Penguins re-assign forwards Nick Johnson, Mark Letestu

Penguins re-assign forwards Nick Johnson, Mark Letestu

11:15am - Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 by DePaoli

The Pittsburgh Penguins have re-assigned forwards Nick Johnson and Mark Letestu to Wilkes Barre/Scranton, the team just announced.

Johnson has appeared in six games with Pittsburgh this season, posting two points (1G-1A). He made his NHL debut and scored his first career goal against Washington Jan. 21.

Johnson spent four games on a line with Evgeni Malkin and Ruslan Fedotenko but saw limited ice time over the past games.

Letestu recorded his first career NHL goal (and point) with a score 47 seconds into Pittsburgh’s 5-4 victory over Buffalo Monday night. Letestu has also posted a plus-2 rating in five games this season for Pittsburgh.

Forward Chris Kunitz who has been sidelined since January 3rd, has been cleared to return to the lineup Saturday night.

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Comments

John.K

Hope we see Letestu back up

02/02/2010 11:24am

rkrichter

I would have no problem with Letestu being a regular on this squad, I think Johnson still needs some time though. It's a numbers game for Letestu though.

02/02/2010 11:31am

dirtmccurt

The problem is you can't have both. If you call up Letestu he either takes Staals spot, which moves Johnson to the 4th or Staal stays on the 3rd and Letestu has to play 4th line. Neither of them has any business being there so you have to pick

02/02/2010 11:34am

dirtmccurt

sorry, by there I mean 4th line**

02/02/2010 11:35am

rkrichter

I meant Johnson needs time to develop, not time on the second line.

02/02/2010 11:35am

pook9221

d, congrats. i saw your name on espn this morning

02/02/2010 11:36am

rkrichter

Really?

02/02/2010 11:38am

dirtmccurt

I wasn't bashing you richter, I was just posting my own thing

02/02/2010 11:41am

rkrichter

OK, after reading your post I thought to myself how people could take it a different way, so I wanted to clarify.

02/02/2010 11:44am

mattyv

if you run staal on line two, letetsu fits very well on line three. it makes the malkin line much more dangerous. a better line two is more important than a great line three.

02/02/2010 12:12pm

dirtmccurt

That is obviously false. Detroit and Chicago had two of the best top two lines in the league last year and we won because of our 3 line system (none of which were particularly outstanding)

02/02/2010 12:15pm

depaoli

don't take this the wrong way, the Cooke-Staal-Kennedy unit was instrumental in the Penguins success last season but they were a combined minus-8 in the playoffs, led by Staal minus-5, Cooke-minus 2, and Kennedy minus-1. I remember writing this, after the Washington series that their combined plus/minus was in the teens' (minus).

02/02/2010 12:42pm

jeffed

I remember that D, they are a tad over rated together I guess. They just seem to work well together IMO. I can live with Staal on the 2nd line and Letestu up on the 3rd, prob. won't happen though.

02/02/2010 12:44pm

jeffed

So when we get Kunitz back this Saturday we call do we call up Letestu to center third line, put Fedo back on second line with Staal and Malkin, go with Sid/Guerin/Kunitz first line, and Dupuis is bumped back to fourth line. I think the Pens will make a move this week. A lot of time for Shero in between games. I think as D pointed out last night Fedotenko is a liability now more than anything so maybe we move him just to free up cap room for a bigger move later this year. I can't see him being part of a deal that brings in a significant piece anyway.

02/02/2010 12:48pm

mwalluk

Kunitz-STaal-Malkin would be sick. PLus Staal has good chemistry with both

02/02/2010 1:06pm

jeffed

Either way with Kunitz coming back Fedotenko will keep taking any top six minutes that are available because he can't be used in a fourth line role like Dupuis can.

02/02/2010 1:22pm

dirtmccurt

Hey I don't care what we're doing as long as we win, but I will say, you can't really put much stock into +/- when you're faced against Carter-Richards, then Ovie-Backstrom-Semin, then Eric Staal and finally Zetterberg-Hossa-Datysuk etc...

02/02/2010 1:25pm

jeffed

Competition's really not a strong excuse IMO. If that's the shutdown line they should be able to actually shutdown a couple players.

02/02/2010 1:28pm

dirtmccurt

a couple? maybe you should reread the list, because it took the great red wings their five best players just to shutdown Crosby

02/02/2010 1:31pm

↑ previous comments ↑

jeffed

I don't see what your trying to say. The "shutdown" third line didn't really shut down anything in the playoffs, that's all there is to it. I understand they played good players, but not every shift, esp on the road. Their +/- numbers were miserable, no way around that.

02/02/2010 1:37pm

dirtmccurt

Did you actually watch the playoffs or are you just looking at stats. They didn't just play good players, they played elite players (Hart, Art Ross, Conn Smyth players) and not just for a couple shifts, 6 or 7 games. I don't know what fantasy world you live in to think that you're gonna keep those players off the score sheet but a combined -8 is pretty impressive

02/02/2010 1:56pm

Jeff2266

What can you really do when OV comes down and rips a wrist shot in from the point, really doesnt justify a minus for those players.

02/02/2010 2:27pm

Samtheman

keep one of those kids up and scratch fedo

02/02/2010 6:43pm

Jerkhart66

I really like Letestu, everytime he's up he fits in...he doesnt look lost out there, and hes 90% of the time in good position...I think he could fit that third line center role perfectly, if they keep Staal up wth Geno, which I like a lot also.

02/02/2010 8:19pm