Confirmed with Link: Penguins sign NCAA leading scorer Zach Aston-Reese

[AjaxTelamon]

some stats based stuff from Lambert (who's a big college hockey nerd) in this Puck Daddy article. Pretty encouraging. Tweeted that he's better than Vesey too, FWIW

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaa-h...northeasterns-zach-aston-reese-194652194.html

Good writeup and stats. Bottom 6 gritty guy with a polished defensive game and obviously an effective point producer. So our NHL-level LW depth next year looks like:

Sheary
Guentzel
Hagelin
Wilson
Kuhn
ZAR

RW

PH
Kessel
Sprong
Rust

With three guys who can play both well, Guentzel, Kuhn, Wilson.

So no reason to re-sign Kunitz, and maybe you have some wiggle room to leave Hags unprotected or trade him if cap relief is needed. We shouldn't need to force him up the lineup, what with Sheary, Guentzel, Kessel, PH, Sprong and Rust all capable of being effective with Sid and Geno.

 

[The Greatest 101]

Horny type player? Hopefully he has better hockey sense.

Always nice to get free stuff. I'm greedy. I want Vecchione as well. Go get him JR.

 

[Jacob]

Hell yeah, free prospect *****.

 

[Night Shift]

Stupid question but does this move then make us apt to draft Defensman this coming draft? With our first couple picks at least..

 

[MrBurghundy]

Stupid question but does this move then make us apt to draft Defensman this coming draft? With our first couple picks at least..

They'll still go off of their draft board rankings. That is always going to happen no matter what.

 

[Burgs]

Breaking news: Aston-Reese suffers paper-cut at contract signing, out week-to-week with blood infection

 

[Empoleon8771]

They'll still go off of their draft board rankings. That is always going to happen no matter what.

If the option is to sign Aston-Reese and trade our 2nd or take a guy like Bjorkqvist with our 2nd, it's obvious which I'd pick

 

[wgknestrick]

Huge, huge signing for PIT. This can't be understated. We finally hooked a big NCAA fish

 

[Jacob]

Gotta think he coulda gotten at least an NHL cup of coffee with a lesser team, so props to him (and kudos to the Penguins as well). I guess it helps to have connections.


-edit- shureshot answered my question.

 

[harmonica]

The kid definitely passes the eye test with the footage available online. He also seems to be to more than hold his own in a fight and is credited with helping to turn his team around when he was given the A last season. Sounds like a great pick up for the organization.

 

[FreeBobbyFarnham]

Mike Vecchione is next

 

[High Flying Birds]

Free is good. Even if he never turns out anything more than a decent AHL guy. Welcome ZAR!

 

[SEALBound]

Stupid question but does this move then make us apt to draft Defensman this coming draft? With our first couple picks at least..

Not necessarily. This shouldn't have any impact on their draft plans. He's not THAT good of a prospect.

Signing a guy like Panarin and Zaitsev...perhaps. NCAA leading scorer, not really.

They'll still go off of their draft board rankings. That is always going to happen no matter what.

While I tend to agree, I still think they look to draft the best center available unless a major prospect drops (think Kapanen).

Breaking news: Aston-Reese suffers paper-cut at contract signing, out week-to-week with blood infection

Gets HEP B.

Mike Vecchione is next

Not out of the question to be honest. Considering Guentzel, Sundqvist, and possibly Archibald will be up with the big boys and guys like Porter and G. Wilson being UFAs, it's not a stretch to think that a WBS slot would be attractive to him.

 

[WayneSid9987]

ZAR, turns out, was always in the bag...



And yea i want a Vecchione or Kloos too!

With the graduating depth in WB, i always believed JR would sign atleast 1 and maybe 2 of the top NCAA FA's.
It pays big to have a kid like Sheary show what the Pens developmental system can do.

Best thing about him isn't really the points. It's his charachter and work ethic.

 

[Tacitus Kilgore]

What number does he usually play with? AR-__ will be a sick nick name. you know, like the gun

 

[WayneSid9987]

He wore #12 for NU.

 

[Jaded-Fan]

Watching the videos I can see the (much younger) Kunitz comparison.

 

[Tacitus Kilgore]

He wore #12 for NU.

AR-12 not bad

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Horny type player? Hopefully he has better hockey sense.

Always nice to get free stuff. I'm greedy. I want Vecchione as well. Go get him JR.

The complaints about Hornqvist and his hockey sense are probably some of the dumbest **** I read here on a daily basis on our board.

 

[Captain Hook]

Love getting free prospects.

That quote about how last summer the Pens recommended ZAR going back to college for another year is interesting. He seems like he always had the defense but maybe they wanted him to continue to work on his offense. That sounds a lot like their plan with Sundqvist as well but Sundqvist was obviously working on his craft at the AHL level instead.

His game does sound a lot like Hornqvist and Kunitz and we certainly could really use a younger version of one of those guys since those two aren't exactly spring chickens anymore.

 

[shureshot66]

ZAR, turns out, was always in the bag...

There's something amusing/unsettling about the fact that the last couple of college senior classes of prospects remember the Penguins' first logo as the pigeon.

 

[Peat]

The thing I like most about this is between Zar-Zar, Sundqvist and Bjorkqvist, there's a good chance we have Horny's successor as a PP1 net front guy within the organisation.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Breaking news: Aston-Reese suffers paper-cut at contract signing, out week-to-week with blood infection

I hear the entire hand'll have to come off next week....

 

[Jag68Sid87]

Nice get, JR!

I wonder if he remains at center with us or we move him immediately to wing. Either way, he really does seem like a Kunitz replacement at some point.

Good work, management and scouting team!

 

[HandshakeLine]

We should give him Stojanov's number, just to unjinx him.