I don't think he's waiver exempt next year, so I doubt he clears if JR tries sending him down. Not saying he is great, just saying I believe someone will take a flyer on him as a free waiver pickup.
Confirmed with Link: Pens sign Jeff Taylor to 2 year elc
- Thread starter Malkinstheman
- Start date
I don't think he's waiver exempt next year, so I doubt he clears if JR tries sending him down. Not saying he is great, just saying I believe someone will take a flyer on him as a free waiver pickup.
Pouliot, Maatta both have been professional players and have the resources to get stronger, and play with other professionals. These college signings are just development guys who in time may become assets. They all need to start the process of training, playing and competing against other professionals. It is a different animal and adjustments are necessary for these signings. In many cases, this is the first time these guys have gone against older bigger faster players in a game situation. It will take time to assess what they can grow into.
Why wouldn't they? Even if they do not think that he'll develop into a top 4D at the NHL level, he still holds some sort of value - even as a throw in or as AHL depth. But only if they sign him.
Basically, there's no reason not to sign him. He won't cost anything, and is still young enough that there's no reason to walk away from him - even if the odds of him ever being a legitimate NHL player are slim to none.
Empoleon8771
Registered User
I don't know what to think of him at this point, I think it's premature to give any judgement. On one hand, he did put up very good numbers as a defenseman and he had a better last season with Union than Gostisbehere had. However, on the other hand, his production seems extremely tied with how much his team is producing and he did have a truly dreadful offensive season in 2015-2016. I'd like to see how he does over an extended period of time with WBS.
Seems like a rather ordinary prospect but I guess that's to be expected since he was only a 7th rounder. If he ever turns into anything at the NHL level it's a steal considering where he was drafted.
Honour Over Glory
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Hey, remember Sheary, Ruhwedel, etc weren't even drafted. It's all about what you make of your chances and if Taylor makes the most of it in WBS, he could be more than a "nothing late rounder."
The Greatest 101
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JTG
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He's not.
He's not younger, but they are all the same age. If you ask the average fan, they probably would say that Pouliot is much older than he really is. He just turned 23.
Honour Over Glory
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He is 23, but he's also had 3 seasons in the AHL now and he's still not much better than he was that 1st year. If anything, he's looked like he's regressed when he's in the NHL but in the AHL he's solid, which is not good for him right now considering that's basically what you expect out of a depth AHL'er that you can call up.
It makes it even worse when you look at who was taken after him and how many games they've played in the NHL, the ones that aren't regulars are in italics/bold. I'll only go the first 3 rounds.
- Murray - 220
- Reinhart - 37
- Reilly - 304
- Lindholm - 298
- Dumba - 221
- Pouilot - 66
- Trouba - 265
- Koekkoek - 41
- Ceci - 279
- Maatta - 219
- Matheson - 76
- Skjei - 82
- Pokka - 0
- Finn - 0
- Blujus - 0
- Sieloff - 1
- Bystrom - 0
- McCabe - 156
- Fournier - 0
- Thrower - 0
- Severson - 197
- Pelech - 45
- Draeger - 0
- Lindell - 70
- Gostisbehere - 135
- Gzrelczyk - 2
- Parayko - 152
- Melindy - 0
Only 1 guy above Pouliot that isn't in the NHL for Defensemen, Reinhart. He's the only other disappointment for the 1st round picks. Those guys are all in order btw for Defensemen taken in the 1st three rounds. Assuming Pouliot is going to put it together at this point is probably around 30-40%.
Gzrelczyk is in his 1st pro season this year so he might have promise out of the ones with less than 2 games. The rest of the 0 gamers are likely just crap at this point.
Honour Over Glory
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I wouldn't be shocked to see Taylor, Prow, and Bengtsson leap frog Pouliot next year. It was definitely a rough year for Prow & Bengtsson, so at least they have that excuse. Looking forward to seeing how Taylor does on his ATO for the rest of this season.
Yes, but don't sign Pouliot out yet, it took the 4th pro year to guys like Dumolin and Despress to become full time NHLer.
Crafton
Liver-Eating Johnson
it's a damn shame that there's more posts about Pouliot in this thread than about Jeff Taylor. He might not amount to much as a 7th round pick, but at the very least he should have his own thread. that's not an endorsement of DP or a judgement against him, but maybe i'm just old-fashioned and like to keep conversations in separate threads.
Honour Over Glory
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Well for both Dumoulin and Despres, they were 23 when they finally cracked the Penguins full-time, in Despres' case, he was dicked around so much by Bylsma, he should have been a regular at around 21-22yrs of age but that whole scenario ended poorly and sadly for both sides in terms of futures, I mean Lovejoy did play a decent part in the Cup run and that can't be forgotten.
But even in their call-ups, they showed more. In Dumoulins case, he was very good one game, then off another game and then benched because of the idiots that coached the team at the time until be became a regular under MJ/MS.
Pouliot just hasn't shown certain things you look for out of any player - Sense of urgency, smart decisions with the puck, intensity in their game, etc.
Even his skating just didn't look NHL caliber most of the time. I would still sign him, but to a 1yr show me contract.
Honour Over Glory
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Yeah my bad, it's just adding Taylor means the depth chart will change and that's how the Pouliot talk came about.
That was when he was drafted, I am hoping he's added some muscle and rounded out his defensive game. Where he was drafted means nothing to me.
Mr Jiggyfly
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I'm not expecting much from him, but maybe he surprises. He is going to need to get a whole hell of a lot stronger just to hold his own in the A and not get bullied.
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If that happens, he will request a trade.
If that happens, we will likely facilitate a trade.
Hell, you could even maybe do something like Reinhart for Pouliot and hope each one pulls it together under their new team.
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Isn't Reinhart in the AHL because he's not quick enough for the NHL? If he can't make the Oilers because of speed, he'll never be anything in Pittsburgh.
I posted a long scouting report a couple of years ago after watching Taylor play a couple of games in his junior season. Here were the primary takeaways:
- Although he was listed as 6' (although the Pens graphic listed in this thread shows him more accurately at 5'11), he looked on the ice like he was 5'9 or 5'10. I'm not saying he's actually 5'9, but Guentzel is also listed at 5'11 and he's a good inch shorter than Sid. In any event, it's not just the height -- his physical stature was very similar to how Jake looks on the ice. So while there are a bunch of undersized Dmen that are very effective, at 180lbs or whatever he's listed at, he is very slight in overall stature, and his play reflected that
- Further to the above, he REALLY struggled in the Dzone on the boards/corners/in front of the net against bigger,stronger players. If that was the case in college, it's really hard to imagine that he wouldn't struggle with this in pro hockey, and especially in the NHL.
- While he did exhibit good hockey sense and decision making, he did not have blazing speed or extreme skill to make up for those areas above that I think will really undermine his ability to be an effective defender at the NHL level.
So overall, I really doubt his ability to be an effective player at the NHL level, and I will remain curious to see if his abilities will even allow him to be more than a 3rd pairing and PP guy at the AHL. Of course, I hope I am wrong but this is probably the reason why we've never seen him mentioned with any meaningful excitement by Pens brass or anywhere near the top of our (very depleted) prospect list in any of the articles over the past few years, or in any trade bait talk. If he could be a really good player for WBS I think that would be great, but I'm certainly not expecting anything more at this time.
- Although he was listed as 6' (although the Pens graphic listed in this thread shows him more accurately at 5'11), he looked on the ice like he was 5'9 or 5'10. I'm not saying he's actually 5'9, but Guentzel is also listed at 5'11 and he's a good inch shorter than Sid. In any event, it's not just the height -- his physical stature was very similar to how Jake looks on the ice. So while there are a bunch of undersized Dmen that are very effective, at 180lbs or whatever he's listed at, he is very slight in overall stature, and his play reflected that
- Further to the above, he REALLY struggled in the Dzone on the boards/corners/in front of the net against bigger,stronger players. If that was the case in college, it's really hard to imagine that he wouldn't struggle with this in pro hockey, and especially in the NHL.
- While he did exhibit good hockey sense and decision making, he did not have blazing speed or extreme skill to make up for those areas above that I think will really undermine his ability to be an effective defender at the NHL level.
So overall, I really doubt his ability to be an effective player at the NHL level, and I will remain curious to see if his abilities will even allow him to be more than a 3rd pairing and PP guy at the AHL. Of course, I hope I am wrong but this is probably the reason why we've never seen him mentioned with any meaningful excitement by Pens brass or anywhere near the top of our (very depleted) prospect list in any of the articles over the past few years, or in any trade bait talk. If he could be a really good player for WBS I think that would be great, but I'm certainly not expecting anything more at this time.
Dread Pirate Roberts
Registered User
Used to watch RPI games next to him when he was very young...great family, his dad would come to watch my games, & I even gave Jeff a skating lesson - so I take full credit for his success. I'm an Avs fan so I don't know your roster well enough, but I'm thrilled that he has the potential to make the team. He claimed his weak Junior season was due to focusing on defense, but the whole team was bad that year.
Shady Machine
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Mr. T
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madinsomniac
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Pouliot is 23... forward chris Kunitz, for comparison, didnt score an nhl goal till he was 26... and turned into a key player for years... pouliot has to get the defesive side of the game down better, but plenty of nhl dmen did that later in their careers... 23 is still quite young
