actually the guy that could have mitigated all this was Tochett, he was kinda the guy who could buffer the players from Sullivan, Recchi is just an idiot behind the bench. I'm still steamed because this was the ONLY prospect in the pipeline who could possibly be a top line goal scorer. We traded away a potential unicorn for what might be a #4 defensemen by most accounts. Penguins do have a track record of reclaiming and developing defensemen so we'll see with Pettersson.
Now you guys did take on some risk with this because he might bust. But I've been watching hockey a long time, this kid has shown flashes of elite talent, he's also been a leading scorer in every league he's played in. Sullivan would literally bench him if he made ANY mistake for the rest of a game, he'd also bench him if they team got behind, even if he was playing just fine in that game. I think Sprong is going to have something to prove, I like the story behind him on how his family picked up and moved from Holland to Canada to give him a chance in hockey. He has followed a non traditional path, and I personally think he will become a top 6 winger, but won't really know for a bit yet. His development was also hurt because he only got 1 year of pro hockey before this year, due to mismanagment and burning his first year of his ELC.