In what figures to be the first of a spate of moves to maximize assets and reshape our roster, the Penguins placed recently claimed forward Matthew Phillips on waivers yesterday. If he passes through unclaimed, he’ll likely be assigned to the Baby Pens.
Claimed on waivers from the Capitals back on February 16, the diminutive (5’8” 160) winger skated in three non-descript games for the black-and-gold, including a brief cameo on Evgeni Malkin’s line. Phillips’ advanced stats were, to be kind, atrocious. A 5v5 Corsi of 29.41 and an xGF% of 19.77 despite highly favorable deployment (80 percent offensive zone starts).
I feel for the kid. He was given little-to-no time to adapt to a new team and system. It was like, “Here kid, step in and score a bunch of goals, but no pressure. And if you don’t, you’re gone.” But it is what it is. The latest in a growing list of Kyle Dubas darts to miss the board.
So You Wanna Tear it All Down?
In the wake of our sorry showing on the crucial western road trip, it would appear Dubas at last has a clear-cut direction heading into Friday’s trade deadline. This team is badly in need of an overhaul if not a full-blown teardown and rebuild.
For those advocating the latter…beware. There’s going to be plenty of pain involved and things won’t be getting better any time soon. One only needs to glimpse the Blackhawks struggles to see what lies ahead for our Pens. The once-mighty Hawks have missed the playoffs in five of the last six years…soon to be six out of seven. A significant portion of those misses were with franchise icons Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, their version of Sidney Crosby and Malkin.
Despite the presence of generational talent Connor Bedard, the Hawks are a miserable 15-42-5 this season and going nowhere. It could be years before they qualify for the postseason and longer still before they’re a Cup contender.
We need look no further than our own history to find similar examples. Despite a nucleus of young talent, it took five seasons to build a playoff team around supernova Mario Lemieux back in the 1980s. Seven to win a Stanley Cup.
More recently, the Pens cratered for four season in the early 2000s when shaky finances forced then-GM Craig Patrick to sell off stars Jaromir Jagr, Alex Kovalev and Martin Straka, to say nothing of allowing Robert Lang to walk in free agency. Leaving an aging Mario as the team’s lone superstar and drawing card.
I remember tuning into telecasts back then and losing interest after about 10 minutes of watching Matt Bradley and company mistreat the puck. It was…in a word…awful.
How awful you ask?
The ’03-04 bunch under Eddie Olczyk reeled off an NHL record 18-game losing streak. That’s how awful.
Mercifully for Mario, the franchise and us fans, our timing to be bad was good. For four years running starting in 2003 we had the first or second overall pick in the draft, in the process laying the foundation for the Cup winners to come. Marc-Andre Fleury, Geno, Sid and Jordan Staal.
Patrick and head scout Greg Malone drafted brilliantly, something in hindsight they didn’t receive nearly enough credit for. Restocking a barren prospect cupboard (sound familiar?) in a remarkably short span of time, Patrick picks included Rob Scuderi (’98), Ryan Malone and Sebastien Caron (’99), Brooks Orpik and Michel Ouellet (’00), Colby Armstrong (’01), Ryan Whitney, Erik Christensen and Max Talbot (’02), Paul Bissonnette (’03), Tyler Kennedy and Alex Goligoski (’04) and Kris Letang (’05). And, of course, Flower (’03), Geno (’04) and the pièce de résistance, Sid (’05).
Patrick’s successor, Ray Shero, added Staal with the second overall pick in ’06.
That’s an incredible amount of draft hits in a relatively short time frame. We’d be extremely fortunate to do half that well today. And there’s no guarantee there’ll be a Flower, Geno or Sid waiting to be plucked from the vine when it’s our turn to pick.
So be careful what you wish for.
You Can’t Make This Stuff Up
This morning PP colleague Caleb DiNatale brought an interesting news flash to my attention. Alex Nylander, recently traded, has been on a heater for the Blue Jackets.
The former eighth overall pick has tallied four goals and six points in five games for the CBJ, including a power-play goal and a game winner.
On the Pens’ side of the ledger, Emil Bemström has a goal in five games.
Perhaps another indictment of coach Mike Sullivan and the way he ‘develops’ kids. Indeed, something about his ways and system seem to strangle young talent, especially mid-range players whose trajectory could go either way.
It just reinforces the need to make a clean break with Sully at season’s end.
Hey Rick
I certainly do not wish for the Penguins to go thru the mess that you write about pre Mario days or pre Crosby days either. But we must start the rebuild/retool because if you don’t, nothing will change. The rest of the league will get better and we will continue to get older and slower and continue to lose..Your article is based on fear. Scare the fans into supporting the team,support the core when we can see what is happening. All 32 NHL teams face the same fate.
What makes us any different ?
You think Sid will resign a 2 year extension if he knows he will not be in the play offs ? Not a chance…So my vote is, as it always has been let’s get started..
I thank you for the reference to my old high school friend Greg Malone and his role in drafting the pieces needed to support the stars in their quest for Lord Stanley’s mug..
If I may add in my rant, I also think Besides Jake, that Smith, Rust if we can,PO Joseph, Graves, and possibly Jarry if we can get a good return also need to be traded by Friday. Get a new Coach in the off season and name a full time GM as well.
Great article as always my friend.. Be safe..
Cheers
JIM.
..
Rick
Quick comment on the Rempe / Reaves fight. Rempe will go with anyone and I respect that but
Reaves still showed why he’s the best fighter in the league – he dropped some bombs.
Hey Rick,
I wish more than anyone could know that you and many of the rose-colored glass set of PenguinPoop could have said to me, over these last 6 season, I told you so, when for season after season I pointed out almost every error before it happened that has led this team to its current pathetic state. Many people during that time even said they would welcome the flat line that is now almost here; that somehow there is no escape from the agonal breath emanating from this soon to be corpse; there is nothing anyone could have done to prevent the fall from grace all teams under go.
Although it may be true that every team faces this same problem, but I assure you, everything now transpiring didn’t have to come to pass. It never HAS to come to pass. The Hawks and Kings you mention earlier, this incarnation of the pens, the Mario era Pens, the Wings, they all tumbled due to their own hubris; their intractable pride and arrogance was their undoing.
In the fullness of their pride, fear of losing and desperation for one last Cup run, ruined every one of those dynasties. Fear of losing caused those teams to trade off young supporting cast talent for aging veterans who they didn’t have to teach and were known qualities (good or but more often bad). The desperation of the one last Cup run also drove the idiocy of dumping home grown products for foreign mercenaries with no love of the sweater.
Here in Pgh the One last Cup run mantra has been reverberating for 6 seasons; what a ridiculous excuse for stupidity. Had just once over these last 6 season, particularly the first or second of these years of futility, the organization had gotten smart and retooled we would not be having this conversation, we would have already had a couple more serious runs and still one or two more.
Furthermore, if the team would put its pride aside and take an honest look at the problems, they would see that the Coach is a large portion of the team’s ailment. Unfortunately, FSG, Dubas, Hextall, JR, the media, and even many fans (albeit a shrinking number of) are still willing to die on the Sullivan hill.
Hindsight is 20/20 but many fans, including yours truly and our friend Jim from up north of the border sounded warning alarms; for us it was foresight.
Hey Other Rick,
Yes my friend, I can attest that you’ve banged the drum of reason all along. If I’m reading the tea leaves correctly, I believe JR wanted to start a retool on the fly back in 2021 and was prevented from exploring a Kris Letang trade by David Morehouse. Which led to his abrupt resignation.
I believe Hextall was hired in part because he agreed to keep the core together. At least until Morehouse was squeezed out.
But any way you slice it, you’re absolutely right…in hindsight it would’ve been much more prudent to do a retool on the go. The Kings and Rangers have chosen that path and have been rewarded with a resurgence. On the flip side, we’ve followed the same course as the Red Wings and Blackhawks. The Wings haven’t made the playoffs for seven years, the Hawks (including this season) six out of seven.
It isn’t hard to envision the same bleak scenario awaiting our Pens.
Rick
Rick
Lol – i just commented on this in your previous blog. Sullivan system doesn’t only strangle
our young players it restricts both our 3rd and 4th lines and really the entire lineup. His
system worked when Crosby and Malkin were young enough to take a game over but those
day’s are gone, especially for Malkin. Speaking of Malkin the Pen’s really need to have a sit
down with him and see if he’s open to playing for a contender. Against Edmonton Malkin
and an Oiler player who was 4 or 5 strides behind him went for a loose puck and I never
thought he was going to get there – he looked like he was running in place “Lord”.
On another subject I read that the Pen’s think highly of Rust and will not look to move him
during the trade deadline. IMO, that’s a huge mistake – I like Rust but in his 10yr career he’s
never played a full season “he’s injury prone” and IMO his production hasn’t been all that
great. If you throw out his 2 worst seasons, and two best seasons he averaging 17.4 goals
per game and 38pts a year while playing the majority of the time on one of our top 2 lines
and on our #1 PP unit. I just don’t see it !! I know he brings intangible things to the table but
this is the same mistake the Pen’s made on previous players. He’s making 6 million per season,
and he’ll turn 32 in May.
I look forward to your feedback
Hey Mike,
Along the same lines as your comments, Caleb had some interesting thoughts. He thinks Sullivan’s system, along with his quick hook when supporting players slump or make mistakes, serves to discourage their development.
When you look at guys like Blueger, Lafferty and Aston-Reese that certainly would seem to be the case. All came into the league with a certain amount of offensive chops. All regressed offensively to the degree that their offensive contributions totally dried up. All have bounced back after leaving the ‘Burgh (ZAR had 10 goals last season with the Leafs).
I’ve gotta think Sully and his system have at least something to do with it.
Rick