Well good Penguins’ fans the interminably long off season is about to come to a close. Next weekend the Penguins’ prospects will don the team’s sweater and travel to Buffalo for this year’s Prospects Challenge.
Schedule
| Day | Date | Time | Opponent |
| Friday | September 6 | 3:30 | Boston Bruins |
| Saturday | September 7 | 3:30 | New Jersey Devils |
| Monday | September 9 | 12:30 | Buffalo Sabres |
With the Penguins’ Cap restraints, no matter how bright any of these kids may shine, don’t get your hopes up too high, for seeing any of them in the big clubs’ sweater this coming season. However, looking down this year’s roster, it may not rival some other teams who haven’t been at the top as long as the Penguins, but it does look a bit stronger than last year’s lineup.
Roster
| Name | Po | S/C | Age | Hgt | Wgt |
| Addison, Calen | D | R | 19 | 70 | 181 |
| Almari, Niclas | D | L | 21 | 71 | 168 |
| Angello, Anthony | RW/C | R | 23 | 75 | 209 |
| Bellerive, Jordy | C | L | 20 | 71 | 194 |
| Berger, Chase | C | L | 24 | 72 | 194 |
| Brown, Chris | C | R | 23 | 72 | 179 |
| D’Orio, Alex | G | R | 20 | 74 | 209 |
| Drozg, Jan | LW | R | 20 | 74 | 174 |
| Hawkins, Brandon | RW | R | 25 | 70 | 198 |
| Joseph, Pierre-Olivier | D | L | 20 | 74 | 161 |
| Kim, Michael | D | L | 24 | 71 | 201 |
| Krastenbergs, Renars | LW | L | 20 | 72 | 185 |
| Lafferty, Sam | C/LW | R | 24 | 73 | 195 |
| Larmi, Emil | G | L | 22 | 72 | 185 |
| Lauzon, Zach | D | L | 20 | 73 | 187 |
| Legare, Nathan | RW | R | 18 | 72 | 205 |
| Lizotte, Jon | D | L | 24 | 72 | 209 |
| Lucchini, Jake | C/LW | L | 24 | 71 | 183 |
| Marino, John | D | R | 22 | 73 | 181 |
| Miletic, Sam | LW | L | 22 | 72 | 196 |
| Moskal, Billy | C | R | 19 | 72 | 190 |
| Poulin, Samuel | RW/LW | L | 18 | 73 | 207 |
| Ross, Liam | D | L | 18 | 74 | 198 |
| Williams, Josh | RW | R | 18 | 73 | 185 |
If you haven’t noticed, there are a couple of bigger names not on this list; Justin Almeida and Kasper Björkqvist. I guess we will have to wait a little longer to see Björkqvist skating in a Penguins’ uniform. It will be interesting to see if or how missing the Challenge will affect them.
Also with Nikita Pavlychev returning for one more year to Penn State, we will also have to wait a little longer to see what he can do.
We may have to wait a little longer to see a puck dropped in anger, but in 6 days Penguins hockey will sort of start back up. Stay tuned as we take a deeper look at the players participating in next weekend’s tilts.
Hello,
Penguins got worse , imo. Phil Kessel got scapegoat and short shelf life Sullivan got rewarded. He didn’t deserve the contract and should really evaluated this season to see if giving him a new contract is a priority on the table.
Rutherford has made this team a mess and very delusional on the defense Corp situation.
I’m sorry . Kessel was still a very great asset and awesome weapon with Guentz.
Trading Letang and Jack Johnson should have been a priority. I would have use some money and a way to lock you defense to help the superstars. Tyler Myers and Jacob Trouba would have been awesome choice. Rutherford is missing the ball.
Signing a two 4 fourth liner over 2 million dollars is bad. I don’t like Tanev and Resse signing. Adam Johnson deserve a chance to have a spot.
I don’t mind Alex G on the team. I hate the trade and Penguins not going after more speed and tightening up defense Corp.
I don’t he will replace the need for them.
Dee options:
Centers
Crosby
Malkin
Bjustad
Blueger
LW
Guentz
McCann
Adam Johnson
Simon
Right Wings
Kessel
Hornqist
Rust
1 cheap bottom Right wing or try Angello
Defense
Dumoulin- ? Trouba or Myers would have been great fits/ occasionally Shultz play together.
Petts/? – Schultz
Petts? -Gud
Rudwedel extra D
*traded should have never happen
Left wing and Right wing is weak with the defense.
Idk. I just think Rutherford and Mike Sullivan new contract are really hurting the Penguins with no direction that hasn’t take them further to be better team. Others are getting stronger and adapting better. Penguins are just stuck and too relying on their stars who need help and gritty speed wingers…
Penguins need a new coach, GM and new direction to still get back them in better direction. Malkin and Crosby still have two championships in them. GM and Coach are hurting the chances and core of the group I don’t trust them and I wish Letang was traded this summer.
Ihope Adam Johnson and other younger players get opportunities. I know Malkin, Crosby , Dumoulin, Guentz, Schultz will be great and very productive this season.
Good to hear from you Dee,
I can’t argue with you, from a veteran NHL standpoint the team lost offensive talent. The seem to be banking on McCann playing like he did for that brief stint at the end of the season and Kahun delivering on potential and that is pretty much the same as trusting that your late 1st round picks are going to pan out.
Despite the teams attempt to build Galchenyuk up by talking about what shape he is in; at best he is about half the offensive talent that Kessel while being at least the same defensive liability. Being in great physical shape doesn’t mean that he improved his talent level or decision making.
I will not disrespect Letang’s offensive ability or his toughness, however, I agree with you, Letang should have been traded. He is occupying a defenseman’s position and he is horrible in that role. We need look no farther than his pathetic decision to try and split 3 Islanders in a playoff game, in OT, during a line change, but let’s add his attempt to force a play down that boards in that same series that lead to an odd-man break goal or the previous years Capital debacle where he was personally responsible for over half 3 odd-man break goals in the first 6s of 3 different periods and was on the ice for over half the goals scored by the Capitals and if I recall correctly, he deflected one of those goals past Murray as well.
As for Tanev, it is not that I don’t like him, but not only is his money and length of contract too great, if it costs the team Rust to keep him, the price will be way too high.
I am not as upset as you over the Aston-Reese signing. I would rather see him on the ice than Dominik Simon. Simon may have good corsi numbers, but the team Shooting % when he is on the ice was below the league average. As I have written many times about him, he is like the Shakespearean play, “Much Ado About Nothing”.
Barring a trade of Bjugstad to afford Tanev, your Centers make sense. Part of me would love to have a little more wiggle room to give Bellerive a taste of the NHL if he is truly back to form after his 2018 accident.
On the Wings, I would love to see if McCann can slip into that RW role he had with Crosby and Guentzel last year, where that line was super effective. I am not necessarily tied to it, I just would love to see that happen. Obviously Guentzel should get the bulk of the time with Crosby, but I still would love to see Johnson get a crack with Malkin but think that Kahun will probably be a better choice. I would never have traded Kessel for Galchenyuk, but since he is here, I would put him on 3rd line. With Tanev getting the 4th spot and johnson and Aston-Resse vying a reserve spot.
On RW, as I said, McCann gets my first shot as Crosby’s RW and Bjorkqvist would get my first shot with Malkin. If they workout, then Hornqvist gets 3rd line and Rust 4th line RW, but those are all ifs. Even though at one time RW was a strong point for the team, it is the 2nd biggest question mark now.
Defense is the teams biggest question mark. Dumoulin and Schultz are the only 2 Defenseman I trust on the team. Gudbranson had a good run near the end of the season but ow let’s see what he can do across an entire season in Pgh. Pettersson is still a kid and made many rookie mistakes in the playoffs. He should be a 3rd pairing 7th defenseman right now learning his trade. I look at Riikola the same way. At this point I would trust Trotman more than Rhuwedel in bottom pairing role. This position is a serious mess. There is no true middle pairings among the players from what I see.
In goal? As much as I like Murray, if I am him, I don’t care how much money they offer me, I am gone. I would not want to face the number of odd-man breaks this defense surrenders. Nor would I want to have opposing forwards banging into me and sitting on top of me as much as they do because the teams D is so milquetoast. The worst part of the Goalie situation is that DeSmith and Jarry both will have to clear waivers so the team will either have to carry 3 goalies, trade 1, or lose 1 to waivers. That means Larmi could be big, D’Orio has not really panned out so far.