Pittsburgh Penguins have little to show from 2008 draft

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Nov 16, 2005
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For as significant as the 2007-08 season was in Pittsburgh Penguins' history, the 2008 draft was fairly forgettable. The organization traded their first three picks in the 2008 draft in three separate trades. All three trades were vital in equipping the Penguins for back-to-back runs to the Stanley Cup Finals, but the most significant was the one which sent their 2008 first round pick, prospect Angelo Esposito, and forwards Colby Armstrong and Erik Christensen to the Atlanta Thrashers for Marian Hossa and Pascal Dupuis.



Though Hossa would play only 32 total games with Pittsburgh, Dupuis has been in Pittsburgh ever since and is a frequent linemate of captain Sidney Crosby.… read more



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UnrealMachine

Registered User
Jul 9, 2012
4,580
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I'm still unclear as to what happened with Pechurskiy. He seemed to have played well (enough) in the WHL. Why did he never transition into playing for the Pens organization other than his 1 NHL game against Vancouver? If anyone followed him closely over the years I would appreciate their input.
 

Sidney the Kidney

One last time
Jun 29, 2009
55,519
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I'm not bothered by the 2008 draft not yielding much, because of how few picks we ended up having. It's the other drafts around that time that haven't yielded much that have me more concerned (for instance, the 2007 draft, despite having 8 picks that year, has resulted in only 2 current Pens -- Jeffrey and Bortuzzo -- and only Jeffrey has played even close to regularly).
 

Captain Hook

Registered User
Jul 12, 2007
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We didn't have a pick until the 4th round that year so I think most of us even at that time could have predicted we weren't going to have much to show from that draft.
 

Mordax

You make it hard
Sep 23, 2009
3,091
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Victoria, BC
I'm still unclear as to what happened with Pechurskiy. He seemed to have played well (enough) in the WHL. Why did he never transition into playing for the Pens organization other than his 1 NHL game against Vancouver? If anyone followed him closely over the years I would appreciate their input.

Looks like he's playing for Yuzhny Ural Orsk in the VHL. Seems to be bouncing around Russian leagues.
http://www.eurohockey.com/player/114373-alexander-pechursky.html
 

Candyman

Registered User
Aug 17, 2012
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Indiana
Well I'm not complaining about Nathan Moon. Maybe an NHL bust, but he's playing fantastically for my hometown Evansville Icemen, and is an ECHL all star this year.
 

eXile59

Shirts on.
Jan 2, 2009
18,221
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I'm not bothered by the 2008 draft not yielding much, because of how few picks we ended up having. It's the other drafts around that time that haven't yielded much that have me more concerned (for instance, the 2007 draft, despite having 8 picks that year, has resulted in only 2 current Pens -- Jeffrey and Bortuzzo -- and only Jeffrey has played even close to regularly).

I think you need to re-***** your expectations. Getting two NHL players out of any draft is decent. Especially when you are drafting high. Also some of the picks in that draft had some nice return on trades.

There are good drafting teams that go into drafts & come out with nothing.
 

Sidney the Kidney

One last time
Jun 29, 2009
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I think you need to re-***** your expectations. Getting two NHL players out of any draft is decent. Especially when you are drafting high. Also some of the picks in that draft had some nice return on trades.

There are good drafting teams that go into drafts & come out with nothing.

It depends entirely on what kind of impact they have at the NHL level.

If Jeffrey can become a solid 2nd/3rd line tweener, and if Bortuzzo can become a legitimate #4 defenseman, then sure, it was a decent draft. But if Jeffrey ends up being no more than a Letestu (someone who might play when injuries arise, but who isn't an ideal player on a contender) and Bortuzzo a bottom pairing guy, is that still decent?

One would hope that for a draft to be "decent", it results in improving your club's top 9 forwards or top 6 defense pairings, not just adding a bit of depth to the 13th forward/7th defenseman spot, which up to *this point in time*, that's all the 2007 draft has done. Almost every single club in this league drafts guys capable of playing on the fourth line or bottom pairing pretty much yearly. The good clubs are the ones who draft guys who become more than that.
 

Ogrezilla

Nerf Herder
Jul 5, 2009
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you can't assess the 2007 draft and just ignore the return we got for trading Esposito. Hell, we even got a (not very good) rental out of Caputi :laugh:
 

Captain Hook

Registered User
Jul 12, 2007
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Yeah, Shero sure sold high on all the parts he moved in the Hossa deal. EC and Esposito became worthless and Army is damn near the same.
 

Sidney the Kidney

One last time
Jun 29, 2009
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you can't assess the 2007 draft and just ignore the return we got for trading Esposito. Hell, we even got a (not very good) rental out of Caputi :laugh:

I'm not talking about asset management (which Shero did quite well with that draft -- such as turning Esposito into Hossa and Dupuis), I'm talking specifically about the players chosen and their eventual NHL effectiveness.

For example, if we trade Beau Bennett for Corey Perry (a fantastical improbability), but Bennett and the rest of his draft class go on to play zero NHL games, it will be a case of fantastic asset management, but the draft itself would be horrible in terms of the players picked ending up contributing at the NHL level.
 

Ogrezilla

Nerf Herder
Jul 5, 2009
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I'm not talking about asset management (which Shero did quite well with that draft -- such as turning Esposito into Hossa and Dupuis), I'm talking specifically about the players chosen and their eventual NHL effectiveness.

For example, if we trade Beau Bennett for Corey Perry (a fantastical improbability), but Bennett and the rest of his draft class go on to play zero NHL games, it will be a case of fantastic asset management, but the draft itself would be horrible in terms of the players picked ending up contributing at the NHL level.

fair enough. That draft is still tough with how much injuries impacted Esposito and Vellieux but I get your point.

Yeah, Shero sure sold high on all the parts he moved in the Hossa deal. EC and Esposito became worthless and Army is damn near the same.

ya it was ridiculous. That trade would look like a win today if Dupuis was the only piece we got back. That's nuts.
 

eXile59

Shirts on.
Jan 2, 2009
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fair enough. That draft is still tough with how much injuries impacted Esposito and Vellieux but I get your point.



ya it was ridiculous. That trade would look like a win today if Dupuis was the only piece we got back. That's nuts.

And it's hard to predict that.

2006 Staal, 2007 DJ & Bortz, 2008 N/A, 2009 Despres This regime hasn't been great but it hasn't been bad either.
 

zhenyas most fly rep

Registered User
May 3, 2009
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breizh
This draft gave us :

about a 1/3 of
Hossa(Played for the Pens 12 rsg + 20 pog) and Dupuis (334 rsg + 62 pog and counting)

Hal Gill (80 rsg + 44 pog)

a part of Laraque (88 rsg + 17 pog)

It's actually one of our most successful draft under Shero, especially that 2nd rounder.;)

Goes to show that he shouldn't be afraid to deal anything that isn't a first rounder.
 

Mr Jiggyfly

Registered User
Jan 29, 2004
34,246
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Yeah, Shero sure sold high on all the parts he moved in the Hossa deal. EC and Esposito became worthless and Army is damn near the same.

There was a time I enraged some people when I said Army would be traded and wasn't a top six winger.

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?p=6788870

That was funny ****... Me and Jags going at it over Army.... Me and TTET actually agreeing... Dogs and cats, living together...

The best thing is, Pens still need wingers!

Memories.... so long ago, but remaining the same.
 

Candyman

Registered User
Aug 17, 2012
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There was a time I enraged some people when I said Army would be traded and wasn't a top six winger.

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?p=6788870

That was funny ****... Me and Jags going at it over Army.... Me and TTET actually agreeing... Dogs and cats, living together...

The best thing is, Pens still need wingers!

Memories.... so long ago, but remaining the same.

Haha reading through that I found this retrospective gem.

........... and in the next couple of years we are going to start running into money issues. Who doubts Crosby gets over $6 m per when his rookie contract runs out? Malkin? Same. Whitney, Fleury, Orpik, Armstrong are all going to want raises. How much money are we going to actually have to add top line wings? Granted, I believe that Basilli can and will spend to the Cap. Still, I doubt that we can take on all that much in excess salary. To be honest I would much rather have Crosby -Malkin - Staal - Fleury down the middle and take my chances with some second tier wings rather than throw money and worse talent like Letang at crappy solutions to the problem.

Just shows how much we know as fans to me... all of our speculation doesn't mean a thing. :) but it's fun regardless
 

Darth Vitale

Dark Matter
Aug 21, 2003
28,172
114
Darkness
This article makes me weep tears of sorrow. Or... it might have no effect on me at all because I think all the trades were still worth it, and our system is loaded regardless, including at least one very good F prospect. Gotta take risks sometimes. Those were good risks and they never bit us in the ass and never will.
 

mrzeigler

.. but I'm not wrong
Sep 30, 2006
3,538
280
Pittsburgh
Yeah, Shero sure sold high on all the parts he moved in the Hossa deal. EC and Esposito became worthless and Army is damn near the same.

This is a fantastic point to make.

In hindsight, people always can say that a different player or players should have been taken with a pick. But it can't be argued that the Penguins got more out of the players it got in return than the teams that traded for those players.



I'm not talking about asset management (which Shero did quite well with that draft -- such as turning Esposito into Hossa and Dupuis), I'm talking specifically about the players chosen and their eventual NHL effectiveness.

For example, if we trade Beau Bennett for Corey Perry (a fantastical improbability), but Bennett and the rest of his draft class go on to play zero NHL games, it will be a case of fantastic asset management, but the draft itself would be horrible in terms of the players picked ending up contributing at the NHL level.

I get your point, but until a regime shows that it consistently makes mistakes when it steps up to the podium, I wouldn't make a big deal out of this. And a management team that shows a knack for getting relatively high value for assets that quickly depreciate after the deal should be commended.

If a pattern of bad drafts emerge, then I'll worry.

If a pattern emerges of bad drafts but we trade about-to-flounder prospects for competent NHLers, I'll worry considerably less.

Of course, I'd much rather have Shero do a fantastic job of drafting & developing talent and always get the better of his trade partners, but let's be reality ...
 
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Jaded-Fan

Registered User
Mar 18, 2004
52,446
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Pittsburgh
Haha reading through that I found this retrospective gem.



Just shows how much we know as fans to me... all of our speculation doesn't mean a thing. :) but it's fun regardless

Hey, my comments were not that far off. The central point I made then, I would still make today.

As an aside, my lack of punctuation may have been confusing, but you do know I was not calling Letang 'worse talent', right? I was saying throwing money, and worse trading talent like Letang, for a wing, would be a mistake given the money we spent down the middle on Crosby and Malkin.

I think that was a pretty precient point.
 

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