I haven’t written much in a while, other than replying to my friend Rick Buker’s posts. Finally, the team has made significant changes and there is now an air of some optimism for the future. Not knowing much about Mike Sullivan’s replacement has kept me a bit quiet, preferring to watch how things develop.
There have been a lot of things to like about first year Head Coach Dan Muse’s training camp and preseason. It is really early but several of the worst on ice issues from last season seem to have been addressed. The talent level of our Penguins’ preseason opponents was not exactly crème de la crème but there were several games when our favorite flightless fowl held their opponents to under 25 shots.
Just as important as a return to a more simplistic defense, clearly defining roles was a great jump in team morale. When I watched the team play, they appeared to be playing with passion and having fun.
Many of the prospects were also put in positions to succeed rather than fail. Furthermore, some of the prospects were consistently leaned on in critical situations.
Until Saturday, when I saw what appeared to be the final cuts, I was almost convinced that Kyle Dubas was seriously intent on trying to get back to the playoffs. Looking at the players sent down to Wilkes Barre – Scranton (WBS) and those players still remaining on the roster, I can’t help wondering if Dubas is truly intent on tanking without looking like he is trying to tank.
The worst roster decisions were made as to who to keep to tend the team’s Goal. The worst Goalie in the organization is being given the net. Tristan Jarry has consistently shown that he at best inconsistent. After nine years of NHL experience, Jarry still hasn’t shown that he knows how to play the position and at 29 years of age and several injuries, including a hip issue his athleticism that allowed him to compensate for his lack of technique is now compromised.
Jarry still squares up to the shooter’s body and not the puck, ceding 1/3 of the net to his opponent on almost every shot. He still overreacts and takes himself out of position. He still loses track of the puck, looking the wrong way. And he still roams far and wide of his post.
Backing up Jarry will be a Goalie sharing many of the same weaknesses of Jarry, Arturs Silovs. Perhaps the only reason Silovs isn’t tying Jarry for the worst Goalie in the system is that he is larger and still more athletic.
The best two Goalies in the Penguins’ organization are Joel Blomqvist and Sergei Murashov. I don’t care if they are young, they are head and shoulders above all other Goalies under contract to at least the parent club. Perhaps the only Goalie in training camp close to those two is only under contract to our Penguins affiliate in WBS, Taylor Gauthier.
If Dubas really wanted to be competitive this season, Blomqvist and Murashov would share the net.
(Remember, Murashov had to pull the team’s backside out of the fire when turnstile Jarry tried to lose to the Buffalo Sabres in the team’s final preseason game).
Sending Tristan Broz and Avery Hayes down to the WBS Penguins is the second worst roster moves.
Broz was constantly asked to do the heavy lifting. I am not sure how accurate Natural Stat Tricks numbers for the preseason were this season. Their numbers did not match up all that well with the NHL’s web site for Goals For and Against and Shots For and Against, but they list Broz as only getting 26.67% of his starts in the Offensive Zone under 5-on-5 conditions which is roughly what the eye test would leave me to believe.
Everything Broz did this preseason demanded that he be given the third line duties if this team had any hope of making the playoffs. Unfortunately, Dubas decided to send this kid down to WBS while keeping Ben Kindle on the roster, a player built to play top six rather than third line.
Hayes also did his share of heavy lifting. This “little engine that could” opened up ice for uber talented Ville Koivunen and Kindle allowing those two the room to use their talents to best affect. However, like Broz, Hayes was shown the door to WBS rather than a reward for his efforts.
The third worst roster decision was in keeping Kindle and Harrison Brunicke on the parent roster. Both Kindle and Brunicke do represent future success, however, neither of these players are better than the players ahead of them at their positions.
As I wrote above, Kindle is a top six center. However, he is not in the class of Evgeni Malkin let alone Sidney Crosby. Barring injuries to either Crosby or Malkin leaves Kindle no playing time in a position for him to succeed. In the team’s last game against the Sabres, when Crosby and Malkin occupied the top two lines, Kindle got eaten alive by a Sabres roster that finished lower than our Penguins last season. Kindle’s Assist on the opening Goal notwithstanding, the kid was underwater the rest of the game getting only limited ice time.
Keeping Kindle on the roster right now smells of a decision made above Muse to justify drafting him with the 11th pick in the draft when Kashawn Aitcheson was still on the board and this team has no, repeat no top end Left-Handed Defensemen (LHD). If this kid’s confidence gets shattered in an effort to mask a bad call by Dubas, that would be a crime. He will have allowed his ego to double down on his mistake.
Brunicke has a lot of offensive skills, but he is a defensive nightmare. He needs to learn how to defend his own zone. More importantly, and as much as I hate to say this, Matt Dumba outplayed almost all other Penguins’ defensemen (not really that hard, the team really doesn’t have a whole lot of top defensemen).
Since the rules do not permit these kids to be sent down to WBS, they need to be shipped back to their Junior teams for further development.
Lastly, Noel Acciari, Justin Brazeau, and Tommy Novak, will hurt this team but they are still stealing roster spots from players that could contribute to this team making the playoffs.
Waiving Ryan Graves may be the only move that makes any sense if Dubas really has any intention of trying to compete for a playoff spot. Perhaps the only reason he did waive Graves was that he could point to this move to veil a covert attempt to tank. Graves has become such a flash point that many people will overlook other bad moves.
The one thing I do hope for the Graves waiving is that the team doesn’t buy him out. The Jack Johnson buyout is only now clearing the books (how long ago was that?). Dubas has our Penguins with over $11 million in Cap Space. With the number of kids set to come up, that number should not really drop. Not buying him out but instead burying Graves would clear the books a lot faster.
It smells to me like Dubas is looking to tank
Playing Arm-Chair GM (one of my favorite past times and maybe many of our readers too?) If I were looking to make the playoffs (and I do think this team could if Dubas made the right calls) the roster would be
| Line | Left Wing | Center | Right Wing |
| 1 | Ville Koivunen | Sidney Crosby | Rickard Rakell |
| 2 | Anthony Mantha2 | Evgeni Malkin | Valterri Puustinen1 |
| 3 | Filip Hallander2 | Tristan Broz | Philip Tomasino |
| 4 | Blake Lizotte2 | Connor Dewar | Avery Hayes |
| Sub | Danton Heinen | Tommy Novak3 |
Notes:
| Pair | LHD1 | RHD |
| 1 | Caleb Jones | Kris Letang |
| 2 | Parker Wotherspoon | Erik Karlsson |
| 3 | Ryan Shea | Matt Dumba2 |
| Sub | Connor Clifton |
Notes:
| Starter | Sergei Murashov1 |
| Back-Up | Taylor Gauthier2 |
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Brunicke is "a defensive nightmare"?
Yeahhhh...Okay. No, actually. He absolutely isn't. Like, not even close at ALL to being a defensive nightmare/liability/not ready. He, now the 2nd camp in a row, both of which playing while still a teenager, was the teams best defenseman overall. He wasn't perfect and made mistakes, sure. But every single player (yes, even Crosby) in every single game, make a mistake. And the few that Brunicke made are ones that are going to happen to every player when they first play in the NHL. They are mistakes that come from the inexperience of playing against players at this level and can only be corrected by gaining experience. Brunicke's errors weren't due to a lack of talent, hockey IQ or panic. And his positive contribution, both in each individual game as well as the overall team, far, FAR outweighed the few times he wasn't playing at a B+ grade or better in every single facet that one could use to judge a defenseman.
Finally, why bring up Aitcheson? Like, at all? Who cares about what he's doing? Especially, who cares what he's doing IN JUNIORS? We didn't draft him, he isn't in the organization and by then stating that you suspect that the decision to keep Kindel comes from Dubas, it comes across as you having a bias against Kindel because you really, REALLY, wanted them to draft Aitcheson. Especially when you make your opinion about Kindel only making the team because Dubas ordered such to justify the pick. That really sounds like a personal bias because you completely disregard the legitimate great camp that EVERYBODY saw. A camp which was enough to legitimately put him in the discussion for an opening night roster spot. You also make the Dubas claim with not only any proof. Not only any evidence at all that MIGHT become proof...but you don't even have any HINT of any evidence! And yet you give this as potential reasoning for Kindel's spot while refusing to even acknowledge anything good about his overall play in camp?
Then you bring up Aitcheson?
I guess you had to come up with something to defend your opinion about Kindel being a really bad pick at his spot. Or about how you really wanted Aitcheson at #11. The thing being that when the terrible pick is on an NHL roster while the guy you wanted, that they "clearly should have picked" is back in juniors, it kind of shuts the door on that argument with a rather loud and emphatic SLAM! So, when one out performs the other, and does so quite clearly, are you going to be so stubborn to actually see only what he doesn't bring to the team or acknowledge how much positive he did in camp and the games? So stubborn that you blatantly ignore that he was did enough good things that he actually earned his right for being one of the final forwards to make the team? Especially in the absence of Rust? And even worse than acting as if none of that happened, or that he played far below the level of being a legit consideration is having to justify his roster spot with some outlandish, conspiracy nut theory that has no hint of rationale or reality. Kindel might not be ready for the NHL. Based on size alone, it would be prudent for him to gain 20 pounds or so. He definitely has areas where he can grow in individual areas of skill. Other areas are NHL ready easily. But dude isn't a finished product. At 18 years old, of course he isn't. Nor does he have to be. And guess what? To play in the league, he doesn't have to be complete, perfect, or already be the finished product. Nobody is. He has to be good enough to be one of a teams top 13 or 14 forwards. And to do that, he has to earn that by consistently playing well enough to earn that shot. And absolutely, he was in that range of 11-15. And ABSOLUTELY, he earned that spot. He did so with his overall camp performance. By not acknowledging that as reality, or even a possibility while suggesting some conspiracy theory that has no hint of belonging in the realm of reality just seems petty. To follow it up by talking about the great stats of some guy who WASN'T drafted by the Penguins, isn't in the organization and, oh yeah... ISN'T EVEN IN THE NHL...it's just, wow. It's disingenuous. Our guy=handed his spot. Other guy=WOW look at his stats. Reality is Kindel making the team as an 18 year old shows he has something special about him as it's extremely rare for a guy outside of the top picks to debut in his draft+1 year. And that argument alone holds more significance, carries more weight and is easily the best argument for drafting him over K.A. being the right call. Or at least showing that K.A. wasn't the OMG, obvious type choice that you're acting like it was. Doesn't matter how many stats you point out in order to keep clinging to this opinion. Nor how outlandish the reasoning you will accept for Kindel making the opening night roster. Because the reality is that Kindel IS in the NHL. At 18. And K.A. isn't. His stats are in the WHL. A whole TWO or THREE leagues below the level that Kindel is and has earned the right to be. All on his own merit.
Snail,
Pointing out that the only players to not be waived or sent down to either their junior team or WBS were players drafted or signed by Dubas is not conspiracy theory it is a fact. Furthermore, the term conspiracy theorist is the modern word for witch. It is a term people with limited intellect use against others to try and silence or otherwise marginalize the opposing voice.
The mark of a good supervisor at any level is to be able to treat all personnel equally, those the supervisor hired as well as the personnel they inherited. There is no evidence whatsoever that Dubas is given inherited players equal opportunity. Outside of well-established veterans the rest of the roster is made up of trades, UFAs and draft picks initiated by Dubas. Not a single prospect not brought in by Dubas, despite the kudos lauded on several of them, are on the roster.
It is past time for you to go back to the kiddie table where rude behavior and petulance is the watch word. When you are ready to be an adult and enter into civilized discourse, please, by all means, try and rejoin the grown-ups.
Snail,
Kindle was drafted to be a top six forward. He played all but one game in the preseason as a top six forward. He was given a real talented winger in Ville Koivunen and an overachieving workhorse Winger in Avery Hayes. In the last preseason game, he was relegated to third line (and rightly so – he isn’t better than Crosby and Malkin). In the second and third period, Kindle got eaten alive playing third line and then benched.
Now, I understand that you are one of those people that think that no one is allowed to have an opinion other than yours. And you get your opinions from reading that propaganda issued from the team’s publicity department. However, in the real world, playing Kindle on the third line is putting the kid In a position to fail. Sitting the kid on the bench is putting the kid in a position to fail. Sending the kid back to his junior team and putting him in a position to develop.
Snail,
I suppose if you are unable to actually read at all that looking up results of playing time is well beyond your skill set. Therefore, spoon feeding you is once again indicated. Brunicke’s Team Goals Against per 60 minutes (GA/60) during 5-on-5 situations was 2.76 this preseason (and the opponents were weak). As a team, the Penguins’ GA/60 5-on-5 was 1.88 (as it should have been against weak talent). Brunicke’s numbers were almost a full GA/60 above the team average. Now this is basic math, if you are almost a full goal above the team average, you are a defensive nightmare. This is called logic. It may not agree with your limited view of things, but it is real and tangible – not the opinion of a neophyte.
Snail,
I usually reserve my poisoned pen for those individuals who get paid obscene amounts of money for a job that they end up doing poorly. However, given your propensity for bellicose behaviors, indicating a serious lack of understanding of the concept of civilized discourse, I will be a mirror for you that your reflection may demonstrate how you appear – that is if your ego permits you an honest look.
- First: You picked the perfect moniker to hide behind this time, Snail; it matches your wit.
- Second: Why did I bring up Kashawn Aitcheson? Your question reminds me of Ben Stiller’s portrayal of the vapid Zoolander, in St. Adonis Cemetery asking, “Why male models”, after David Duchovny just engaged in that exposition. That is okay though, I will spoon feed those who read at a second-grade level. In the body of my text I explained that the left side of our Penguins defense is seriously lacking talent. The lack of talent on the left side is an indication that position is in a greater need for a replacement than Center.
- Third: You displayed your inability to read above the second-grade level once again Please type Aitcheson’s name in again on Google – that is A I T C H E S O N. You will see that he is not playing in the WHL but the OHL.
- The Islanders drafted Matthew Schaefer with the overall number one pick this past off season, that is why Aitcheson is back in the Juniors. Their team opted to only expose the overall number one pick to the rigors of the adult league, rather than risk playing two kids on their left side of defense.
Hey Other Rick,
First, welcome back to the writing side, my friend! You are missed when you take your sabbaticals, which I well know are driven in part by an uber-busy schedule. Whether we agree or not, I always find you an entertaining and informative read and look forward to your opinions.
I, too, am disappointed that we weren't able to find room for Broz and Hayes (the Avery variety) as well as Murashov. Regarding the latter and your opinion of Jarry's abilities, I wholeheartedly agree. I've been texting quite a bit with Caleb the past couple of days, and one of my chief laments is that he'll undercut any chance of success we might have, much as he did in the most recent game against Buffalo and in the first half of last season. Nothing lets the wind out of a team's sails quicker than a soft goal or two against, especially when as a group you've worked so hard to gain a lead.
Jarry just appears old and slow to me...perhaps the result of wear and tear and those wonky hips as you suggest.
As for Broz? I think it's an unfortunate confluence of him not requiring waivers to be sent down (as Hallander does), coupled with some exceptional performances by Kindel (the last game notwithstanding) and a love affair with Noel Acciari (perhaps unreasoned) as a penalty killer. I actually think that was one of the underlying reasons behind the decision...our brass believes Acciari would be more effective on the PK than Broz, at least at this stage.
As for Hayes, I truly wish Dubas hadn't loaded up with guys like Mantha and Brazeau (and Novak going back to last season), to say nothing of Danton Heinen and Hayes (Kevin). You can argue that Dubas may not have known what he had in Broz and Hayes (Avery) and didn't want to strip things down too much. As I mentioned in an earlier post, rebuilds aren't necessarily an exact science and there is bound to be some overlapping and colliding between the old and new.
Unless he absolutely dazzles, I fully expect Kindel to be sent back to junior after a nine-game trial. I don't think the rest of the roster is set in concrete, either. Bottom line...I think Broz and the good Hayes will be back in the not-too-distant future.
Rick
Rick
Did you notice that the only prospects to survive the final cuts were players that Dubas drafted? Despite Briz, Murashiv, and Blomqvist (though he is injured) outplaying the veterans infront of them, they were sent down. Despite the nightmare that is the Penguins defense and the off season hype about him, Pickering was sent down.
On the flip side, Despite not having the skill set for 3rd line Center, Kindle is still on the team, because Dubas drafted him. Despite not knowing what the 7734 to do in his own zone Brunicke is still on the team because Dubas drafted him. Despite being only marginally better than the turnstile Jarry who Dubas signed to a ridiculous contract, Silovs is still on the team because Dubas traded for him.
Thanks Rick,
We don't always agree but we are usually pretty close. And we don't have to agree on everything.
I don't doubt that many of the irregularities of this roster will be rectified. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening until the team is in the middle of the league, not in the playoffs, nor low enough to get a top 5 pick. Worse they could tank and still not get McKenna.
As I wrote, I see Kindle still on this roster in an attempt to justify picking him while ignoring the more pressing need of an LHD. Furthermore, I see the keeping of Brazeau, Novak, and Aciarri, on this roster due to Dubas' ego. He wastes so much of the team's assets on low end reclamation projects. If I had the time to do an analysis, I would not be surprised that there is a greater probability of a 7th round draft pick making the NHL than a reclamation project panning out.
Furthermore, I also do not exclude a passive/aggressive attempt to tank, only giving lip service to the idea of trying to compete. Pretty much everything he has done to date can be explained as an attempt to strip this team down completely and rebuild with only Dubas players on the roster.