Yesterday, I posted a discussion of how average our Pittsburgh Penguins are. They have waddled through the first quarter of the season in mediocrity. Some players are playing really well, others aren’t. When added together, they equal a very middle of the pack team.
After posting my last article we (the fans) found out that one of our Core players and perhaps the defenseman with the highest upside on the roster had a serious medical condition.
All of this makes for a pretty good segway into what I always write about at the end of every previous month, the progress of our Penguins’ Prospects.
Is there any help in the system?
Who is developing?
Who isn’t?
And, unfortunately, the more serious question, is anyone getting a chance to develop?
Defensemen
Today, I would prefer to start by talking about the defensive prospects in the system, considering yesterday’s news. Also, speaking about the Penguins defensive prospects is the bad news of the proverbial good news bad news question, so let’s get that out of the way first.
The cupboard is just about bone dry when it comes to defensive prospects on the horizon. Down in our top farm club the Wilkes Barre -Scranton (WBS) Penguins, Xavier Oulette, the 29-year-old Left-Handed Defenseman (LHD) has put up the most points and has the best +/- (11 Points, +8).
Ty Smith, the wunderkind for which we traded John Marino to acquire, well he has 1 less point (10 – 4 Goals, 6 Assists) than Oulette but he is a -1 compared to Oulette’s +8.
So, you may be asking yourself how is Marino doing? Good question. He is plying his trade with the division leading New Jersey Devils (of the NHL not AHL) and Marino has 2 Goals (G), 6 Assists (A) for 8 Points (Pts) and is a +15.
Who knows maybe we still win this trade, but right now, that trade doesn’t look so good.
| Po | S | Age | Team | League | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | (+/-) | |
| Ouellet, Xavier | D | L | 29 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 19 | 0 | 11 | 11 | 15 | 8 |
| Smith, Ty | D | L | 22 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 19 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 8 | -1 |
| Fedun, Taylor | D | R | 34 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 |
| Freidman, Mark | D | R | 26 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 16 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 4 |
| Maniscalco, Joshua | D | R | 23 | Wheeling Nailers | ECHL | 15 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 24 | -6 |
| St. Ivany, Jack | D | R | 23 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 12 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Swoyer, Colin | D | R | 24 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3 |
| Masonius, Joseph | D | L | 25 | Kalamazoo Wings | ECHL | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 1 |
| Masonius, Joseph | D | L | 25 | Fort Wayne Komets | ECHL | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | -2 |
Looking deeper into the organization, again, the pickings are less than encouraging. Perhaps the best and most consistent Defenseman has been Isaac Belliveau. The 2021, LHD, 5th round pick playing in the QMJHL has 3 G, 17 Pts, and is a +7. To give you some a frame of reference, Belliveau’s 17 points ties him at 74th in the QMJHL in scoring. His +7 ties him for 43rd.
What of Ron Hextall’s first opportunity at a first-round pick, Owen Pickering?
Another good question.
Pickering checks in with 14 Pts and is a +2. If you recall my last update on our Prospects, Pickering already had 11 Pts, so in the month of November, Mr. Hextall’s first foray into round 1 of the NHL Entry Draft as Pittsburgh’s GM only added 3 more points to his total. The 14 total Pts has the young LHD tied for 127th in the WHL in scoring.
It is hard to compare QMJHL and WHL players, so to add proportionality to these numbers, Ryan McCleary, our Penguins 7th round pick LHD from 2021 (taken 2 rounds after Belliveau but only 4 months younger than Pickering), he has 5 G and 7 A and is a -3. Furthermore, Lukas Dragicevic a draft eligible young defensive prospect who was just upgraded to an A level prospect has 8 G and 32 Pts and is a +1, also in the WHL.
I don’t know about any of you readers, but when our number one pick from this year’s draft and who is barely older than our number 7 pick from the year before is only barely better in terms of Points and +/- and who is significantly behind a kid coming out in the upcoming summer’s draft, that doesn’t give me confidence in our teams ability to judge talent and when to pick players in the top rounds our in the later rounds.
| Po | S | Age | Team | League | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | (+/-) | |
| Belliveau, Isaac | D | L | 19 | Gatineau Olympiques “A” | QMJHL | 16 | 3 | 14 | 17 | 12 | 7 |
| Collins, Nolan | D | R | 18 | Sudbury Wolves | OHL | 17 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 17 | -7 |
| Laatsch, Daniel | D | L | 20 | Univ Wisconsin | NCAA | 14 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| McCleary, Ryan | D | R | 19 | Portland Winterhawks | WHL | 21 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 17 | -3 |
| Pickering, Owen | D | L | 18 | Swift Current Broncos | WHL | 17 | 3 | 11 | 14 | 6 | 2 |
Goalies
As pedestrian as Casey DeSmith this season and as inconsistent as Tristan Jarry has been (In of all things his contract season – you would think he would be playing for a big contract). It might be time to look at some of the Penguins’ prospects to get some time between the pipes in the ‘burgh.
As great as that actually sounds to me, it obviously is not where our brain-trust is. The Goalie getting the most playing time in WBS is still 33-year-old Dustin Tokarski, 12 Games Played GP), while 23-year-old Filip Lindberg has only gotten into 7 games, and one of those games was stopped due to a power outage.
This Penguins team doesn’t seem to understand what a farm team’s function is.
Tokarski is playing extremely well, making WBS very competitive. However, true prospect Lindberg isn’t getting ice time and not developing. The difference between Tokarski’s play and Lindberg’s isn’t all that great and if given the workload that any forward moving parent club would demand of their farm team, Lindberg just may be playing than Tokarski has.
If it had been up to me, Lindberg would have been given the Lion’s share of the work in WBS and he would have gotten the nod to play any home games where I knew I wanted to rest Jarry. DeSmith, at his age and limited ceiling would only play in emergency situations on the road.
Down in Wheeling, Taylor Gauthier is playing better than last season’s tandem of Alex D’Orio and Tommy Napier did.
| Po | C | Age | Team | League | GP | GAA | Sv% | SO | W | L | T | |
| Gauthier, Taylor | G | R | 21 | Wheeling Nailers | ECHL | 8 | 2.6 | 0.911 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| Lindberg, Filip | G | L | 23 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 7 | 2.67 | 0.904 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
| Tokarski, Dustin | G | L | 33 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 12 | 1.8 | 0.939 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 3 |
Over in Europe, our Penguins have 2 really good young prospects, Joel Blomqvist and Sergei Murashov. Blomqvist is experiencing a bit of some growing pains. Playing in Finland’s top league, the former 2nd round draft pick is posting numbers a little lower than last season but his skills are through the roof. Murashov on the other hand, playing in Russia’s top Junior league is dominating. He already has 6 Shutouts, a Save Percentage (Sv%) that is through the roof (0.953) and a Goals Against Average (GAA) that you need a microscope to find (1.47).
Obviously, these 2 kids will not help the current Penguins’ team, but they do represent a bright future in Goal.
| Po | C | Age | Team | League | GP | GAA | Sv% | SO | W | L | T | |
| Blomqvist, Joel | G | L | 20 | Kärpät | Liiga | 15 | 2.17 | 0.907 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 6 |
| Murashov, Sergei | G | R | 18 | Loko Yaroslavl | MHL | 21 | 1.47 | 0.953 | 6 | 13 | 5 | 2 |
| Murashov, Sergei | G | R | 18 | Loko Yaroslavl-76 | MHL | 1 | 2 | 0.941 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Forwards
If you have read any of my recent Posts or Replies to my partner in crime Rick Buker, I am none too thrilled over our Coaches decision to strip the Evgeni Malkin line of Rickard Rackell to fix the Sidney Crosby line of its lack of impotence. All Mike Sullivan did, as I wrote to Rick yesterday, was rob Peter to pay Paul. The result of our Coach’s lack of genius was to transfer the impotence to the second line. Sullivan needs to start trying something new.
I don’t have space to waste on my reasons why, but the smarter move would have been to bring up one of the kids from WBS, Valteeri Puustenin or Filip Hållander and give them the spot, Bryan Rust was occupying. And as I wrote in a reply yesterday, I don’t want to hear the hypocritical pushback that the kids need to earn the right to play next to Crosby and give the veterans a pass. If the Kids need to earn the right to play top 6, so do the underperforming veterans.
Hållander is tied with Puustenin for the lead in scoring for WBS with 16 Pts. Hållander leads the club in +/- at +12 and Puustenin checks in with a not too shabby+6. Hållander has been Mister consistency picking up 6 Pts in 8 GP in October, good enough for 2nd on the team in scoring while notching 10 Pts in 9 GP in November. Puustenin on the other hand started off a little slow with only 5 Pts in 8GP October but 11 Pts in 11 GP in November.
Hållander’s and Puustenin’s 16 Pts are not great, but they do check in tied for 39th in the AHL.
After Hållander and Puustenin, there isn’t really much to talk about. Even though he is getting top line action, even starting games, Poulin hasn’t done much. Drew O’Connor seems to have cooled off from his heady days after coming here. Alexander Nylander does put up offensive numbers but seems to not know what to do when he doesn’t have the puck.
As for the other players I would like to see, they seem to be suffering from the same short sightedness crushing Lindberg. Nathan Légaré is suiting up for games but not getting much quality ice time. Raivis Ansons, Lukáš Švejkovský, and Corey Andonovski don’t even seem to getting to suit up consistently.
| Po | S | Age | Team | League | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | (+/-) | |
| Andonovski, Corey | RW | R | 23 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 15 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 27 | 1 |
| Ansons, Raivis | RW/LW | L | 20 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 9 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -2 |
| Caggiula, Drake | C/LW | L | 28 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 15 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 0 |
| Frasca, Jordan | C/LW | L | 21 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Glover, Ty | C/LW | L | 22 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 7 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Gruden, Jonathan | LW | L | 22 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 17 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 15 | 1 |
| Hallander, Filip | LW/C | L | 22 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 17 | 6 | 10 | 16 | 2 | 12 |
| Legare, Nathan | RW | R | 21 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 18 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 9 | -2 |
| Nylander, Alexander | W/C | R | 24 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 19 | 6 | 7 | 13 | 6 | -2 |
| O’Connor, Drew | LW | L | 24 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 17 | 5 | 8 | 13 | 16 | 2 |
| Poulin, Sam | W | L | 21 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 11 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| Puustinen, Valterri | RW/LW | R | 23 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 19 | 7 | 9 | 16 | 6 | 6 |
| Švejkovský, Lukáš | C/RW | R | 20 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 12 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | -2 |
If we look at Europe and the Juniors, there isn’t much there. Kasper Bjorkqvist has been a disappointment for me. I liked him and wanted to see him develop. Kirill Tankov, another player I really wanted to see here in Pittsburgh had a serious injury at the start of the KHL season.
| Po | S | Age | Team | League | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | (+/-) | |
| Bjorkqvist, Kasper | W | L | 25 | Kärpät | Liiga | 20 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 5 |
| Broz, Tristan | C | L | 20 | Univ of Denver | NCAA | 14 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 3 |
| Caulfield, Judd | RW | R | 21 | Univ of North Dakota | NCAA | 15 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 6 |
| Devlin, Luke | C | L | 18 | West Kelowna Warriors | BCHL | 18 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 7 | 0 |
| Plante, Zam | C | L | 18 | Univ of Minn-Duluth | NCAA | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| Tankov, Kirill | C | L | 20 | SKA-Neva St.Petersburg | VHL | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Yoder, Chase | C | L | 20 | Providence College | NCAA | 15 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 2 | 6 |
So that is the state of our Penguins. Is there any help there? Who knows? The only way to find out is to find out.
Odds and Sods
Taking a peak at some former Penguins Prospects still playing hockey but elsewhere we find that the player our esteemed Coach, Mike Sullivan extended a contract to this past summer, Dominik Simon has 2 G and 1 A in 20 GP in the Czech league and is a -5. In the meantime recent castoffs Radim Zohorna has 3 G and 9 A for 11 Pts with the Calgary Wranglers and is a +5 while Anthony Angello has 5 G and 1 A for the Springfield Thunderbirds and has the same +/- as Simon, -5.
| Po | S | Age | Team | League | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | (+/-) | |
| Angello, Anthony | F | R | 26 | Springfield Thunderbirds | AHL | 18 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 35 | -5 |
| Simon, Dominic | F | L | 28 | Sparta Praha | Czech | 20 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | -5 |
| Zohorna, Radim | F | L | 26 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL | 18 | 3 | 9 | 11 | 9 | 5 |
Hmm…….
No one use +\- anymore. It’s been a useless stat for more than acouple years now(I had to google whether it was “an” useless or “a” useless; “a” useless is right).
There are much better analytics or underlying statistics to analyze or compare players.
Hi Pittsburghbob69,
I love stats. I am a stat geek. Not everyone is.
Including some of the more advanced stats would be lost on the casual fan. That is why I include the +/-. Also, if someone is keeping those advanced stats for the AHL, Jrs, or European leagues, they don’t make it easy to find them. And, even though many people now ignore the +/-, it is a better stat than the CORSI numbers many people now quote. both +/- and CORSi are influenced by teammates so that only the extreme numbers on either end carry any weight by themselves – otherwise more in depth investigation is needed to understand them.
Personally, I like to look at with-or-without you numbers and weigh base stats based of the strength of the players an individual skates with and/or against. I also like to look at players numbers based on game situations – how they perform when the game is on the line and not padding stats in blowouts one way or another.
And when looking at these numbers I try to keep in mind where the player started his shift. If a player is constantly starting his shift in the attacking zone, then I should expect good offensive numbers vs a player who is always starting in the D-zone.
I know +/- is passe but in the end, since hockey games are won and lost in terms of GF vs GA, +/- should never be ignored. The farther away we move from actually looking at Goal totals the less meaningful the stat, regardless of how interesting the stat. With every step removed from the gold standard, another level of error enters in to the equation; GF vs GA win games, Shots on goal (SOG) for and Against are important but by themselves don’t win games, Shot Attempts for vs against aren’t even as important as SOG.
Hey Other Rick,
Great work as always. I so appreciate you doing the leg work and it sure makes for an interesting and informative read.
While it’s hard to project how many of these kids may pan out down the road, it doesn’t look too encouraging…especially among the forwards. Hallander and Puustinen are producing and Poulin and O’Connor are putting up decent numbers (albeit the former goals only).
I think Puustinen could be a sneaky good player at the NHL level. Hallander plays an all-around game, but his skating concerns me. Still have mild hopes for Poulin and O’Connor.
On ‘d’…yeah, wow, the Marino-Smith trade ain’t looking so swift. Marino’s playing very well with the Devils…have the feeling they’re just letting him play his game and are reaping the benefits. I think Smith’s size and d-zone play will prove to be his Achilles heel.
Love Friedman and what he brings to the table but he’s a six or seven at best. There does appear to be hope for some of the kids in junior, including Pickering, who’s still maturing.
It’ll be interesting to see if any of the goalies emerge, particularly Blomqvist and Murashov.
Anyway…great stuff.
Rick
Puustinen is a top 6 or bust type of prospect though; like Nylander. I wouldn’t mind seeing him on Geno’s line next season.
Poulin, Hallander, OConnor can start off on the bottom 6 and work their way up. Like Rust did. For that reason I would say Poulin is a better prospect. I’m still pretty high on Poulin though. He’s still just 21 years old(turning 22 in February). I see some Thachuk in him. Maybe Thachuk-lite. 6’3, 215 pound, power forwards that can put the puck in the net are hard to come by.
Although every prospects drafted b4 him in the 2019 draft has seen a good bit of NHL time already. Guys like Jack Hughes, Kakko, Zegras, Caufield, Kirby Dach, Matt Boldy, Alex Newhook, Vasily Podkolzin. And even guys drafted after; Shane Pinto, Arthur Kaliyev, Connor McMichael, Philip Tomasino, Nic Robertson etc.
But I’m still keeping faith in Poulin. And in Tristan Broz. And I hope Tankov is ok and recovers from the neck injury(such a scary injury).
My Pens top prospects would be:
1.SamuelPoulin
2.POJ
3.V.Puustinen
4.TristanBroz
5.OwenPickering
6.LukasSvejkovsky
7.FilipHallander
8.JoelBlomqvist
9.RaivisAnsons
10.KirillTankov
Just missed -NathanLegare, JuddCaulfield, ZamPlante, IsaacBelliveau, RyanMcCleary
Hey Pittsburghbob69,
Agreed Puustenin needs to play top 6 and I would love to see him get the chance. Unless as a team, however, I am not sure he can be a long term Penguin. If we keep playing small hockey, I still try and show case him and sell him to another team for draft picks.
Of Poulin, Hallander, O’Connor, I like Hallander. Hallander has consistently played well this season, O’Connor has been streaky and Poulin, almost an afterthought, despite prime Ice Time. I agree with you in that looking at him, he seems to have all the physical attributes, but it just doesn’t seem to be coming together. I also agree that these three are best suited to bottom six or at best middle six.
Broz? he hasn’t played a lot, playing in the NCAA and transferring from Minn to Denver.
Tankov? I loved what I have seen of him. He has great hands. but as you say, it is a real shame he got hurt. Hopefully he can recover, for his sake, but since he is playing over in Russia, we may never see him, even if he recovers.
You mention a really interesting name in your just missed – Judd Caulfield. He always seems to be an afterthought, but I can’t help wonder about him. At 6’4 and 212lbs he is intriguing. He does have 7 G in 19 GP now.
Pickering? Sorry, I think that if he does make the NHL, it won’t be for 6 or more years. He has drop farther down the scoring ranks in the WHL, not a good sign for a defenseman drafted for offensive prowess. Add to that the question mark our farm system now has to have hovering over it – it hasn’t really been producing home grown talent.
Have you seen former Penguins property Nikita Pavlychev’s numbers this season. He is playing for Greenville of the ECHL and is on pace for a 45 G season. Don’t know if he can ever make the NHL, the ECHL is way to far down the line, but I would have loved for us to have given him a chance.
*segue
Thank you for the catch. I see I missed that one during proof reading.