Penguins Update: Long Pants Hockey at Last?

It didn’t take long for bombastic Brian Burke to make waves upon his arrival in the ‘Burgh. Shortly after the veteran hockey exec was hired on February 9, 2021, to fill the newly minted post of president of hockey operations, Burke voiced his opinion over the Penguins’ preferred style of play. In the process, establishing an expectation for the new regime.

“Pittsburgh’s the last team to win with a small, fast team,” he noted at the time. “The last three Cup winners (Washington, St. Louis and Tampa Bay) have been big, they play long pants hockey, they play ugly hockey. I think we need to look at that and see, have we kept up with the joneses here?”

I confess, it was music to my ears. Anyone who’s read PenguinPoop over the years knows I’ve long been a proponent of adding size and a physical element to our team. While former GM Jim Rutherford tried at various stages to add muscle in the brawny forms of Ryan Reaves, Jamie Oleksiak and Erik Gudbranson, his efforts appeared to be undermined by coach Mike Sullivan, who has a well-known preference for smaller, quicker players.

After assuming the reins from Rutherford, new GM Ron Hextall appeared to follow Burke’s lead, acquiring big Jeff Carter at the 2021 trade deadline and making overtures for then-Ducks hit-man Nicolas Deslauriers. I was encouraged.

Then came the offseason. In rapid succession we lost Brandon Tanev, a spicy heart-and-soul type and our most aggressive player, while adding a batch of smallish free-agents cut from the classic Sully mold, most notably Evan Rodrigues and Dominik Simon. To say I was disappointed was the understatement of the century. I was only partly mollified when we signed hulking Brian Boyle in the fall.

This isn’t to demean the players Hextall brought in…for the most part they performed both effectively and admirably. However, the team was still sorely lacking in the physical play/enforcement department, a shortcoming pounded home with brutal efficiency during our postseason encounter with the bruising Rangers.

Yet upon closer examination Hextall is, indeed, proving good to his boss’s word. No, he didn’t run out and acquire the power forward/enforcer or the big snarling defenseman I covet. But in an understated way, he’s infusing the organizational ranks with functional size.

In a pair of high-profile moves this summer, GMRH signed free-agent defenseman Jan Rutta (6’3” 204) and acquired blueliner Jeff Petry (6’3” 209) and forward Ryan Poehling (6’2” 197) from Montreal. While none of the newcomers is overtly physical, they do give us some bigger bodies for opponents to contend with.

Then there’s the draft. With a couple of exceptions, all the players Hextall and director of player personnel Chris Pryor have selected over the past two years shop in the big ‘n’ tall section. First-round selection Owen Pickering (pictured above) and fellow blueliners Isaac Belliveau, Nolan Collins, Daniel Laatsch and Ryan McCleary all stand at least 6’2”. Forwards Luke Devlin and Kirill Tankov go 6’3” and 6’1” respectively.

Youthful free-agent pickups Corey Andonovski, Jordan Frasca and Ty Glover boast good-to-decent size as well. Like Belliveau and Collins, Andonovski is reputed to play with an edge. Or “angry,” as Burke describes.

This isn’t by accident. According to Pryor, he and his staff consciously sought players with some size and toughness who can play the game as well.

“You still got to be able to make a play with that little black thing on the ice,” he explained. “There is a balance there.”

Combined with sizeable players like Raivis Ansons, Judd Caulfield, Drew O’Connor, Nathan Legare, Samuel Poulin and Radim Zohorna who are already in the system? We may one day shed our “Smurf City” image.

Of course, it’s a long way to Tipperary…and an even longer trek to the NHL. There’s no guarantee any of these kids will make it to the big show, let alone have an impact once they arrive. Then there’s the question of how well they’ll adapt to Sullivan’s forechecking game, which requires a healthy dose of speed.

Much like turning a large ship at sea, it takes time to change an organizational culture. And I still wish we had at least one legitimate tough guy to ride shotgun for our stars. However, in his own quiet, methodical way, Hextall appears to be charting a new course.

Sully Love

Sullivan doesn’t always get a ton of love on our blog. Indeed, we’re at times critical of everything from his personnel choices to his seeming unwillingness to adjust his coaching style to suit the situation and talent on hand.

That doesn’t mean he isn’t a good coach. Quite the contrary.

During a recent Mailbag post on NHL.com, veteran hockey analyst and scribe Dan Rosen offered his predictions for the Metropolitan Division, picking the black and gold to finish third during the upcoming season.

He concluded by opining, “Frankly, Mike Sullivan’s presence behind the Penguins bench might push them over the top… He’s that good of a coach.”