Penguins’ Prospect Update

We now have the first month of the 2019-2020 hockey season in the books. The season started off looking like it could become a disastrous one. Bryan Rust was injured in the last preseason game. As a team our Pittsburgh Penguins’ came out rather flat against the Buffalo Sabres and lost 3 – 1, when the regular season started. And even though they then beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 7 – 1, they lost Evgeni Malkin and Nick Bjugstad, 2 – Centers. Soon after that Alex Galchenyuk’s nagging lower body injury from the preseason finally took him off the ice too. Things looked bleak.

Fortunately, between a friendly schedule and the efforts of some of our kids who were called up from Wilkes Barre – Scranton (WBS) our favorite hockey team has done a little bit better than tread water. They have a firm grasp on the top Wild Card spot and aren’t that far off the Division lead. Prospects like Sam Lafferty, Adam Johnson, and Joseph Blandisi held the fort.

Now as October has closed out and November is about to start, injured forwards Rust, Bjugstad, and Galchenyuk are already back, while Malkin appears to be on the verge of returning. With the return of those veterans, The Penguins’ farm hands will be rejoining WBS. So I figured it may be a good time to take a peek at all of the other prospects in the organization, honing their skills for the time they too may be called on to don the Black and Gold.

Skaters	Po	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	PM	+/-
Addison, Calen	D	Lethbridge	15	4	7	11	18	0
Agozzino, Andrew	C/W	WBS Penguins	8	3	6	9	4	-1
Airola, Santeri	D	Ketterä	1	0	0	0	0	-3
Airola, Santeri	D	SaiPa Loan	2	0	0	0	0	-2
Almari, Niclas	D	WBS Penguins	9	1	2	3	4	3
Almeida, Justin	C/W	WBS Penguins	4	1	0	1	0	-3
Angello, Anthony	RW	WBS Penguins	9	2	0	2	6	-3
Bellerive, Jordy	C	WBS Penguins	8	1	0	1	15	-4
Bengtsson, Lukas	D	St. Petersburg	1	0	0	0	0	0
Björkqvist, Kasper	LW	WBS Penguins	6	1	0	1	2	-3
Caufield, Judd	RW	Univ N Dakota	4	0	1	1	2	2
Cramarossa, Joseph	C	WBS Penguins	8	2	1	3	14	-1
Czuczman, Kevin	D	WBS Penguins	7	0	2	2	0	0
DiPauli, Thomas	C/L	WBS Penguins	4	0	1	1	2	-2
Drozg, Jan	W	Wheeling Nailers	6	4	1	5	4	-2
Haggerty, Ryan	RW	WBS Penguins	9	1	2	3	4	-4
Hållander, Filip	F	Luleå HF	2	0	1	1	0	1
Hållander, Filip	F	Sweden U20	4	0	3	3	0
Jones, Ryan	D	Univ Nebraska-Omaha	4	2	2	4	21	4
Joseph, Pierre-Olivier	D	WBS Penguins	6	0	1	1	2	-1
Legare, Nathan	RW	Baie-Comeau Drakkar	14	6	7	13	8	-11
Lucchini, Jake	C/L	WBS Penguins	9	2	2	4	2	-4
Martinsen, Andreas	W	San Diego Gulls	1	0	0	0	0	0
Masonius, Joseph	D	Manchester Monarchs	12	0	3	3	25	-1
Miletic, Sam	LW	WBS Penguins	9	1	3	4	6	1
Ölund, Linus	C	Brynäs IF Loan	11	1	2	3	0	1
Palojärvi, Antti	D	Lukko U20	13	0	3	3	4	-3
Palojärvi, Antti	D	Lukko	5	0	0	0	0	2
Palve, Oula	C	WBS Penguins	9	0	4	4	2	-7
Pavlychev, Nikita	C	Penn State	3	1	0	1	6	-2
Pedan, Andrey	D	AK Bars Kazan	18	4	5	9	18	11
Phillips, Clayton	D	Penn State	5	0	2	2	4	1
Poulin, Samuel	LW	Sherbrooke	14	9	16	25	19	16
Puustinen, Valtteri	LW	HPK	17	7	7	14	6	1
Warsofsky, David	D	WBS Penguins	9	1	6	7	6	-9

 

Goalies	Team	GP	GAA	Sv%
DeSmith, Casey	WBS Penguins	7	3.46	0.880
D’Orio, Alex	Wheeling Nailers	5	3.86	0.887
Larmi, Emil	WBS Penguins	3	4.05	0.882

At Center, there doesn’t seem to be too much depth. Lafferty impressed during training camp and is the only Center that appears to be doing anything. I have been hopeful that Jordy Bellerive and Nikita Pavlychev would have strong showings but they are off to slow starts. Bellerive finally scored his first professional Goal (G) in the last WBS game of October. GM Jim Rutherford’s big off-season signing, Oula Palve does have 4 assists but is a -7.

On Left Wing (LW), Samuel Poulin has been lighting up the QMJHL. He set a single game scoring record with 2 Gs and 6 Asssists (A). It looks like he wants to make that big leap up to Pittsburgh next season. Some of our Canadian friends have had a chance to see him play and have commented here on how well he looks in games.

Valtteri Puustinen has 7 G and 7 A in 17 games in the Finnish league Liiga. He is also built like Coach Mike Sullivan likes them, tiny. He is only listed as 5′-9″

Outside of Poulin, Puustinen and Johnson (who has been playing with the big club on emergency recall), no one else is really seems to be distinguishing themselves. Even Sam Miletic who, 2 years ago, impressed enough to earn a contract as an undreafted Free Agent (FA) is struggling with only 1 G and 3 A.

On Right Wing (RW), no one is really lighting it up. I wanted to see Kasper Björkqvist and he did impress during the preseason with Lafferty and Nathan Legare but like Bellerive and Miletic, he only has 1 G so far this season. Perhaps that is because the team is trying to force him to play LW and like many European’s he may be more comfortable on his off wing.

Anthony Angello does have 2 goals, but I was hoping to see more out of him this season.

Legare is getting some scoring, but not like he did last year or during this years preseason and his +/- looks a bit concerning.

Last years draft pick Filip Hållander is injured (broken leg) and will be out until December.

On Defense the cupboard really looks barren once you get below the big club. Calen Addison‘s offensive numbers are off his pace of the last couple of seasons and his +/- is so-so at 0. Niclas Almari seems to have the best numbers of the WBS defensive corps with 3 Points (Pts) and a +3. We still retain the rights to Andrey Pedan, at least until this summer and he really may be the best defenseman the team holds the rights too not in Pittsburgh. Pedan has 9 Pts in 18 games, 33 hits and 13 Blocks and is a +11; that may look rather good in Pittsburgh – just saying.

Tell me again, why did we resign David Warsofky. He is a -9 in 9 games.

Penguins Goalie Prospects are struggling. Maybe Casey DeSmith needs a bit of time to get his game back after his demotion. As for Emil Larmi, he may still be adjusting to North American Hockey. Or it could be that the Baby Penguins Defense is leaving them high and dry (but then again it could be the other way around, I don’t get a chance to see too many WBS games).

What’s Next

The November schedule looks like it will be starting off a bit rough; our hometown heroes have to take on the Edmonton Oilers and Boston Bruins for their first 2 games. Both the Oilers and Bruins lead their respective divisions. Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl leads the league in scoring with 25 points and his teammate Connor McDavid tied for 3rd only 2 points behind. Boston’s David Pasternak is 2nd in the League in scoring with 24 points and his teammate Brad Marchand checks in at 5th with 21 points. Our Penguins will have their Defense and Goalies tested

Defensively Boston’s will also be a challenge for our favorite flightless fowl’s offense. Anything is possible but I will not expect to see Crosby and Crew post 7 Goals (G) against Tukka Rask. The bean town Bruins’ Goalie currently has a Save Percentage (Sv%) of 0.951% and Goals Against Average (GAA) of 1.41.