The Best of HF: Rights and Wrongs

[DegenX]

The big minus for this board: Ehrhoff. And the entirety of last season pretty much. Change for the sake of change is not usually enough.

I was against the Ehrhoff signing. It didn't matter to me that he was signed for what was considered 'cheap' at the time. My point was that we already had Maatta, Letang, Martin and Scuderi and needed to give playing time to Despres as well as the other kids that were in the pipeline. I said at the time that cap space would be better spent shoring up our forward group.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

I was against the Ehrhoff signing. It didn't matter to me that he was signed for what was considered 'cheap' at the time. My point was that we already had Maatta, Letang, Martin and Scuderi and needed to give playing time to Despres as well as the other kids that were in the pipeline. I said at the time that cap space would be better spent shoring up our forward group.

Ditto.

 

[plaidchuck]

I was against the Ehrhoff signing. It didn't matter to me that he was signed for what was considered 'cheap' at the time. My point was that we already had Maatta, Letang, Martin and Scuderi and needed to give playing time to Despres as well as the other kids that were in the pipeline. I said at the time that cap space would be better spent shoring up our forward group.

I thought he would be more useful but knew they would never take letang off the top pp which made it a pretty pointless signing.

 

[WayneSid9987]

I dunno about Letang. Everyone said he would get smarter with age.. and yet he still has a 10 cent brain and can't run a pp, yet they have to have him run it because of his price tag.

Agreed.

At this point, the Pens really need a #2 or a D-Man so good that you could call Letang a #2 on this team to really be considered a Cup threat again imo.

 

[plaidchuck]

Agreed.

At this point, the Pens really need a #2 or a D-Man so good that you could call Letang a #2 on this team to really be considered a Cup threat again imo.

Exactly. He'll absolutely create goals for you and win you some games, but he's just as likely to lose you a game. That kind of player cant be your #1 D.

 

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

- Ehrhoff; Thought he'd be good, and figured his signing would mean the Pens would actually move an expiring contract for something instead of losing a player for nothing again (Martin).
- Scuderi; Wasn't super excited about the signing, but I thought he would provide the safety valve for Letang to be able to play the game on instincts and take the next step offensively a la Doughty.
- Fleury; Didn't think he'd be able to turn it around after several years of abysmal playoff outings and a dozen blooper reel goals against. Kudos to Fleury and Bales for righting the ship in a huge way.
- Sid+Kessel; Thought they'd be out of this world, despite the blueline's inability to get the puck and get it to the forwards to attack. Figured they'd each have like 10pts by now. Woops.
= Letang; I still this his contract is ridiculous. The guy is atrocious on the PP, is crazy injury-prone, and has the hockey IQ of a bag of pucks.

 

[WayneSid9987]

I liked the Erhoff deal cuz i was sure we'd trade a defender in that scenario for a piece up front.

Then the injuries hit and Despres wasn't in the Pens' plans at all.

I really didn't think Domoulin had quick enough decision making for the NHL. He made great strides last year. He could always skate. Just needed the brain to match it. Pleasantly wrong there.

 

[plaidchuck]

I thought harrington, morrow, and pouliot would be sure things in the nhl. The Great rock and.roll swindle from shero right there.

 

[joeyjake5]

I thought harrington, morrow, and pouliot would be sure things in the nhl. The Great rock and.roll swindle from shero right there.

Concur, all 3 coming out of junior were good to excellent prospects. However, when they went to W-B they digressed. Maybe its what's going on in W-B is to blame.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

I thought harrington, morrow, and pouliot would be sure things in the nhl. The Great rock and.roll swindle from shero right there.

I dunno how far off you are there.

Are these guys no longer NHL prospects in your opinion?

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Morrow seems genuinely underwhelming, but it's too soon to make definitive statements about Harrington and Pouliot.

WBS under Hynes was definitely not the problem when it came to prospects.

But everyone who hammered Shero's drafting strategy has been vindicated regardless.

 

[plaidchuck]

I dunno how far off you are there.

Are these guys no longer NHL prospects in your opinion?

Pouliot sure, but for those other guys, when you start pushing 23 and have been nothing but an emergency call up at that point, I start to have my doubts.

 

[Al Smith]

Pouliot sure, but for those other guys, when you start pushing 23 and have been nothing but an emergency call up at that point, I start to have my doubts.

I think Harrington will be fine, a steady bottom pair or maybe even a #4. Morrow - may be headed toward AHL-journeyman status. Pouliot - still too early to tell.

Frankly, pushing 23 is still young for a D-man. I'd say more like 26/27 is where you can tell a dude just isn't going to make it as an NHL regular.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

Pouliot sure, but for those other guys, when you start pushing 23 and have been nothing but an emergency call up at that point, I start to have my doubts.

I think Harrington deserved to play more last year and has a very bright future ahead of him.

Morrow's moved around and underwhelmed, but all 3 are still good shots to be regular NHLers, anyway.

 

[Boocock]

+ I was never impressed with Caputi.
+ I knew the Pens weren't going all the way in 2010 (it's always a bad sign when the city of Pittsburgh is blindly optimistic about a team).

= I liked Bortuzzo.

- I was a Tangradi guy.
- I looked at Lovejoy's AHL numbers and thought he'd be a solid d-man moving forward.
- I liked Jeffrey (injury killed his skating).
- I was a Kennedy fan.
- Matt Niskanen was "Riskanen" on the bottom pairing to me in 2010-11.

 

[plaidchuck]

Eh no shame in liking Kennedy when he was on that effective third line. It was Shero's decision to give him a contract instead of Jagr that was the issue.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I hated it, but I've not been a fan of Scuderi's, ever. Even during the 2009 Cup run I thought he was adequate at best and if it hadn't been for that one blocked shot, he'd be playing in Japan right now.

Yup. I was mad at the time, too. Scuderi was always badly overrated and achieved his hero status for that block and his adequate work with Gill on that shutdown pairing. Good for him. But it shouldn't have merited another long term contract YEARS later.

Some might call this premature, but it's comforting for me to see that Hornqvist and Malkin looked as uncomfortable together as ever this year, and that its now reflected in their production.

We all saw it last year too, but some bought in to the stats that suggested they were better together than Sid and Hornqvist. Good to know the eye test still has some merit.

Yup. It really only takes watching these guys together out on the ice for a few games to get a feel for if they will or won't naturally get along as linemates. It isn't that complicated. I'm always a little taken aback when people TRY to make it complicated.

I agree with you on the Toews thing, too. And was never satisfied with that pick. Or another made in the top ten more recently. Though that deserves a bit more time.

As for me... I've gotten lots of stuff right. But soooooo much stuff wrong. I thought Koltsov was going to be a team savior, at one point (though I always hated Fata), I thought Tarnstrom was the real deal (at least within a second pairing offensive guy), I thought Ramzi Abid had powerforward potential, I thought Fleury was a big problem (after years of defending him), I thought Goligoski was this team's future powerplay QB (I'd still prefer him over the current one), I thought Johnston sounded very promising.

So much wrong. But to my credit... the stuff I nail I TYPICALLY don't rub in. And indeed usually even forget about.

 

[Zen Arcade]

I've never been overly impressed with Joe Morrow since seeing him break in as a pro with WBS.

He played like he was the only player on the ice and pretty much just did whatever he was going to do regardless of the situation and the system. I'll never forget the game against Binghampton where WBS had a 3-0 lead going into the third and ended up losing either 4 or 5-3, Morrow was almost directly responsible for at least 3 of the goals they gave up. On the game tying goal he had the puck in his own zone and did a no look, spinorama backhand pass right into the slot and onto the tape of a Senator who one timed it in. Even Tom Grace couldn't polish that turd.

Watching him play with Providence and Boston, I can't see any strides he's made in his game. We rightfully piss and moan about the team's bizarre attitude of "breaking down and rebuilding" a player's game under Shero/Bylsma, but Morrow really did need to step back and change the way he was playing coming out of junior and he's either unwilling or unable to do so.

That doesn't mean they shouldn't have gotten better value when they moved him, but I don't see him ever being more than a fringe #6 power play specialist.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

It was a miserable pick one way or the other.

What does it say about your scouting when you pick a guy with your first rounder and then immediately say "Yeah... we're gonna need to completely rebuild this guy to make him an NHLer."

!!!

Maybe, uh... don't pick that guy to begin with? Crazy, I know...

 

[bambamcam4ever]

I've never been overly impressed with Joe Morrow since seeing him break in as a pro with WBS.

He played like he was the only player on the ice and pretty much just did whatever he was going to do regardless of the situation and the system. I'll never forget the game against Binghampton where WBS had a 3-0 lead going into the third and ended up losing either 4 or 5-3, Morrow was almost directly responsible for at least 3 of the goals they gave up. On the game tying goal he had the puck in his own zone and did a no look, spinorama backhand pass right into the slot and onto the tape of a Senator who one timed it in. Even Tom Grace couldn't polish that turd.

Watching him play with Providence and Boston, I can't see any strides he's made in his game. We rightfully piss and moan about the team's bizarre attitude of "breaking down and rebuilding" a player's game under Shero/Bylsma, but Morrow really did need to step back and change the way he was playing coming out of junior and he's either unwilling or unable to do so.

That doesn't mean they shouldn't have gotten better value when they moved him, but I don't see him ever being more than a fringe #6 power play specialist.

I don't want to name names, but there were a number of posters who wanted to see Morrow in the NHL as an 18 or 19 year old.

 

[Zen Arcade]

It was a miserable pick one way or the other.

What does it say about your scouting when you pick a guy with your first rounder and then immediately say "Yeah... we're gonna need to completely rebuild this guy to make him an NHLer."

!!!

Maybe, uh... don't pick that guy to begin with? Crazy, I know...

Yeah, it was bad asset management from the get go.

I don't want to name names, but there were a number of posters who wanted to see Morrow in the NHL as an 18 or 19 year old.

That's every prospect though, and if you look at other team's boards it's not all that different. Hell, if Ty Loney washes out in the AHL, you'll be seeing people 5 years from now saying he never got a fair shake and talking about that rookie scrimmage hat trick he scored.