Penguins Prospects thru December 31, 2022

Happy New Year Penguin Poop readers!

With our Pittsburgh Penguins limping through the end of the 2022 season (5-3-2 in their last 10 Games, on a 4-game winless skid), it is now time for me to take a look at how GM Ron Hextall’s prospects are faring.

The Forwards

In the Minor Leagues

Looking first at our Baby Penguins in Wilkes Barre – Scranton (WBS), Valterri Puustenin is in his usual spot as team leader in Goals (G) and Points (Pts) with 12 and 24 respectively. However, in the month of December Alexander Nylander tied Puustenin with 5 G and led the team in points during the month with 10.

Thanks to a couple of big games, Drew O’Connor got hot and erupted for 9 Pts before injuries forced Hextall and Mike Sullivan to summon him up to the big club (so he could sit on the bench and press box even though he acquitted himself better than any other player in his extremely limited ice time (TOI).

Filip Hållander wasn’t as prolific on the scoreboard as the above players but has quietly been extremely consistent, only 2 Pts behind the team leader, Puustenin, and 1 Pnt behind Nylander, checking in with 22 Pts for the season. Hållander however leads the club in +/- at +13.

Now, before we get too excited here, let’s get some sense of proportion and some perspective, Puustenin, our team leader in Pts only ties for 48^th in the AHL, 18 Pts behind league leading Michael Carcone of the Tucson Roadrunners. There is a little more hope in terms of Gs. Puustenin’s 12 Gs has him tied for 22^nd in the AHL, behind Riley Barbers 19 Gs for the Texas Stars. And in terms of +/-, Hållander’s +13 rates highest of the three stats in relation to the rest of the AHL. Hållander is tied for 15^th behind Alex Petrovic’s (Texas Stars) +21.

Normally, with Hextall’s big club boasting a first line of Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel, and Rickard Rakell, I wouldn’t be all that worried about limited top end talent like we have in WB.S However looking at the last 4 games and Crosby being an absolute zero in terms of 5-on-5 Gs and Team Goals For (TGF) while having been on the ice for 4 Team Goals Against (TGA), Rakell being slightly better with 1 TGF and 3 TGA, and Guentzel’s 2 TGF and 4 TGA, I am concerned. Our top line has been a combined -8.

(I know I am risking all kinds of attacks by irate Crosby fans, as our friend Jim noted yesterday in a reply to one of Rick Buker’s posts, by saying this but our team Captain has stunk recently, but he has.)

Looking at what has been going on in WBS, although I do appreciate O’Connor’s 3 game outburst in WBS, On the other hand, Puustenin and Hållander earned the call up far more than O‘Connor and Drake Caguillia. They have been consistently playing well, not streaky.

I can’t help wonder what these last 4 games for the Big Club would have looked like with a major shake up in the top 6,. I have contemplated dropping Guentzel and Rakell down to 2^nd line with Evgeni Malkin and bumping Jason Zucker up to the top line with Crosby and inserting Puustenin on the starboard side with top end talent like 87 and 16. Unfortunately, our coach looks to be soooooo afraid of losing (and maybe with good reason) that he is destroying the teams chance of winning by doubling down on TOI for that failing top line; giving those players over 22 minutes in their last game.

In Europe and the Juniors

Our Penguins aren’t blessed with a lot of forwards outside of the AHL and ECHL. Tristan Broz and Luke Devlin represent the best of that limited pool. However, the pond is pretty small so they may not be that big of a couple fish. Broz had a big December with 3 G and 9 Pts in 6 Games Played (GP) to raise his season totals to 5 G and 13 Pts.

Devlin wasn’t as prolific as Broz in December, picking up 1 G and 6 Pts, but he has been more consistent with 4 G and 18 Pts over the course of the year.

The Defensmen

In the Minors

I am sorry to say that our Penguins are not blessed with Defensemen anywhere in their organization. On the big club, the Black and Gold does have a handful of decent Right-Handed Defensemen (RHD) in Jeff Petry and Jan Rutta. Kris Letang is struggling right now but there may be some unreported issues helping to explain his off season.

However, looking at the Left-Handed Defensemen (LHD), the team could dump the entire big-league roster and only affect any game’s outcome to the positive. Pierre-Olivier Joseph has been the best player on the port side, but that is no endorsement of the kid but a condemnation of Brian Dumoulin and Marcus Pettersson. Joseph does move the puck well as evidenced last game on Jeff Carter’s G but he is still a liability in the defensive zone when it comes to the physical play.

Unfortunately, barring a trade, don’t look for much improvement here. There really is no help in the system. Former 1s round draft pick and alleged offensive wunderkind Ty Smith who was just called in 2nd WBS in scoring among defensemen with 14 Pnts. However, if you look around the whole of the AHL, those 14 Pts only ties Smith for 203^rd in scoring. Sorry, not much of a wunderkind in my book.

Mark Friedman, also a recent call up, to anyone other than Sullivan or his fan club would seem to be the best of the defensemen in the waddling waterfowl’s minor leagues. Too bad our Coach’s allergy to physical play has Freidman, in the end, on the outside looking in.

With how poor our LHD play in their own zone, Xavier Ouellet would have been a better call up than Smith. Ouellet is +9 and. Furthermore, Ouellet has more Pts. than Smith with 16.

In Europe and the Juniors

Perhaps our Boy’s of Winter do have a Defensemen in the wings. I haven’t really had a chance to watch too much of his play, but Isaac Belliveau does look like he may be able to contribute to the big team. His 5 G, 25 Pts, and +15 lead all prospects in the amateur ranks and across the pond. His 25 Pnts is tied for 70^th in the QMJL in scoring and his +15 is 23^rd.

This past summer’s 1^st round pick Owen Pickering has 22 Pnts in the WHL and is a +4. However, Pickering may only be 3 Pts behind Belliveau, but his 22 Pnts only ties him for 112^th in his league: a big difference. And his +4 only comes in 124^th in the +/- rating.

Sorry, that is not impressive for a 1^st round pick. It looks more like a waste of our 1^st, 1^st round pick in a long time. It will be interesting to see how many players drafted after him will have better careers.

Goaltending

In the Minors

Truth be tild, I laughed every time I read Pittsburgh Hockey Now (PHN) write that Mr. Hextall should re-sign Tristan Jarry to a long-term contract. I mentioned in a reply to a Rick Buker post that the way PHN keeps insisting that Jarry deserves that reward, I would think that site is paid to be Jarry’s campaign manager for president. Jarry’s Save Percentage (Sv%) of 0.917 ties him for 16^th in the league among Goalies who have played 200 minutes or more, 16^th.

Jarry’s partner in the net, Casey DeSmith, has a Sv% of 0.912, which ties him for 25^th.

Take heart, though, Penguins’ fans, Hextall has stocked the cupboard with some hope. Even though WBS Coach J.D. Forrest suffers from the same myopic vision for this team as does his superior, Mike Sullivan, (playing 33-year old AHL journeyman Dustin Tokarski far more than he plays true prospect Filip Lindberg) Lindberg has shown promise. Through the month of December, before getting injured, Lindberg raised his Sv% 8 points even though the Baby Penguins were struggling, while grizzled veteran Tokarski’s Sv%has dropped 13 points.

Lindberg’s injury did have a bright side, the Baby Penguins tapped recent FA signing Taylor Gauthier to start the 2^nd game of their back-to-back weekend series. Fortunately for Forrest he did give the kid a break, because Gauthier broke the Baby Penguins’ losing streak and put them back on the right path. Gauthier stopped 29 of 30 shots to right the WBS ship.

In Europe and the Juniors

Brighter still than Gauthier and Lindberg could be our Penguins Goalies over in Europe, Joel Blomqvist and Sergei Murashov. As bad of a pick as Pickering may have been last season, Murashov may be that good of one. While Blomqvist hasn’t played his best this season, Murashov has been beyond belief. His Sv% is astronomical and his Goals Against Average (GAA) microscopic. The kid even starred in a game at the highest European level, the KHL. In 1 appearance in Europe’s top league this kid rocked, stopping 18 of 19 shots and notching his first KHL Win (W). The biggest concern I have over Murashov would be, “will he ever don a Penguins Sweater due to the current political clime?”

Conclusion

Well, there you have it, a look at our Pittsburgh Penguins Pipeline. The Prospect Pool isn’t the deepest in the league but there still are some intriguing names on our rolls. I am hoping that some day the Penguins’ Coaches start promoting and giving out playing time to players whose body of work on the ice has earned their TOI, rather than offering contracts to friends of the coaching staff (Dominik Simon)