Confirmed with Link: Penguins Sign Thomas Di Pauli (2 years/$742,500 base)

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Kraft had an awesome shot, yeah.

But he could never put enough of his game together around that shot to really take advantage of it often enough.

 

[Jaded-Fan]

Way back wasn't Rico Fata a guy who was all wheels and little else? But got hyped to the skys because of it?

I am old enough to remember people saying 'yes, but Fata is Faaaaaast'. And he never lived up to the hype.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Kraft had an awesome shot, yeah.

But he could never put enough of his game together around that shot to really take advantage of it often enough.

This team wasn't the developmental hot bed it is right now, back then. There were so many prospects that were grossly mishandled under the lesser Patrick's coaching tenure. It was countless prospects pushed to the NHL to promote the youth movement that Mario desperately wanted out there to get fans back at the rink to get his money back and then eventually his ass had to come out of retirement too.

But man, there were a barrage of prospects that I thought would have turned out well if this team had half a brain with development - Dome, Surovy, Kraft, Morozov, etc.

Why are we even discussing this?

The developmental team back then vs now is beyond night and day. The competent people in place now vs back then is an indicator of how little the team cared about its future and put so much faith in the "now" that when **** hit the fan with money and Jagr wanting out, it had nothing good in place to foster the talent. We got prospects, picks, money and the team just focused on the money and let the youth just dwindle and then promoted them like they were the next best thing.

I am glad that now at least they give a crap and put effort into their development and now under JR and Sullivan, give the kids that have earned a shot, a shot.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Way back wasn't Rico Fata a guy who was all wheels and little else? But got hyped to the skys because of it?

I am old enough to remember people saying 'yes, but Fata is Faaaaaast'. And he never lived up to the hype.

Flames were duped into thinking he had talent or rather they basically forced his ass to the NHL when he needed development time, then the Rangers. The Penguins were 3rd on the list of "Hey this guy was like...a 1st rounder and stuff, totally worth it!"

This was back when Manny Malhotra was Captain material, basically what people love about Landeskog now, was what Manny was supposed to be back then. Fata had wheels, great in junior, but he was pushed to the NHL too fast which was the way the crap teams did back then and most do now still as well. They shoved talent to the NHL, Fata was a recipient of that. I remember that draft year, not the best in terms of talent.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Way back wasn't Rico Fata a guy who was all wheels and little else? But got hyped to the skys because of it?

I am old enough to remember people saying 'yes, but Fata is Faaaaaast'. And he never lived up to the hype.

You are 1000% right.

Fata is a great example of a guy who can skate like the wind but do little else. Like we're talking about above. He wasn't, like... completely useless. But those teams were so, so, so bad that literally somebody had to score. And that was Fata. That halfway decent goal total you might see on hockeydb (16 in 03-04) doesn't tell the whole tale of that player. That was over half his NHL career total and he played top minutes all that year. Again... because somebody had to.

He would put himself offside at least a half a dozen times a game. His hockey IQ was lower than room temperature.

Ugh. Sorry. Bad memories. He was supposedly one of the "centerpieces" in the Kovalev deal that ended up bringing back a trashheap of castoffs and never-weres. Oh... and cash, of course.

EDIT: HoG... I completely agree with you. Player drafting and especially development are night and day compared to now. It really isn't at all beyond reason that they might have gotten something out of some of those picks if they'd have taken player development more seriously. If I'm not mistaken... they didn't even have a full time AHL farm team the vast majority of the CP era.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Grabner is what Fata should have been and then Grabner ended up being like Fata.

Vicious circle my friends.

We wanted Grabner recently.

 

[Jaded-Fan]

Flames were duped into thinking he had talent, then the Rangers. The Penguins were 3rd on the list of "Hey this guy was like...a 1st rounder and stuff, totally worth it!"

This was back when Manny Malhotra was Captain material, basically what people love about Landeskog now, was what Manny was supposed to be back then. Fata had wheels, great in junior, but he was pushed to the NHL too fast which was the way the crap teams did back then and most do now still as well.

The number of examples, just who have come through the Pens, of guys who were fast but flamed out, are numerous enough that people should always have a grain of salt with their excitement.

The size thing is the other one that dupes way too many. Nuke scares me because of this one, not that I do not like him as a prospect. Perspective is all that I ask.

How many times are we going to get excited over a prospect way out of proportion to where we should. Jesus Caputi anyone?

 

[billybudd]

Kraft did have a nice wrist shot, but this dude was saying he had one of the best shots of all time. He also predicted that Ryan Whitney would be a perennial 100 point defenseman.

What on Earth? There have been what, 2 of those ever?

Edit: last 100 point season by a D was in 1992 lol

Way back wasn't Rico Fata a guy who was all wheels and little else? But got hyped to the skys because of it?

I am old enough to remember people saying 'yes, but Fata is Faaaaaast'. And he never lived up to the hype.

By the time he got here, Fata was viewed as a reclamation project. We sort of reclaimed him a little, but he didn't have a two way game or any hockey sense, so he didn't stick around long.

 

[SEALBound]

Nothing wrong with the coyote's hands on that play, he just couldn't keep up with the Road Runner's speed...beep beep

Dear lord dude, it's MEEP...beep...

People said we were too small, people said we don't have good enough dmen, people said that we can't win the Cup with a rookie goalie. How do you think we compensated for all that? The answer is speed. With speed comes force, mass, defense, and pretty much everything within the space/time continuum.

Can you elaborate on the speed = force and mass and how that attributes to winning?

Kraft had an awesome shot, yeah.

But he could never put enough of his game together around that shot to really take advantage of it often enough.

That kid was like jello being nailed to the wall. Every time you "this is the time he'll get it!" he surprised you with the most epic about of "blah" you could muster.

There were so many guys like that on the 2001-2004 era team. I wanted sooooo bad for guys like Sivik, Lupaschuk, and Kraft to excel but it just was never going to happen. I think Shane Endicott was the pinnacle of that decable. Now there was a kid who disappoint with style!

You are 1000% right.

Fata is a great example of a guy who can skate like the wind but do little else. Like we're talking about above. He wasn't, like... completely useless. But those teams were so, so, so bad that literally somebody had to score. And that was Fata. That halfway decent goal total you might see on hockeydb (16 in 03-04) doesn't tell the whole tale of that player. That was over half his NHL career totals and he played top minutes all that year. Again... because somebody had to.

He would put himself offside at least a half a dozen times a game. His hockey IQ was lower than room temperature.

Ugh. Sorry. Bad memories. He was supposedly one of the "centerpieces" in the Kovalev deal that ended up bringing back a trashheap of castoffs and never-weres. Oh... and cash, of course.

Remember Alexei Morozov? I do. Still sad he didn't come back to play. I remember in early 2005 hyping up a line of Morozov-Lemieux-Crosby. I even bet a friend they would each get 100pts. Lost that bet.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Remember Alexei Morozov? I do. Still sad he didn't come back to play. I remember in early 2005 hyping up a line of Morozov-Lemieux-Crosby. I even bet a friend they would each get 100pts. Lost that bet.

Oh yeah. I remember Morozov well, of course. The first prospect I followed, actually. Best player not in the NHL and all that. I think his potential to do much of anything significant had mostly spooled out by the time the cap era rolled around. And I don't quite recall the money situation or his demands but I remember thinking it wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world to have him back, were he willing. He had a bit of chemistry with Mario (so could a stump, though) and had a mostly-nice skillset. Just could never quite put it all together. I'm sure his money and fame situation was much better in Russia, anyway. Where he turned into a consistently dominant player.

Frankly, I kinda wish they'd have looked into holding on to Kraft at least for that first post-lockout year as opposed to Morozov. Not because he was particularly good but because they were starting off the year with Lasse Pirjeta as their second line center.

 

[Corvidae]

Way back wasn't Rico Fata a guy who was all wheels and little else? But got hyped to the skys because of it?

I am old enough to remember people saying 'yes, but Fata is Faaaaaast'. And he never lived up to the hype.

Pffft, Koltsov was faster and so were his passes.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

I think everyone's forgotten why we're all here: Pauli Di.

I wanna know when Sid's handing over the captaincy.

 

[Speaking Moistly]

I think everyone's forgotten why we're all here: Pauli Di.

I wanna know when Sid's handing over the captaincy.

Sid would need to still have the captaincy to hand it over, first it needs to be found.

Pauli Di is forever tainted by name association now.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I still want Nuke on the Pens, even with this kid signed. And I still dump Jarry or Pouliot + a pick (not first) for him. Because I think the Pens would be laughing the last laugh in that situation. And I don't think Jarry or Pouliot will ever be good enough to make this trade feel bad on the Pens end.

 

[Ogrezilla]

This kid should have absolutely no impact on whether or not we are interested in someone like Nuke.

 

[TheSniper26]

Sid would need to still have the captaincy to hand it over, first it needs to be found.

Last I heard it was divided into four pieces with three of them given to Pascal Dupuis, Craig Adams and Bill Guerin. The fourth piece will be kept in a locked safe until Chris Kunitz's heir comes of age.

Sid hasn't had it since he started demanding the right wall on the power play/making all the lineup decisions.

 

[SEALBound]

This kid should have absolutely no impact on whether or not we are interested in someone like Nuke.

Yup. None.

Niemi+Nuke for MAF.

That trade works on so many levels for both teams.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Yup. None.

Niemi+Nuke for MAF.

That trade works on so many levels for both teams.

I wish they'd do that.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

I'm still not very high on Nuke. He can barely produce on the team that scores the most goals in the league. That must be saying something. He would have surely become a great player if he didn't miss close to an entire season due to injury.

Besides, acquiring a contract like Niemi's could make next offseason tricky.

 

[Hossa die Waldfee]

I still want Nuke on the Pens, even with this kid signed. And I still dump Jarry or Pouliot + a pick (not first) for him. Because I think the Pens would be laughing the last laugh in that situation. And I don't think Jarry or Pouliot will ever be good enough to make this trade feel bad on the Pens end.

Jarry and Pouliot have vastly different trade values.
Jarry would be a throw in in any deal, DP can still be a main part of a trade.

And I don't know why this board is so in love with Nichushkin?! Guy is such a one trick pony. He played tons of minutes with Spezza,Sharp,Seguin and Benn, on the most offensive oriented team in the league and couldn't even crack 10 goals.
The stars are one of the few teams where we shouldn't think that a players totals would increase in pittsburgh.

 

[Shady Machine]

Jarry and Pouliot have vastly different trade values.
Jarry would be a throw in in any deal, DP can still be a main part of a trade.

And I don't know why this board is so in love with Nichushkin?! Guy is such a one trick pony. He played tons of minutes with Spezza,Sharp,Seguin and Benn, on the most offensive oriented team in the league and couldn't even crack 10 goals.
The stars are one of the few teams where we shouldn't think that a players totals would increase in pittsburgh.

We like Nichushkin because he's a 21 year old kid who made an NHL impact right away, is fast, big, and skilled. Despite mediocre and inconsistent production, he's still a 30 even strength point per 82 in his young career. He still has a ton of potential and the only reason people are talking about him as a target is because he hasn't yet lived up to that huge potential. If he had, there's no way in hell Dallas would trade him.

I have no idea if Dallas is willing to move him but he's the type of target we should be going after in a MAF trade. I like Janmark as well and might prefer him over Nuke because he can play center if Bones walks, but Nuke would be a great add.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

JR has atleast claimed that Fleury will still be on this team to start the season. However if we wanted to do that deal I believe that we would have to do it now, since there are plenty of other teams interested in Nichushkin, espescially Buffalo. If the season begins, and Nichushkin still doesn't play too well, I could see Dallas trading him early. However if he gets better it would cost more pieces obviously. I just don't see JR doing it.

 

[Fordy]

nuke played a ton of minutes? i looked at his game log earlier and i saw a ton of <14 minute games, several around 10 minutes total. that's not enough time to play a ton of minutes with anyone

 

[Shady Machine]

JR has atleast claimed that Fleury will still be on this team to start the season. However if we wanted to do that deal I believe that we would have to do it now, since there are plenty of other teams interested in Nichushkin, espescially Buffalo. If the season begins, and Nichushkin still doesn't play too well, I could see Dallas trading him early. However if he gets better it would cost more pieces obviously. I just don't see JR doing it.

I don't see JR doing it either. I'm just saying it's the type of deal for MAF that makes sense. If Dallas was looking to upgrade their goaltending and Fleury was a target, Nuke, Janmark, or Eakin are targets that make sense for the Pens.

 

[Son Goku]

Jarry and Pouliot have vastly different trade values.
Jarry would be a throw in in any deal, DP can still be a main part of a trade.

And I don't know why this board is so in love with Nichushkin?! Guy is such a one trick pony. He played tons of minutes with Spezza,Sharp,Seguin and Benn, on the most offensive oriented team in the league and couldn't even crack 10 goals.
The stars are one of the few teams where we shouldn't think that a players totals would increase in pittsburgh.

He's a "European sniper" errbody wants the next Ovechkin or Tarasenko.