Prospect Info: Penguins #20 prospect

[Burgs]

Jan Drozg takes 19th place and thus becomes our first ever Slovenian in the poll. Added Nailers goalie Sean Maguire due to sudden popular demand. And also Dane Birks, of the reigning WCHA champions, so this year will have featured every single prospect we have. Well, technically, we hold Blaine Byron's rights for another day, but...

Results so far (and change from last year):
#1 Daniel Sprong (96.58%) (-)
#2 Tristan Jarry (65.65%) (+5)
#3 Zach Aston-Reese (80.19%) (new)
#4 Filip Gustavsson (58.49%) (+2)
#5 Teddy Blueger (42.00%) (+5)
#6 Zachary Lauzon (27.96% in #6 poll, 56.58% in runoff) (new)
#7 Josh Archibald (26.88% in #6 poll, 43.42% in runoff) (+6)
#8 Dominik Simon (50.59%) (-4)
#9 Adam Johnson (28.95%) (new)
#10 Frederik Tiffels (35.21%) (+5)
#11 Linus Ölund (21.54%) (new)
#12 Niclas Almari (22.58% in #12 poll, 55.81% in runoff) (new)
#13 Kasper Björkqvist (24.19% in #12 poll, 44.19% in runoff) (-5)
#14 Sam Lafferty (35.00%) (new)
#15 Lukas Bengtsson (25.49%) (-10)
#16 Clayton Phillips (32.73%) (new)
#17 Anthony Angello (32.61%) (-5)
#18 Thomas di Pauli (33.33%) (-1)
#19 Jan Drozg (34.09%) (new)

Click to read more...

 

[Shaffer]

Hall. Highest drafted player still left

 

[Pharrell Williams]

I demand you extend the poll to add Blaine Byron.

 

[KareemTrustfund]

Isn't Troy Josephs still our property as well? Not that I think he should be on the list, just curious.

Tough call between Taylor and Hall for me. Went with Taylor.

 

[Pharrell Williams]

Isn't Troy Josephs still our property as well? Not that I think he should be on the list, just curious.

Tough call between Taylor and Hall for me. Went with Taylor.

i thought this as well but looked it up and apparently he is on an AHL contract with WBS now and is no longer pittsburgh property.


also i just realized how weird calling people property is.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Technically speaking Troy Joseph isn't a Penguins prospect, but rather a prospect within the Penguins organization.

That is to say he's on an AHL deal.

 

[FreeBobbyFarnham]

William Reilly

 

[Zero Pucks]

I think everyone remaining on the list still has solid potential and reasons to be optimistic about their future careers. Voted for Masonius just so he's not left out without a vote.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

I think everyone remaining on the list still has solid potential and reasons to be optimistic about their future careers. Voted for Masonius just so he's not left out without a vote.

Usually by the time we get to the 15th or so spot I'm voting for players I think will be decent AHLers with maybe a cup of coffee in the NHL as their upside...here I think I could keep voting until 25 before I hit that standard again.

We most definitely have a shallow prospect pool in terms of potential game-breakers (at least ones likely to reach that kind of potential), but I think we're deceptively deep overall thanks to all of the 'free' prospects. The fact the scouts have given us a reason to have faith in their mid/late-round picks certainly helps, too.

 

[steelcityassault]

Usually by the time we get to the 15th or so spot I'm voting for players I think will be decent AHLers with maybe a cup of coffee in the NHL as their upside...here I think I could keep voting until 25 before I hit that standard again.

We most definitely have a shallow prospect pool in terms of potential game-breakers (at least ones likely to reach that kind of potential), but I think we're deceptively deep overall thanks to all of the 'free' prospects. The fact the scouts have given us a reason to have faith in their mid/late-round picks certainly helps, too.

Idk wasn't Sheary like 13th or something a few years ago..

 

[Peat]

I think everyone remaining on the list still has solid potential and reasons to be optimistic about their future careers. Voted for Masonius just so he's not left out without a vote.

I voted for Hall but I wish I'd voted for Masonius now, sounds very boom or bust but I'm down with that.

How far has Dea fallen in this?

edit: p.s. I feel like once you get out of can't miss territory, a lot of it has more to do with the development structure than the players' natural talent anyway.

 

[wej20]

Does anyone have a list of our past Mr Irrelevants?

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Idk wasn't Sheary like 13th or something a few years ago..

I'm the wrong person to ask about Sheary, who I thought had the same upside as J-S Dea and never considered voting for him in one of these polls

Not a knock against Dea, I just saw him as that standard 'not an NHL caliber player, but someone who could get a cup of coffee in the NHL' type...which has thusly played out about as expected. I outright did not see this kind of upside in Sheary, and to be fair I can play the ignorance card considering I don't get to see WBS much (and when I did he looked like a middle-6 AHLer) and UMass isn't a college that is ever televised nationally. Usually I can at least say I've seen a free agent prospect a couple times in their collegiate careers, but I'd never even heard of Sheary when we signed him.

edit: p.s. I feel like once you get out of can't miss territory, a lot of it has more to do with the development structure than the players' natural talent anyway.

Absolutely, which is probably a big reason why I feel the way I do. When I started out here we had the #1 prospect pool in the league (at least according to HF), filled with guys with the 'can't miss' tag...and look what that got us

 

[steelcityassault]

I'm the wrong person to ask about Sheary, who I thought had the same upside as J-S Dea and never considered voting for him in one of these polls

Don't worry, the other 29 NHL teams didn't want him either..

All I remember is when Sheary came into WB/S first day of practice, John Hynes kept saying he has an "NHL stick"

 

[wej20]

Marcantuoni edges out Murray for the 20th and final spot. That's it for this summer, thank you for participating.

The 2013 results, with changes from last year:

#1 Derrick Pouliot (+4)
#2 Olli Määttä (+5)
#3 Scott Harrington (+3)
#4 Brian Dumoulin (-1)
#5 Tristan Jarry (new)
#6 Teddy Blueger (+6)
#7 Eric Hartzell (new)
#8 Josh Archibald (+15)
#9 Scott Wilson (+9)
#10 Anton Zlobin (+9)
#11 Tom Kühnhackl (+-0)
#12 Oscar Sundqvist (+8)
#13 Jake Guentzel (new)
#14 Bryan Rust (new)
#15 Harrison Ruopp (+9)
#16 Jayson Megna (new)
#17 Dominik Uher (-4)
#18 Philip Samuelsson (new)
#19 Nick D'Agostino (-2)
#20 Matia Marcantuoni (-5)

Almost everyone profited from 8 players having left the system in the past year. Archibald made the biggest jump after his strong sophomore season. Marcantuoni fell the hardest after an injury-riddled year. Trying to build a line-up just from these 20:

Wilson - Blueger - Archibald
Kühnhackl - Guentzel - Zlobin
Megna - Sundqvist - Rust
Uher - Marcantuoni

Pouliot - Harrington
Määttä - Dumoulin
Samuelsson - Ruopp
D'Agostino

Jarry - Hartzell

Displays a great mix of different types of defensemen and has two promising goalies. And the center depth is better than in recent years. Overall though the forwards have no standout talents and generally lack size.

Am I reading this correct? that Matt Murray lost out to Macaroni for the 20th spot in 2013?

 

[Shady Machine]

Am I reading this correct? that Matt Murray lost out to Macaroni for the 20th spot in 2013?

We suck

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Am I reading this correct? that Matt Murray lost out to Macaroni for the 20th spot in 2013?

We suck

In fairness, at that point Murray was coming off a decent, but not outstanding, junior career and was only relevant because he was a 3rd round pick. Add in the fact goalies can be complete crapshoots, and it's not too surprising.

The ones we look dumber on are Guentzel and Rust not even cracking the top 10. Forwards are typically easier to project than goalies, so we should have seen the potential even at that point in those two.

 

[Winger for Hire]

Jayson Megna... oh man.

 

[chethejet]

Balancing talent, upside and need Hall has the physical makeup to be a tough stay home defender that the Pens are in short supply. Number 20.

 

[Speaking Moistly]

If only Megna hadn't been dumb af.

In fairness, at that point Murray was coming off a decent, but not outstanding, junior career and was only relevant because he was a 3rd round pick. Add in the fact goalies can be complete crapshoots, and it's not too surprising.

The ones we look dumber on are Guentzel and Rust not even cracking the top 10. Forwards are typically easier to project than goalies, so we should have seen the potential even at that point in those two.

Yeah, and that poll was right before Murray figured something out... Hartzell is still #7. Murray's prospect rankings go:

2013: Eh, he'll do nothing
2014: Middle of the road
2015: We love our future starter

His stats jumped up in his final year of juniors, go crazy in his fist season of WBS, dip a bit in his second AHL season but that doesn't matter because he goes on to win the cup. No one was going to predict that development. The track record with forwards and defensemen is worse than Murray being a massive anomaly.

 

[Allie Kitsune]

Palojärvi, because he has the most Euro name of everybody left.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

I dunno, William Reilly is pretty damn British.

 

[Allie Kitsune]

I dunno, William Reilly is pretty damn British.

I guess in a Hockey sense, I think of "Euro" as "Non-Anglo, Non-Slavic".

Shortsighted as that may be in the grander scheme.

 

[Burgs]

Connor Hall takes the last spot and thus we have our 2017 top 20 list:

Final results (and change from last year):
#1 Daniel Sprong (96.58%) (-)
#2 Tristan Jarry (65.65%) (+5)
#3 Zach Aston-Reese (80.19%) (new)
#4 Filip Gustavsson (58.49%) (+2)
#5 Teddy Blueger (42.00%) (+5)
#6 Zachary Lauzon (27.96% in #6 poll, 56.58% in runoff) (new)
#7 Josh Archibald (26.88% in #6 poll, 43.42% in runoff) (+6)
#8 Dominik Simon (50.59%) (-4)
#9 Adam Johnson (28.95%) (new)
#10 Frederik Tiffels (35.21%) (+5)
#11 Linus Ölund (21.54%) (new)
#12 Niclas Almari (22.58% in #12 poll, 55.81% in runoff) (new)
#13 Kasper Björkqvist (24.19% in #12 poll, 44.19% in runoff) (-5)
#14 Sam Lafferty (35.00%) (new)
#15 Lukas Bengtsson (25.49%) (-10)
#16 Clayton Phillips (32.73%) (new)
#17 Anthony Angello (32.61%) (-5)
#18 Thomas di Pauli (33.33%) (-1)
#19 Jan Drozg (34.09%) (new)[/QUOTE]
#20 Connor Hall (50.00%) (-9)

Biggest winner is Josh Archibald who is NHL ready and showed it this spring. Undrafted Zach Aston-Reese immediately made the top 3. Jarry, Blueger and Tiffels also improved their ranks a lot. Biggest losers are Lukas Bengtsson and Connor Hall, both of whom barely played last season due to illness or injury. JS Dea also went from 14th place to not making the list, his time as a prospect is arguably running out.

That's it for 2017. Thank you for voting and see you next year. Or at least in 5 years so we can all laugh at how wrong we were again.

 

[Corvidae]

No respect for Taylor. My goodness.