first or second round in 2020 and we then realize we should have started the rebuild 2 years ago because we will get very little in return for our players then.Need to do it now.
My 2 cents worth.
Great article above. You did not candy coat either.
Cheers
Thanks Jim,
I really didn’t want to write anything until next week. I wanted to let frustration and disappointment (understatement) of this last post season dissipate. However, after reading Rutherford’s and Sullivan’s comments I just couldn’t let them pass.
I agree Jim, in the end Lemieux and Burkle as the main ownership are the ones that ultimately control process so that they are the ones that ultimately need to be held accountable. However, in defense of them, I can see them giving Rutherford a chance to address the failings of his coach before taking action against the Home Run or Strike Out Penguins GM. I really won’t turn my vitriol on them until I give them a chance to act this year.
And with all deference to the “I love Sullivan” club, with Crosby, the team captain only getting 1 G and wearing a team low -4, it is obvious that regardless what the players say, they have lost confidence in their coach. They can say whatever they wish and I don’t expect anything less,but their actions speak louder than their words. Only Murray showed up for the Playoffs.
These players have always shown themselves to be class acts and exhibit the markings of winners. rather than blame someone else for their failings, they look within themselves to find what they can do to improve themselves. Sullivan can learn from them. Last year he overtly blamed Kessel for the teams early exit from the playoffs in the media, yet when Dupuis leaked that Malkin and Kessel were not all that happy with the state of the Penguins, he hypocritically whined about it. He set the pattern with his media campaign against Kessel but wanted Dupuis to keep his (Sullivan’s) personality disorders under cover.
Last summer, Rutherford should have had a sit down with Sullivan over his media campaign against Kessel using it as a teaching moment to upgrade Sullivan’s ability to get through to his team. And maybe he did?
Dupuis-gate should have been strike 2 with another sit-down.
This summer, when practically the whole team obviously, either didn’t buy into what Sullivan was selling or simply, subconsciously gave up on their coach should be strike 3.
If Rutherford himself doesn’t act and act strongly then I would have to say that blame goes all the way to the top and it is time that Guerin steps up and takes the reins.
Winning the Cup in 2020? Stranger things have happened but the probability would have to be small. Vegas’ future odds for the Penguins to win the Cup at back when Sullivan took over the team was in the neighborhood of 50/1 . After watching the debacle and the Coaches/GM blame game post-mortem the odds will probably be at least as long if not worse.
Chances are the team will have to at least start the 2019 – 2020 season with the same core players with all of the high profile FAs out there. Maybe the only trade that they would be able to workout before September would be Letang to SJ, who will be losing Karlsson to UFA. Since Panarin, Duchene, and Skinner ply their trades within the same division, I wouldn’t want the team to trade within their own division.
However, a new coach may resurrect enough umph to get a fair playoff run and proper GMing could then recoup assets at the 2020 trade deadline to set up 2021.
You and I have been championing roster changes for 2 years, but my friend we will have to wait a little longer for appreciable changes there. For training camp next year, I am just hoping that kids like A Johnson, Angello, Bellerive, Militec, Addison, Bjorkqvist and Pavlychev (if they forego their final year of college eligability) and Prow (if he doesn’t look elsewhere) get legitimate shots at making the opening night roster or 13th or 14th forward or 7th defenseman. Chances are most of them will not really do anything in the NHL, but there are player who played all season and did nothing with their chance, it is time to move on from some of the non-core players as well. It is time to see if there is another Guentzel in the rough.