Penguins Qualify Five: Pass on Poehling

The Penguins extended qualifying offers to five restricted free agents today, including two who opted to sign with teams in their native Sweden for the coming season.

We retained the rights to forwards Drew O’Connor, Jonathan Gruden and Filip Hållander, defenseman Ty Smith and goalie Filip Lindberg.

Acting GM Kyle Dubas did not tender an offer to Ryan Poehling. A little bit of a surprise, given that the 24-year-old forward clocked the fastest in-game speed in the NHL last season at a brisk 24.32 MPH. And we know how much coach Mike Sullivan covets speed.

Then again…

My two cents. I wasn’t all that impressed with Poehling. Yes, he brought some size (6’2” 196), speed and youth to the mix. But, to my eye, his hands were suspect and he didn’t seem to have a whole lot of compete in him when it came to battling for loose pucks and using his frame to play a physical game. He was just kind of there. An impression that seemed to be supported by his metrics, which were almost uniformly poor.

In fairness to the kid, he suffered a shoulder injury against the Rangers on December 20, that caused him to miss a significant chunk of time and plagued him even after he returned.

However, poor metrics are nothing new to Poehling. Glancing at his JFresh chart entering the season, he was well in the red in most categories compared to other fourth liners. His overall WAR…11 percent. Well below replacement level.

As for his boxcars, he tallied seven goals (including two shorties) and 14 points in 53 games for us in last season, to go with a minus-2 and a 45.3 percent success rate on faceoffs.

It’s possible Dubas declined to qualify Poehing due to arbitration rights and may attempt to sign the versatile forward as a bargain basement UFA. But it wouldn’t break my heart if we moved on from Ryan.

The Pens also non-tendered minor-league defensemen Colin Swoyer, Josh Maniscalco and Peter DiLiberatore (acquired in the Teddy Blueger deal).