Do the Penguins Have a Haphazard Feel?

I confess, I can’t take sole credit for this article. There’s an excellent piece on Pensburgh written by Gretz titled, “What kind of team are the Penguins?” that provided quite a bit of inspiration. He does an outstanding job of writing about what I’ve been struggling to describe throughout the fall.

Namely, that our present Penguins have a bolted-together, Frankenstein feel to them. Especially among the bottom-six forwards.

Gretz mentioned that this team feels a lot like the 2013-14 version at the end of the Ray Shero/Dan Bylsma era and he’s right. That group featured two scoring lines and essentially two fourth lines. The bottom six was strewn with players like Taylor Pyatt, Chuck Kobasew, Marcel Goc, Matt D’Agostini, Brian Gibbons and Jayson Megna. Veterans who were past their primes and kids who never had one.

Hardly a roll call of black-and-gold greats.

No surprise then that come playoff crunch time, that squad couldn’t hang with the deeper, more balanced Rangers.

Does a similar fate await our current crop?

How does that old saying go? A failure to plan is a plan to fail? Indeed, there seems to have been very little planning in terms of adding players over the fall. Colton Sceviour just kind of showed up as part of the Mike Matheson deal and, well, okay, I guess we’re forced to take him so suddenly he’s part of our mix.

We acquire Evan Rodrigues from Buffalo last spring, don’t really use him, trade him to Toronto in the Kasperi Kapanen deal, and then run out and sign him on the first day of free agency. Is he really a valued piece? It sure doesn’t seem that way, does it?

This stands in stark contrast to Rutherford’s early work, especially in 2015-16. Nick Bonino, Matt Cullen, Trevor Daley, Carl Hagelin and, of course, Phil Kessel. Each player was targeted for a specific skill set and purpose. Needless to say, it worked out…in spades.

So when did Rutherford stop operating to a plan, or at least one that isn’t constantly shifting like the tide? Good question. As near as I can tell, it was somewhere after the original Derick Brassard trade at the 2018 deadline. Agree with the deal or not, JR definitely had a purpose in mind…to recreate the HBK dynamic sans Bonino. Good on paper and maybe even admirable. It just didn’t work out as we’d hoped.

The wheel-spinning began in earnest the following season. Hagelin was traded for Tanner Pearson, who was dealt months later for Erik Gudbranson. Around the time JR tried to reacquire Hagelin. In the meantime, guys like Ryan Reaves, Jamie Oleksiak and, yes Gudbranson, came and went. Brassard, too.

It’s like watching them spin through a revolving door. In and out.

Frankly, Rutherford seems to have been chasing his tail ever since.

Training Camp Roster

The Penguins have invited 40 players training camp, including 23 forwards, 13 defensemen and four goaltenders. Here’s the list.

Forwards — Anthony Angello, Zach Aston-Reese, Teddy Blueger, Sidney Crosby, Josh Currie, Frederick Gaudreau, Jake Guentzel, Mark Jankowski, Kasperi Kapanen, Sam Lafferty, Nathan Legare, Evgeni Malkin, Jared McCann, Sam Miletic, Jordan Nolan, Drew O’Connor, Sam Poulin, Evan Rodrigues, Bryan Rust, Colton Sceviour, Brandon Tanev, Radim Zohorna, Jason Zucker.

Defensemen — Cody Ceci, Kevin Czuczman, Brian Dumoulin, Pierre-Olivier Joseph, Cam Lee, Kris Letang, Josh Maniscalco, John Marino, Mike Matheson, Marcus Pettersson, Jussi Riikola, Chad Ruhwedel, Zach Trotman.

Goaltenders — Casey DeSmith, Alex D’Orio, Tristan Jarry, Maxime Lagace.