Categories: PenguinPoop

And Now…Your 2022-23 Penguins

With Thursday’s regular-season opener against Arizona fast approaching (and every other media outlet doing it…lol), I thought it would be an opportune time to post the Penguins’ 22-man roster. Ages include in-season birthdays.

A random observation. For years I’ve been harping on the fact that the Pens would benefit from some functional size. Well, glancing at our lineup, it appears GM Ron Hextall agrees. Thanks to the presence of newcomers Jeff Petry and Jan Rutta, our defense is noticeably larger. We’ve got at least a handful of sizeable forwards to boot.

While I wish we had at least one guy who played with a physical edge and served as a deterrent (feisty Josh Archibald doesn’t quite fit the bill), the added bulk should help us better withstand the physical rigors of the regular-season, not to mention the playoff grind and the odd Jacob Trouba elbow smash.

Without further ado…our roster:

Center

Ht

Wt

Age

Left Wing

Ht

Wt

Age

Right Wing

Ht

Wt

Age

Crosby

Malkin

Carter

Blueger

Poehling

5-11

6-3

6-3

6-0

6-2

200

195

219

185

197

35

36

38

28

24

Guentzel

Zucker

Heinen

McGinn

5-11

5-11

6-1

6-0

180

192

188

187

28

31

27

28

Rakell

Rust

Kapanen

Archibald

6-1

5-11

6-1

5-10

195

192

194

176

29

30

26

30

 

Left Defense

Ht

Wt

Age

Right Defense

Ht

Wt

Age

Goal

Ht

Wt

Age

Dumoulin

Pettersson

Joseph

6-4

6-3

6-2

207

177

185

31

26

23

Letang

Petry

Rutta

Ruhwedel

6-0

6-3

6-3

5-11

201

201

204

191

35

35

32

32

Jarry

DeSmith

6-2

6-0

194

180

27

31

 

While We’re At…

…here are your Baby Pens. While there may not be a budding Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin in the bunch, I find the number of players in their early 20s encouraging. Hope for the future!

Center

Ht

Wt

Age

Left Wing

Ht

Wt

Age

Right Wing

Ht

Wt

Age

Poulin

Frasca

Gruden

Glover

Houde

6-1

6-2

6-0

6-3

6-0

208

184

172

200

172

21

21

22

22

22

O’Connor

Hallander

Caggiula

Ansons

Devane

6-3

6-1

5-10

6-1

6-5

 

200

190

176

191

239

24

22

28

20

31

Puustinen

Nylander

Legare

Andonovski

Svejkovsky

Olson

Kalmikov

5-9

6-1

6-0

6-1

5-10

5-11

6-0

183

192

205

195

165

180

175

23

24

21

23

20

23

21

Left Defense

Ht

Wt

Age

Right Defense

Ht

Wt

Age

Goal

Ht

Wt

Age

Smith

Friedman

Ouellet

Ortiz

5-11

5-11

6-0

5-11

180

185

196

181

22

26

29

21

Fedun

Maniscalco

St. Ivany

Swoyer

Reinke

6-1

6-2

6-3

6-0

5-11

200

205

198

192

181

34

23

23

24

26

Lindberg

Gauthier

Tokarski

6-0

6-2

6-0

180

208

198

23

21

33

 

Rick Buker

View Comments

  • One last thing (for now) Rick

    Kalmikov and Maniscalco were cut fro WBS and sent down to Wheeling yesterday, along with a host of player on ATO contracts simply getting cut.

  • Oh and Rick,

    Way back when they signed Archibald as a "depth player for WBS" I said he would be in the opening night lineup, whether he earns a spot or not. I was right. He is no doubt better than Simon, and he may not have stunk in training camp, but he most certainly didn't out play all of the competition for that RW slot - and that is the bee in my bonnet. Sullivan hasn't changed his spots. He still goes right back to his boys, whether or not they deserve it.

  • Hey Rick,

    Thanks for doing the leg work on this.

    With the Capitals having Backstrom, Hagelin, and Wilson all out for the foreseeable future, you do realize that our Penguins roster is the oldest in the NHL?

    Now I am not going to argue with anyone that says, at least on paper, our Penguins forwards are pretty good. Even though Travis Yost dissed our LWs saying that they are underachievers, I do think that they may not be all that bad this season (when healthy). Nor will I argue against our Penguins RHD Corps. The addition of Petry and Rutta do make it fairly formidable. However, the Penguins LHD down right scare me. There are far to many question marks there. GMRH solidified the RHD at the expense of the LHD. He traded away the only LHD that looked like he was an NHL level D-man (Matheson).

    The reason I fear for our Penguins LHD is that kid I mentioned earlier this preseason, Aliaksei Protas, the 6'6" 225 beast of a Forward made their roster. Add him to a roster with 6'5", 234lb Anthony Mantha, 6'3" 238lb Alex Ovechkin, 6'2" 203lb Lars Eller, 6'2" 212lb Garnette Hathaway, 6'1" 203lb Marcus Johanson, and 6'1" 205lb Evgeny Kuznetsov leaning on 6'3" 177lb Marcus Pettersson and 6'2" 185lb Pierre-Olivier Joseph. Our Penguins would have been better off trading one of our veteran forwards for a real NHL level LHD and not another choir boy that will get pummeled in the arms race that has become the metro division.

    Another problem that I have with this roster is that the bulk of what you might call the youth of this team is at the position that you need veterans. It has been shown many times that Defensemen peak at about 27 while forwards begin to peak somewhere between 23 and 25 and level off at about 27. On opening night 26 year old Pettersson and 23 year old POJ will in all likelihood be in the lineup while at forward unless Teddy Blueger is injured and 24 year old Ryan Poehling is in the lineup 26 year old Kasperi Kapanen will be the youngest player up front. Not only will 1/3 of our starting "D" be undersized to handle the men playing at the NHL level, they will in fact be kids playing against adults.

    If it had been up to me, I would have traded from my strength (at forward) to get more veteran NHL level Defensemen. I would not have robbed Peter to pay Paul and traded my only competent LHD for Petry, unless I would then trade a Forward to replace Matheson.

    Oh by the way, did you take note of what I wrote about our Penguins' Centers in my last post (Seems like a lifetime ago that I had time to really write). I talked about how strong our top 4 Centers were in terms of play, but how fragile they were. I suggested that between the 4, they will miss between 40 and 50 games this season. Well, Carter and Blueger have already missed games due to injury and Blueger may not make opening night (hope he does though).

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