Penguins/NHL
A Look at the Penguins current 23-man Roster
Forwards
Chris Kunitz – Sidney Crosby – Phil Kessel
Sergei Plotnikov – Evgeni Malkin – Patric Hornqvist
Pascal Dupuis – Nick Bonino [hide] – Daniel Sprong
Beau Bennett – Matt Cullen – David Perron
Bobby Farnham
*No real surprises on how this played out with Daniel Sprong earning a spot which was a no-brainer and Bobby Farnham staying on as the 13th forward was expected with the coaches wanting a hard nosed player as the extra forward. No other bubble players made strong pushes, aside from J.S. Dea as the likes of Scott Wilson, Bryan Rust and Conor Sheary had sub-par camps.
Defensemen
1. Kris Letang
2. Olli Maatta
3. Ian Cole
4. Rob Scuderi
5. Brian Dumoulin
6. Adam Clendening
7. Ben Lovejoy
8. Tim Erixon
*Sergei Gonchar proved he could no longer play and good on Jim Rutherford willing to hurt some feelings and realize it’s just not going to work out. The Penguins also make the smart move in letting Derrick Pouliot start the season in Wilkes Barre. The futures of Tim Erixon and Ben Lovejoy remain to be seen moving forward.
Goaltenders
1. Marc Andre Fleury
2. Jeff Zatkoff
Injured
Eric Fehr, Tom Kuhnhackl[/hide]
That first game versus the Dallas Stars should show a little bit on how well our D can move the puck under pressure because the Stars have tremendous speed and skill on offense.
lets see which dallas player will dance around Lovejoy.
I bet it’s your mom.
I love this narrative that games in October & November don’t matter and should be worried about, if not for the extremely hot start last season in October & November they would have missed the playoffs last season. Every game has a cumulative effect on he season and blowing even 1 game at the beginning of that season that they should have won could be the difference between a good matchup or a bad matchup in the playoffs or missing the playoffs all together in what should be an extremely competitive Metro Division.
The Pirates agree. The gave away some games in April and May.
Its been proven if you fall several points out of the playoff race in November there is a really good chance you’re not making the dance in April. Elliotte Friedman wrote about this a year or two ago. No need to panic in October but mid to late November is the time to start if the Pens are 5+ points out of the playoffs and looking like hot garbage.
The way this roster looks it will be first round exit. Even if they are all healthy. This team has holes and needs be fixed. This season relies on fleury and Letang to stay healthy
This is the deepest roster they’ve had in years, and even with much lesser talent, they were a threat to make it out of the first round. Quite honestly, they were a game away from the ECF with a worse roster than this. So please, just shut up, chubby.
Pens opening night roster
Kunitz-crosby-kessel
Plotnikov -malkin- horny
Dupuis -bonino -perron
Sprong -cullen -Bennett
Letang- cole
Maatta -lovejoy
Dumoulin -scuderi.
Is Byfuglin strong enough defensively for us to envy him like this?
Of course not. He’s a liability. But he hits big and has a big shot – two things that some people are obsessed with.
How about we let Dumo and Clend play about 30 games before we decide we need Buff or anybody else? They might suprise you and actually play pretty good.
I don’t have to watch either of them play a single game to know that neither will be as good as Byfuglien. He’s considered by many a top 20-25 defenseman in the league, both Dumoulin and especially Clendening may become good players but neither will every be discussed as a top defenseman in the league. Adding Byfuglien is an upgrade to the roster regardless of how well those 2 play.
We don’t beed a $6-7 million dman in October that’s going to force you to deplete your forward depth this year and next year if you choose to sign him. Let the kids play and adjust accordingly in January.
Who said anything about October? If Byfuglien gets traded it’s not going to be until closer to the deadline or not at all depending on where Winnepeg sits in the standings. All I pointed out was that the Pens roster is better with Byfuglien than with Dumoulin or Clendening regardless of how well those 2 play because neither at their max potential will be as good as Byfuglien and the Pens have been very clear that the goal is to win the Cup this year and worry about the future later.
I’m glad the GM’s shared their timeline for a Buff trade with you.
Do they even have anything left to trade for him in this market?
Gotta hand it to them – they made all of the right calls this training camp. The right guys are on the final roster.
Perron in a deal for Byfuglien
Where?
Nhl 16 or he’s saying that if pens make an offer for buff perron would be included
A team that impressed me in the preseason so far are the red wings. As for pens it was pretty much expected to have a mediocre preseason.
For those wondering how Harrington doing so far. Well he got his first point last night Vs red wings. And has only 1 point -11 and 4 pim in the preseason so far
-11? Damn!
no way -11; i looked last night and it looked like he played 3 games and was a -1 before last night.
Sorry my bad. He has one Pont the -11 comes from 14 15 season. Petari you are right. But he did have his first point last night
Harrington made the Leafs!
CB and TBJ, the draft is tomorrow at 6:30 PM eastern. The order is set
The blue line is garbage.
My biggest issue with the decisions so far isn’t Scuderi being a lock to play on the 3rd pairing but handing Dumoulin a top 4 spot he hasn’t earn and as yet to show he’s capable of handling. For as bad as Scuderi can be at times he’s a better 3rd pairing option than Dumoulin is a top 4 option. Clendening is a far better player with more upside and ha done more throughout camp to earn the spot, if they wanted to experiment and take a chance it should have stated with Clendening.
It could all be lip service too. Maybe either trying to boost dumoulin confidence or trade value. Either way, management finally seems to have an identity and direction. They needed forward depth and got that. They needed a game changer to take over when crosby malkin get shut down, they succeeded. They got rid of gonchar. They aent down pouliot. They may even try two pp. They’ll give Clending every shot to win top 4.
I’m not sure about the identity and direction part, I think they’re still throwing shyte at the wall hoping something sticks without any real long term plan. Forward depth was an issue so overload with forward depth and ignore the other areas of concern and hope that works, we can’t get our talented players to setup in the proper positions on the pp so f it we’ll try 2 units and maybe that will work. Maybe it works and maybe it doesn’t but it still feels like more PR than actual long term planning for success, fans were pissed so… Read more »
Do you really think D has the D pairings correct? I say he doesn’t. I think it will be cole and clendenning.
The listing of the defensemen 1-8 are not d-pairings. was just listing how the top-8 are viewed internally right now.
Hey d any chance perron gets moved prior to trade deadline? No way you give up a first for a fourth liner. Not to mention if sprong is able to make the team and fehr coming back. Who else was interested in perron? Might be able to get a solid top 4 def.
Thanks D. That is what I figured.
I’ve seen it listed that way from many reliable people so far, I believe Yohe was another reporter that projected Dumoulin to start on the 2nd pairing with Cole and he usually has a pretty good feel for those things becasue of his relationship with the team.
Anyone get any word on how Harrington was doing? Is he going to make the NHL lineup?
Haven’t heard much, I know kapenen was in the running for a roster spot, not sure if he still is.
Toronto star reporting he can make the roster harrington.
Gormley looks like another top 4 NHL dman given away for almost nothing.
Seems to me finding young NHL dman is more about being smart than spending high picks on them. Too many teams give up on solid prospects on defense….the development timeline is just too long for a management team to stick with a guy.
Pouliot should come back only after his WB coaches and the Pittsburgh contingent believe he can be an effective blueliner in the NHL.
He is not one now and can’t play D.
Good moves all the way around.
I don’t think Pouliot will be down there long. He’ll be up by December.
Thanks for expressing your hope. Lovejoy outplayed him by a lot is what I saw.
D good call on pouliot. you were only one for weeks saying he’d start in minors
He was also one of very few that said Gonchar would make the team
Yes he did. I could tell after one preseason game Gonchar wasn’t making this team.
That fourth line has come a long way since Vitale-Adams-Glass.
So true. That group was tragic. Good job Ray!
In all fairness to RS, that was the type of 4th line many of the fan were drooling over. Many raved about the grit and toughness they would bring and didn’t care that there are 10 year olds that brought more offensive upside. As with many of his other questionable decisions RS’s biggest mistake was giving the fans exactly what they wanted.
That is stupid then. Probably one of the reasons he lost his job. Trying to please the fans is stupid business practice.