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 |
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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).