GDT: Pens and Wings

[Jag68Sid87]

I just think the AHL roster is a tad crowded with new faces looking to get a shot. Archibald, Dea, Rust, Zlobin, Wilson, plus Megna, Sheary, Drazenovic (sp?). I'm sure I'm missing a few as well. Add Sundqvist and Kapanen and that's a crowded top 9. At least with Kapanen he has a supposedly bad team in Finland so you could argue he would be better served in the AHL. Sundqvist doesn't have that issue.

Like I said before, I can go either way on this, I just think there's value in him playing another year in Sweden in a top 6 role.

Drazenovic is an AHL lifer. Sheary is a tryout. Megna's on the outs. Sundqvist is one of our top prospects. You make room for him. If he can't handle the AHL at this time, send him back.

I'm not even sure why we're even concerned about Sundqvist playing a top-six role on a team with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin locked up for (hopefully) the duration of their careers in the NHL.

Sundqvist (at least to me) is clearly the heir apparent to Brandon Sutter. If he can even play a fourth-line role this season, we could move Goc up to Line 3 and trade Sutter for a scorer.

Both kids haven't looked out of place. Let's see what they can do when the action starts for real.

I like what I see so far from Sundqvist and Kapanen, but I think they need definitely need more seasoning.

I think relying on these guys too much could botch their development and would be a big mistake.

Last thing we want to do is get into an Edmonton Oilers situation where we rush guys into the NHL and ruin their whole careers (i.e. Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson)

Every team has examples of players who were rushed to the NHL too quickly. Doesn't mean there aren't also success stories, too.