I wonder about this. If Pouliot turns into a top four defenseman as we drafted him to be, I think you can make the argument regardless of who was drafted at that position the Pens would've probably not developed that.
Part of Pooh not succeeding here was managerial moves with him and not letting him find any consistency. He showed flashes of being a top four defenseman in 15-16 and then we brought in Schultz and he basically didn't play for a month, played two playoff games looked good in one and made a mistake in the other and didn't see any consistency the rest of his time here.
Obviously, who cares? We won two cups, but I don't think Pouliot's lack of development in Pittsburgh was all on him.
That being said, it has been ten games. I could see Vancouver doing the same exact thing to him once their D is healthy.
If we didn't sign Hunwick, I'm sure we would've held onto Pouliot. Which makes the Hunwick deal kind of frustrating in my eyes, but also sometimes players just need a change.
Nope, Poo' isn't coming out of the line up.
Are you kidding? A trade happens where Benning finally doesn't look like Ned Beatty in Deliverance and you think the guy is coming out of the line up?
Poo' is a fine NHL D-man, and I expect as he regains his confidence he'll get significantly better
But right now today, he's more than good enough, doesn't make mistakes and is always involved in the play at both ends, but at the same time, doesn't look like he's chasing the play, his involvement is very natural, that combination of factors tells me a MAJOR break out is coming offensively.
Sometimes teams nominate a whipping boy, they want to BREAK that player, I have no idea why, but it happens all over
To a degree, Jake Virtanen is the guy in Vancouver, his play has developed to the point where I am 100% sure if they played him like Boesser and Horvat he would have similar point totals. But no, he embarrassed Benning, so they give him 4th line minutes and bench him every chance they get.
Some teams are just resentful of young talent, and I believe the Canucks (Travis Green in particular)
He attempted to put the brakes on Boesser to start the year, but Boesser forced their hand
But hey, listen, do you want some revenge on us for the Poo' deal?
Get Jordan Subban from us, he's been BURIED in the AHL despite being an all-star offensive defenseman and dynamic NHL ready talent, (The reason has to do with his brother I believe) but despite our defense being stripped to the bone every year this guy has not been given A SINGLE NHL GAME. Talentless plugs are called up and played ahead of him, while he's led the AHL team in scoring, its bizarre, management propaganda is that he cannot play defense, not at all, has no clue about the position he plays for a living (This is from a team who ices Eric Gudbransson)
Anyway, management is 100% full of s**t and have been holding him down for years intentionally,
If you could get Benning to give him to you, you could slot him right into your line-up and he'd out score Poo' this year.