Penguins Take Jagr…er…Yager with Top Pick

I’ll confess, I’m not the most informed guy on the planet when it comes to evaluating potential draftees. My esteemed colleague, Other Rick, is much more knowledgeable than I. So you can take what I’m about to write with a grain of salt.

However, after brushing up on the Penguins’ top pick, Brayden Yager, I kind of wish we’d redrafted Jaromir Jagr instead.

Kidding…sort of.

With man-sized, physically mature talents like Matthew Wood (6’3” 190), Samuel Honzek (6’4” 186) and Quentin Musty (6’2” 200) still available, the Pens once again went small ‘n’ speedy with Yager, a 5’11” 166-pound center out of Moose Jaw in the Western League.

Actually, according to some scouting reports, Yager isn’t all that fast. So we just went small. Just the way coach Mike Sullivan likes ‘em.

Sorry if I sound disappointed. I guess I’m just weary of the Pens’ skill uber alles approach. There are other elements that go into building a competitive hockey team…size, toughness, a willingness and ability to muck it up in the dirty areas. A point driven home with the subtlety of a hammer by this year’s Cup champion Vegas.

For some reason, the Pens never seem to get the memo.

I was so hoping we’d undergo a culture shift under acting GM Kyle Dubas, and we may yet. But for now it’s SOP (Same Ol’ Pens).

Back to our pick. Yager may develop into a good pro. Then again, there seemed to be a lot of question over his potential. Some mock drafts had him listed as high as seventh overall and some as low as 30^th. That’s a helluva variance.

While he has a good shot and a shoot-first mentality, Yager regressed as a scorer in junior, dipping from 34 goals in ’21-22 to 28 last season. Nor is he regarded as an especially creative playmaker. Yager does possess a non-stop motor and wins his share of puck battles. And he plays a 200-foot game, patterned after black-and-gold captain Sidney Crosby. Still, I wonder how his lightweight frame will hold up to the rigors of NHL competition.

Again, I wish we would’ve drafted a more physically mature prospect.

Oh well. For now I’ll have to mollify myself with the thought that it couldn’t been worse. After Buffalo snagged the kid we really wanted, Winnipeg’s buzz-saw forward Zach Benson, I was convinced we’d take Gabriel Perreault, highly skilled but panned in a lot of scouting reports (including Other Rick’s).

Still, it grates on me no end that we could’ve had Wood, a big right wing out of UConn who idolizes Evgeni Malkin. Nashville grabbed him with the very next pick. (Honzek went to the Flames with the pick after that.)

If you’re keeping score at home, it’s Barry Trotz 1, Dubas 0.