How does Pittsburgh do it?

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

30 goals lol. i remember when iginla used to score 30 halfway through the season.

When exactly?

 

[Owtahear]

Pens in my view have the best core in the NHL. Letang, Maata, Malkin, Crosby, Kessel.

However, they have a very poor bottom 6, and a very poor bottom 4 on D with a few exceptions in there.

Any injuries and this team is sunk.

And slumps, this team is sunk.

I personally hope they get into the playoffs in 16th place and get swept.

You now got a 3rd line of Sutter/Kunitz and probably Dupuis. That is a pretty damn good. And please, last year at the end, they were playing with an AHL defensive corp (and still held the Rangers to only 2 goals a game with ahem "a crappy goalie"). Don't forget Olli Matta was probably the best rookie defenseman the year before and could be a star.

Great trade by the Pens. Takes away the excuses now for Sid and Geno.

 

[Ogrezilla]

Because the refuse to shore up any other position; hence why they look great during the regular season and then fold quickly int he playoffs.

look at the series we've lost. Our biggest problem for three consecutive years has been a lack of scoring.

 

[wej20]

They have 15 players under contract and $6.4m left to sign 7-8 players.

They need to sign a few 4th liners (they might promote some of their youngsters), need to re-sign Dumoulin who'll be cheap and they'll go with Zatkoff as Fleury's backup.

 

[chethejet]

Since Mario, no franchise has had the elite talent that the Pens have had. Mario, Jagr, Kovalev, Francis, Tocchet, Stevens, Sid, Malkin, Neal and now Kessel. One can include Coffee, Murphy, Letang, Barraso and MAF. That is a lot of top end talent.

 

[LetsGoBLUES91]

They are fortunate to have 4 guys (now 5) do all of the heavy listing, and those guys are relatively young. Because of this they can give up picks and prospects like no one else can. It's why they never have anyone in the pipeline or any picks at the draft.

It will bite them in about 10 years, hard, but they can enjoy some very good play for the next 10. And probably some 18 year old will be there with the 1st overall pick in 2025 that will be generational. Because Penguins.

 

[chethejet]

Since 1988 a Penguin has won the Art Ross 15 times out of 27 years.

 

[mnwild*]

id just trade sid for jagr back if i was gm

 

[ChickenTikkaMasala*]

They trade player for player.. Very simple question sir, you should have thought about this before starting such an empty discussion. - Rakesh

 

[A1LeafNation]

Pens have a great track record for being able to land elite big name wingers without touching their core. First Hossa, then Iggy and now Kessel.


How do they do it?

Looks at their prospect pool and picks. If Pitts doesn't do anything in 3 years, they are screwed.

 

[Church of Toews*]

Because players want to play there...

Another 1st place this year.....playoffs are a crapshoot and injuries hurt them the last few years..

Except when players actually want to win a ring......

 

[penguins2946*]

Looks at their prospect pool and picks. If Pitts doesn't do anything in 3 years, they are screwed.

This isn't at all the case. The only spot they're weak at is in forward prospects, and they already have 5 of their top-6 locked up long term in Perron (who I can't imagine will leave), Hornqvist, Kessel, Malkin and Crosby. They need to develop bottom-6 forwards, which they already have the prospects to do (Wilson, Rust, Plotnikov, Sundqvist, Bennett, ect). They have their long term top-6, top-4 (Maatta, Letang, Pouliot and Cole) and goalie (Fleury and Murray) situations all handled. They just need to draft and develop bottom pair D and bottom-6 forwards, which is hardly a difficult task.

Except when players actually want to win a ring......

I guess 2009 never happened then.

 

[Church of Toews*]

I guess 2009 never happened then.

People didnt sign for 1-2 million to join the pens in 2009. There was nothing like Richards where a well known player signed a cheap deal to try and win it that year. There also want a Bourque/Timmonen move where a player asked for a trade specifically to Pittsburgh to try and win. You don't see players taking cheap deals to try and win in Pittsburgh compared to La and Chicago and Detroit throughout the 90's-and early 2000's

 

[penguins2946*]

People didnt sign for 1-2 million to join the pens in 2009. There was nothing like Richards where a well known player signed a cheap deal to try and win it that year. There also want a Bourque/Timmonen move where a player asked for a trade specifically to Pittsburgh to try and win. You don't see players taking cheap deals to try and win in Pittsburgh compared to La and Chicago and Detroit throughout the 90's-and early 2000's

"There wasn't a Borque/Timmonen move when a player asked for a trade to go to Pittsburgh"

Look up Iginla mate. You're wrong. What good players have the Kings signed for cheap in free agency?

 

[Semantics]

This isn't at all the case. The only spot they're weak at is in forward prospects, and they already have 5 of their top-6 locked up long term in Perron (who I can't imagine will leave), Hornqvist, Kessel, Malkin and Crosby. They need to develop bottom-6 forwards, which they already have the prospects to do (Wilson, Rust, Plotnikov, Sundqvist, Bennett, ect). They have their long term top-6, top-4 (Maatta, Letang, Pouliot and Cole) and goalie (Fleury and Murray) situations all handled. They just need to draft and develop bottom pair D and bottom-6 forwards, which is hardly a difficult task.

Letang is one swift breeze away from retirement, and Maatta/Pouliot are good, but they're not at the level of Keith or Doughty good (even Letang isn't). I don't think that's a strong enough core for them to win the cup, especially with Fleury who is average at best. As for developing depth for the bottom six, they've been trying to do that for 6 years now and still have nothing to show for it, I'm wondering what's going to change there. Bottom six forwards are not hard to find, it just seems the Pens just target the wrong guys for that role. Guys like Bennett and Sutter are not going to be your Shaw, Kruger, Saad, Pearson, Clifford, Teravainen.

Pens have a lot of top end talent, but at the same time they have to be one of the most unbalanced teams in the league. It's also baffling that they don't even play their talent - Johnston had Crosby at just like 19 minutes a game so he could play mediocre players like Sutter a lot.

 

[Church of Toews*]

"There wasn't a Borque/Timmonen move when a player asked for a trade to go to Pittsburgh"

Look up Iginla mate. You're wrong. What good players have the Kings signed for cheap in free agency?

This was about 2009 which was your only retort. You don't see FA's lining up to go Carolina since they won a cup in 2006. Winning a cup a few years ago doesn't make your team a free agent hotbed for players trying to win.

 

[Reversi]

Well the first two didnt exactly last , I imagine the third will be in the same category.

Lol u mad?

 

[Church of Toews*]

Lol u mad?

seeing that Chicago had 4 times the amount of the success the Pens had in the last 7 years I'm sure he is fuming. but keep bragging about having Iginla and Hossa for one year each, i mean you won a cup with them while they were there right?

 

[Brewsky]

They sacrifice their future, that's how they do it.

 

[theicebox]

It's a bold move Cotton, let's see if it pays off for 'em.

So this.

 

[Sonofamitch]

Add Neal to the list aswell

 

[Howboutthempanthers]

Aaaand up until this point they have won no cups with those either.

 

[Scotty Pucks]

Aaaand up until this point they have won no cups with those either.

This.

The Hossa move was a well-calculated risk that damn near won them the cup.

The Iginla move was a bust, not enough when they ran into the buzzsaw that was the 2013 Boston Bruins. Thanks Marshy.

Potato Phil move was a good move, but it does not fix them. They might win a round in the playoffs... might. That's it though.

Once Crosby/Malkin are past their primes, they will be in the basement of the NHL. Terrible drafting, very few draft picks, mortgaging the future to win now. And they're still not even a strong contender.

 

[T1K]

People didnt sign for 1-2 million to join the pens in 2009. There was nothing like Richards where a well known player signed a cheap deal to try and win it that year. There also want a Bourque/Timmonen move where a player asked for a trade specifically to Pittsburgh to try and win. You don't see players taking cheap deals to try and win in Pittsburgh compared to La and Chicago and Detroit throughout the 90's-and early 2000's

Apparently Saad didn't want to do that for you guys either

We get it, Chicago won the cup. Ehrhoff signed for 1 yr at 4 mil here in an effort to win a cup. At the time it was viewed as a cheap deal because he left money and term on the table for sure. Regardless, not sure why you're trying to rain on our parade.

 

[wej20]

People didnt sign for 1-2 million to join the pens in 2009. There was nothing like Richards where a well known player signed a cheap deal to try and win it that year. There also want a Bourque/Timmonen move where a player asked for a trade specifically to Pittsburgh to try and win. You don't see players taking cheap deals to try and win in Pittsburgh compared to La and Chicago and Detroit throughout the 90's-and early 2000's

You really think Richards left a lot of money on the table to sign with Chicago. I'd say Ehrhoff was comparable to the Richards signing.