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.
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.
| December | Po | S | Age | Team | League | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | (+/-) |
| Andonovski, Corey | RW | R | 23 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 25 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 29 | 2 |
| Ansons, Raivis | RW/LW | L | 20 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 17 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | -3 |
| Caggiula, Drake | C/LW | L | 28 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 24 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 14 | 4 |
| Frasca, Jordan | C/LW | L | 21 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | -1 |
| Frasca, Jordan | C/LW | L | 21 | Wheeling Nailers | ECHL | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Glover, Ty | C/LW | L | 22 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 13 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
| Gruden, Jonathan | LW | L | 22 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 27 | 6 | 3 | 9 | 21 | -1 |
| Hallander, Filip | LW/C | L | 22 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 24 | 7 | 15 | 22 | 6 | 13 |
| Legare, Nathan | RW | R | 21 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 28 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 19 | -2 |
| Nylander, Alexander | W/C | R | 24 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 28 | 11 | 12 | 23 | 6 | 4 |
| O’Connor, Drew | LW | L | 24 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 20 | 8 | 14 | 22 | 18 | 9 |
| Poulin, Sam | W | L | 21 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 13 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 6 | -1 |
| Puustinen, Valterri | RW/LW | R | 23 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 29 | 12 | 12 | 24 | 12 | 7 |
| Švejkovský, Lukáš | C/RW | R | 20 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 18 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 4 | -5 |
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 48th 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 22nd 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 15th 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 2nd 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.
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.
| Po | S | Age | Team | League | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | (+/-) | |
| Broz, Tristan | C | L | 20 | Univ of Denver | NCAA | 20 | 5 | 8 | 13 | 8 | 7 |
| Devlin, Luke | C | L | 18 | West Kelowna Warriors | BCHL | 27 | 4 | 14 | 18 | 11 | 0 |
| Plante, Zam | C | L | 18 | Univ of Minn-Duluth | NCAA | 15 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 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 | 20 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 6 | 6 |
| Caulfield, Judd | RW | R | 21 | Univ of North Dakota | NCAA | 19 | 7 | 2 | 9 | 10 | 7 |
| Bjorkqvist, Kasper | W | L | 25 | Kärpät | Liiga | 24 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 33 | 3 |
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 203rd 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.
| December | Po | S | Age | Team | League | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | (+/-) |
| Fedun, Taylor | D | R | 34 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 27 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 3 |
| Freidman, Mark | D | R | 26 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 19 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 12 | 4 |
| Maniscalco, Joshua | D | R | 23 | Wheeling Nailers | ECHL | 27 | 8 | 17 | 25 | 38 | -1 |
| Ouellet, Xavier | D | L | 29 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 29 | 2 | 14 | 16 | 21 | 9 |
| Smith, Ty | D | L | 22 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 26 | 4 | 10 | 14 | 10 | 0 |
| St. Ivany, Jack | D | R | 23 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 20 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 0 |
| Swoyer, Colin | D | R | 24 | WBS Penguins | AHL | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| Swoyer, Colin | D | R | 24 | Wheeling Nailers | ECHL | 6 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
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 70th in the QMJL in scoring and his +15 is 23rd.
This past summer’s 1st 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 112th in his league: a big difference. And his +4 only comes in 124th in the +/- rating.
Sorry, that is not impressive for a 1st round pick. It looks more like a waste of our 1st, 1st round pick in a long time. It will be interesting to see how many players drafted after him will have better careers.
| Po | S | Age | Team | League | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | (+/-) | |
| Belliveau, Isaac | D | L | 19 | Gatineau Olympiques “A” | QMJHL | 24 | 5 | 20 | 25 | 16 | 15 |
| Collins, Nolan | D | R | 18 | Sudbury Wolves | OHL | 27 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 26 | -5 |
| Laatsch, Daniel | D | L | 20 | Univ Wisconsin | NCAA | 20 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | -3 |
| McCleary, Ryan | D | R | 19 | Portland Winterhawks | WHL | 31 | 7 | 10 | 17 | 21 | -4 |
| Pickering, Owen | D | L | 18 | Swift Current Broncos | WHL | 27 | 5 | 17 | 22 | 8 | 4 |
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 16th in the league among Goalies who have played 200 minutes or more, 16th.
Jarry’s partner in the net, Casey DeSmith, has a Sv% of 0.912, which ties him for 25th.
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 2nd 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.
| C | Age | Hgt | Wgt | Team | League | GP | GAA | Sv% | SO | W | L | T | |
| Gauthier, Taylor | R | 21 | 74″/188cm | 207lbs/94kg | Wheeling Nailers | ECHL | 16 | 3.1 | 0.896 | 1 | 8 | 7 | 1 |
| Gauthier, Taylor | R | 21 | 74″/188cm | 207lbs/94kg | WBS Penguins | AHL | 1 | 1 | 0.967 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Lindberg, Filip | L | 23 | 73″/185cm | 194lbs/88kg | WBS Penguins | AHL | 11 | 2.4 | 0.915 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 0 |
| Tokarski, Dustin | L | 33 | 72″/183cm | 198lbs/90kg | WBS Penguins | AHL | 18 | 2.23 | 0.926 | 1 | 8 | 6 | 3 |
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?”
| C | Age | Hgt | Wgt | Team | League | GP | GAA | Sv% | SO | W | L | T | |
| Blomqvist, Joel | L | 20 | 74″/189cm | 183lbs/83kg | Kärpät | Liiga | 20 | 2.36 | 0.903 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 8 |
| Murashov, Sergei | R | 18 | 73″/186cm | 170lbs/77kg | Loko Yaroslavl | MHL | 26 | 1.25 | 0.957 | 9 | 17 | 5 | 3 |
| Murashov, Sergei | R | 18 | 73″/186cm | 170lbs/77kg | Loko Yaroslavl-76 | MHL | 3 | 2.03 | 9.37 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Murashov, Sergei | R | 18 | 73″/186cm | 170lbs/77kg | Loko Yaroslavl | KHL | 1 | 1 | 0.947 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
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)
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View Comments
Hey Coach,
Once again you did an outstanding job of presenting the facts as they really are. There is a lot of information in this article and one needs to read and digest it all carefully. To the uninformed people will think that there is nothing wrong with the Pens farm system and that we are well off.Nothing could be farther from the truth. I agree we look better on paper than we have in a very long time, but compared to most other teams we fall way short.
Case in point Coach,today I went to Cap friendly and looked at the New York Rangers because there is much talk in the local media that New York MAY trade former First Round pick Alex Lafreniere to Montreal. Needless to say when you look at the Rangers depth charts and their deep prospects pool, I was shocked to see the number of 1st,2nd,3rd Round picks they have and where these players are coming from.A truly international draft pool of prospects. Over 20 players either in the minors or playing internationally. That has surprised me!
Of course the main point of contention as you point out is that our Penguins for all their past successes, seem not willing to promote the kids we have and let them learn the game at the NHL level. After seven years I don't see anything changing their mind set either . What sat you my friend ?
Great 1st article for 2023 !!!
Jim
Hey Jim,
Thank You. I try and stay up on the kids.
You are spot on, at first blush as Rick B likes to say, someone could think that 1st round pick Owen Pickering's 22 Pts is great but when you consider how far down the line he is in scoring in his league, he really isn't displaying any special offensive talent. Combine his pedestrian offensive numbers for his league with an equally run-of-the-mill +/- rating, the kid is not showing 1st round qualities.
True, if we compare ourselves to ourselves of past seasons, the farm system does look like it could get better, assuming the coaches in WBS and Wheeling actually take the time to finish teaching these kids the game, rather than sitting them in the Press Box until they somehow figure it out on their own. However, when comparing WBS to say the Texas Stars, they have players at the top of the AHL leaderboard, while our players are waddling downstream, so far away that if this were the precellular days, they would get hit with long-distance charges trying to phone their opposites.
Our friend Caleb has been watching the Lafrenière rumors for a couple of weeks now, hoping that GMRH goes after the kid, sort of the way he was mooning of Eichel before Jack went to Vegas. Too bad for Caleb, the Penguins don't really have any assets to go after the former 1st round pick. Lafrenière's $925K cap hit would be easily absorbed by burying any number of useless veterans in WBS. Caleb keeps telling anyone that will listen that the young Ranger is on the cusp of his breakout.
The down side to success is that management is often too blind to their own decay that they continue to horde aging veterans rather than trade them just as their stock is ready to drop to stock pile draft picks. this insane strategy only serves to keep the decaying team in a moderate position not climbing but slowly descending. In the end, GMs have traded away too many draft picks looking for that 1 veteran that they have deluded themselves into thinking will ensure their team a deep run. Unfortunately, getting that 1 veteran to push a another veteran team over the hump is as elusive as plucking a gem with your draft pick or finding a needle in a haystack. Yet GMs insist on only employing this decaying tactic.
So, it doesn't surprise me that other teams have multiple 1st, 2nd, and 3rd round picks in their systems, many of those other teams have our Nos 1, 2, and 3 draft picks in their system.
What I never stopped to think about though is what you wrote about the Rangers having such a metropolitan team Our Penguins scouts tend to stick to Canada, the US and Finland. I am going to have to look deeper at this. With so few draft picks, it may have behooved our scouting dept to look farther and wider for talent to find talent than just at the picked over sales bins that we normally scavenge.
In the end, you are right, unless the Fenway group has the wherewithal to make changes at the top, changes in post season success will not change. Even if our favorite team makes the playoffs, they are not long for them. They can rest assure their mid April Tee times are secure. If what we have been doing has worked over these last 5 or so years, probability is results remain the same - FRUSTRATION!!
Thanks for the detailed analysis Coach, I agree 100%,
By the way one other point I would like to note with you and it may effect us in making the play offs.
In looking over the standings today I noted that one team has scored 137 times in 34 games..They are 8-1-1 in their last 10 games .League leading Boston scored 138 Goals in 36 games. They have 39 points and won their last 6 games. Buffalo !!!
You heard me. I was greatly surprised. If they keep playing like this in the second half they could really compete for one of the Wild Card spots. That could be really bad news for us.
In the Atlantic Boston,Toronto and Tampa are shoo ins for the first 3 spots. In the Metro Carolina,New Jersey and probably the Rangers after a trade or 2, and or a healthy Washington as the top 3.
That leaves 4 good teams competing for 2 wild card spots.
137 Goals !!!! Buffalo.....I thought I was dreaming Coach but when you see all that talent on their Roster you see they are for real....As we said , the West is a changing....Every game counts here on in !!!
Cheers
JIM
Hey Jim,
It has been so long since Buffalo was relevant that many of us still don't think of them, but I with the way Tage Thompson is playing, people better sit up and take notice. And as you say, Thompson isn't the only young Sabre. They have been down so long that their kids are ready to take that next step. Oh they will probably choke down the stretch or in the playoffs but they can beat anyone when they are focused.