Confirmed with Link: Penguins sign college undrafted Drew O'Connor

[Honour Over Glory]

I have no idea why I'm even responding to Pens x anymore. They're just hellbent on piling as much misery into their posts as possible. I'm the token pessimist, but Pens x is on a whole different plane of existence.

It must be awesome to have such an unconcerned outlook on life that you get to be this amped up about stupid hockey shit. My guy's rockin' like 25 posts a day about Evan f***ing Rodrigues. Good lord, that's inner peace right there.

Anytime I see a post by PensxAbid....

 

[Empoleon8771]

I’m confused how either is an NHLer.

If they are. Shero’s drafts were full of NHLers.

Yes they were. Shero's drafting from 2010-2013 were objectively good.

Not sure what relevance Sheep has here. I'm not one who shits on him.

 

[Pens x]

Anytime I see a post by PensxAbid....

Haha ouch...

Sorry, someone was saying that JR has been good at drafting, which is blatantly not true. Honestly, you won’t find someone that hates Shero more than me, but he drafted a hell of a lot better over his last couple of years than JR has done since he started here.

Go Pens.

 

[Tacitus Kilgore]

Anytime I see a post by PensxAbid....

Always thought @Ryder71 and I had a good row. But those dudes take the cake. I dig the passion though

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Lafferty would be a top sixer if you squint your eyes and say Mario jr Jaromir on the back deck of Gooski’s in a Straka Pigeon jersey ten times after drinking an IC Light.

Stop being a wanker.

Lafferty has looked good in camp with McCann and Jankowski. I would prefer that usage of Lafferty than Sceviour there instead. It's a better use of a player that is in first on a forecheck, is solid at both ends, physical, and is a fairly well rounded type of bloke. He sort of fits any line because of that. Lafferty's issue is consistency, considering last season was his first big stint, I'm not discouraged by what he could be capable of.

 

[Peat]

I’m confused how either is an NHLer.

If they are. Shero’s drafts were full of NHLers.

Playing a 100 games is usually considered the cut off point for having made it for these exercises.

 

[NMK11]

Was it you, @Mr Jiggyfly, who posted the probability of any given draft pick to be an NHLer a few years ago? It really tailed off quick even for first rounders, so drafting bottom six players past the first round I'd say is good drafting within that context. One of the best insights I've seen on these boards.

JR's drafting grade should always be an "incomplete" with how many first rounders he's traded away. You can agree or disagree with those trades as part of his general management, but if we're just talking drafting I don't know how anyone can say he's great or terrible.

 

[OtherThingsILike]

I also did undrafted free agent signings by team from 2010 - 2020 if your interested. Same criteria - those that went on to play 100 NHL games

Awesome, thank you. This is great work.

 

[DominicT]

Awesome, thank you. This is great work.

No problem. Pittsburgh is actually in pretty good shape. When you compare them to say San Jose, roughly at the same percentage, The Sharks have signed 32 compared to the Pens at 18. That's a huge difference. But what it shows is the Sharks wasting contract spots and that eventually hurts you to sign unrestricted free agents or make trades if you don't have available contracts spots. The Pens go for quantity over quality where as the Sharks seem to go after everybody and if they make it they make it type attitude.

The numbers are a bit skewed against some teams but have a chance to up their percentage. For example, in 2017 Detroit and Boston signed undrafted free agent goalies Kaden Fulcher and Kyle Keyser out of the OHL. They went back to junior the following year. They pretty much would have had to play over half of the 2018-19 and 2019-20 season to make 100 games.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Lafferty would be a top sixer if you squint your eyes and say Mario jr Jaromir on the back deck of Gooski’s in a Straka Pigeon jersey ten times after drinking an IC Light.

I’d give Laff a better shot at becoming an actual impact third liner than the spaz he had to replace in the playoffs.

 

[Gurglesons]

I’d give Laff a better shot at becoming an actual impact third liner than the spaz he had to replace in the playoffs.

Yeah, his 3 points in 38 games to finish the season was much more crucial to our success than McCann.

 

[Gurglesons]

Stop being a wanker.

Lafferty has looked good in camp with McCann and Jankowski. I would prefer that usage of Lafferty than Sceviour there instead. It's a better use of a player that is in first on a forecheck, is solid at both ends, physical, and is a fairly well rounded type of bloke. He sort of fits any line because of that. Lafferty's issue is consistency, considering last season was his first big stint, I'm not discouraged by what he could be capable of.

If Lafferty is playing over Sceviour we are in big trouble.

 

[Andy99]

Laff looks good for a few games and then he looks bad, and I mean, boneheaded mistake bad, which isn’t made up for by his offensive abilities....if he could somehow be more consistent in his good aspects, he has a future as a NHLer but rn he doesn’t show me much

 

[SEALBound]

Laff looks good for a few games and then he looks bad, and I mean, boneheaded mistake bad, which isn’t made up for by his offensive abilities....if he could somehow be more consistent in his good aspects, he has a future as a NHLer but rn he doesn’t show me much

One thing I would like is to see some rotation. Stick Laffy in, let him do well, them when he struggles, take him out and let him reset a bit. I think that was the killer for him last year. Injuries forced him into the lineup and kept him there even though he shouldn't have been up. He didn't to go back down and reset and work on a few things last year but looking at the roster, there was just no one there to fill the gap. I don't think that is the case this year.

 

[chethejet]

I think Lafferty can be a Rust lite as to his shot and speed. He has decent size and I am all for seeing him on that third line as RH shot as well. His age and upside is better than the players who are in the mix in E Rod for example. I also think Angelo can be that player who can emerge as well. Size, decent offensive skills and can bang a bit is a need. Depending on how things go this year, I wouldn't mind a reset to the younger players like Poulin, O'Connor, Lafferty, Angelo maybe Legare and Bjorkqvist next year with Kap, Jake, Sid, Geno. Rust, TB, McCann and Tanev to begin the retool. Add in POJ, Maniscalco, Lee and Reilly as young D and Jarry and at least you have the next roster of players to carry the franchise for a couple more years. At that point, you now add the younger center to solidify the roster.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Yeah, his 3 points in 38 games to finish the season was much more crucial to our success than McCann.

McCann getting all that ice time and not scoring for 27 games was absolutely crucial for this team in their quest to eventually get embarrassed by Mon... he really came through.

Pens would have been so f***ed without him.

 

[Peat]

I keep thinking Lafferty should be a good depth NHLer with his skillset but after that hot start, he was basically getting the possession results of Galchenyuk and the scoring results of Rodrigues, which is just straight up not an NHLer. So I don't really know what to expect.

 

[Tacitus Kilgore]

Laff has some impressive highlights from last season, shows that he does have some skill. If he could put it together consistently he could be a real important player with his size and skillset

 

[vodeni]

Laff looks good for a few games and then he looks bad, and I mean, boneheaded mistake bad, which isn’t made up for by his offensive abilities....if he could somehow be more consistent in his good aspects, he has a future as a NHLer but rn he doesn’t show me much

a little correction, he only looked good twice..first few games out of AHL...and in the camp...all other times he sucked

 

[ziggyjoe212]

Stop being a wanker.

Lafferty has looked good in camp with McCann and Jankowski. I would prefer that usage of Lafferty than Sceviour there instead. It's a better use of a player that is in first on a forecheck, is solid at both ends, physical, and is a fairly well rounded type of bloke. He sort of fits any line because of that. Lafferty's issue is consistency, considering last season was his first big stint, I'm not discouraged by what he could be capable of.

If Lafferty is playing above the 4th line, your offense is in big trouble. He's a great energy guy and even brings a bit of grit, but he has no offense talent what so ever. It has to be discouraging to prospects like Poulin, Legare, O'Connor to fight for a roster spot yet see someone like Lafferty penciled into the 3rd line.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Kuhn had flashes of skill too, and was drafted as a scoring line winger until injuries slowed him down and he had to adjust to become a grinder.

Lafferty, like basically every NHLer, has some skill. That doesn't mean he's any more than a 4th liner--maaaaybe 3rd liner--when put in the role that best suits him. Not a knock on the guy.

 

[Gurglesons]

Kuhn had flashes of skill too, and was drafted as a scoring line winger until injuries slowed him down and he had to adjust to become a grinder.

Lafferty, like basically every NHLer, has some skill. That doesn't mean he's any more than a 4th liner--maaaaybe 3rd liner--when put in the role that best suits him. Not a knock on the guy.

Pretty much. He looks identical to Kuhnhackl with more size.

 

[steelcityassault]

What did anyone who watched scrimmage 1 think of O'Connor?

 

[Gurglesons]

What did anyone who watched scrimmage 1 think of O'Connor?

Looks like a lot like any other plug and play AHLers we've added, but obviously has the upside that none of them do.

 

[Peat]

Pretty much. He looks identical to Kuhnhackl with more size.

Skates a lot faster than Kuhnhackl. I'd say Archibald with more size. But I dunno about the smarts.