Prospect Info: Pittsburgh Penguins Prospect Discussion

[jmelm]

Derrick Pouliot

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but just saw that Derrick Pouliot has been named the WHL player of the week. Nice honor, and another nice confidence booster for Derrick. He's really getting hot at a great time, and should be flying high right now. Hopefully he stays healthy for the rest of the season and playoffs, and his team goes on a great run.


Next step: let's get him in with Andy O'Brian, Gary Roberts or T.R. Goodman in the summertime

 

[Solution]

He's played well, but those points were all, bar a powerplay point, standing right next to and involving our boy Despres. So there's your reason.

Or maybe Despres' great play is the result of playing with Samuelsson. I seem to remember Despres being paired up with Samuelsson at the beginning of the season to be the shutdown pair. Plus Dumoulin has not been as good this season as last when he was paired up with Samuelsson. I do not know. Just pointing out that their are other ways to look at it.

 

[WheresRamziAbid]

Christ, Despres wasn't out of position on the goal against in Vancouver. He misread the play and didn't think the player could make that pass. His depth was a bit off, but he wasn't out of position.

For ****'s sake, my biggest problem with people defending the organization with regards to the Despres situation is they just either don't understand hockey, don't watch hockey, or are just flat out making things up in order to push the contrarian position

Thats exactly what out of position means.

Im not saying Despres is an idiot or Orpik is a Rhodes Scholar, just saying an NHL coach will take a guy that passes to the feet of his defensive partner over the guy that misreads and lets guys walk to the net 99.99% of the time.

Im not trying to be contrarian just pointing out the very simple and obvious fact that Despres hasnt played anywhere near the level that people on here claim he has. If it were true he would still be playing in the NHL right because even if Bylsma hates him (which is ridiculous) if he was what you are describing 29 other teams would be lining up with a blank check to acquire him.

Last i checked you were making the same type of claims (albeit a different degree) about Dustin Jeffery and he has since been waived twice. This is the same board that half the participants still will defend Tangradi. If you dont think opinions around here should be taken with a grain of salt due to prospect bias then i dont know what to tell you.

 

[Fordy]

Thats exactly what out of position means.

Im not saying Despres is an idiot or Orpik is a Rhodes Scholar, just saying an NHL coach will take a guy that passes to the feet of his defensive partner over the guy that misreads and lets guys walk to the net 99.99% of the time.

Im not trying to be contrarian just pointing out the very simple and obvious fact that Despres hasnt played anywhere near the level that people on here claim he has. If it were true he would still be playing in the NHL right because even if Bylsma hates him (which is ridiculous) if he was what you are describing 29 other teams would be lining up with a blank check to acquire him.

Last i checked you were making the same type of claims (albeit a different degree) about Dustin Jeffery and he has since been waived twice. This is the same board that half the participants still will defend Tangradi. If you dont think opinions around here should be taken with a grain of salt due to prospect bias then i dont know what to tell you.

name them please

 

[WheresRamziAbid]

name them please

Dont know many names on here(still pretty new), but was in a discussion earlier in the year with at least a handful of people defending Tangradi whether it was saying he was still good or jumping right into blaming his lack of development on whoever best fit their agenda.

 

[cygnus47]

Thats exactly what out of position means.

Im not saying Despres is an idiot or Orpik is a Rhodes Scholar, just saying an NHL coach will take a guy that passes to the feet of his defensive partner over the guy that misreads and lets guys walk to the net 99.99% of the time.

Im not trying to be contrarian just pointing out the very simple and obvious fact that Despres hasnt played anywhere near the level that people on here claim he has. If it were true he would still be playing in the NHL right because even if Bylsma hates him (which is ridiculous) if he was what you are describing 29 other teams would be lining up with a blank check to acquire him.

Last i checked you were making the same type of claims (albeit a different degree) about Dustin Jeffery and he has since been waived twice. This is the same board that half the participants still will defend Tangradi. If you dont think opinions around here should be taken with a grain of salt due to prospect bias then i dont know what to tell you.

lol. I think your bias goes further in the other direction.

It's lucky Orpik's the kind of guy that will let Ovechkin stand around in the slot. That's the kind of guy we need for our team.

 

[Shady Machine]

Thats exactly what out of position means.

Im not saying Despres is an idiot or Orpik is a Rhodes Scholar, just saying an NHL coach will take a guy that passes to the feet of his defensive partner over the guy that misreads and lets guys walk to the net 99.99% of the time.

Im not trying to be contrarian just pointing out the very simple and obvious fact that Despres hasnt played anywhere near the level that people on here claim he has. If it were true he would still be playing in the NHL right because even if Bylsma hates him (which is ridiculous) if he was what you are describing 29 other teams would be lining up with a blank check to acquire him.

Last i checked you were making the same type of claims (albeit a different degree) about Dustin Jeffery and he has since been waived twice. This is the same board that half the participants still will defend Tangradi. If you dont think opinions around here should be taken with a grain of salt due to prospect bias then i dont know what to tell you.

Okay Despres was out of position on one play in which it was also a great pass and a really fast dude burned him. Too bad I can point out at least 3 times this year that Maatta has gotten walked to the net. Guess Bylsma should have benched him for Engelland.

Point being, you are taking one play and then using that as evidence to say that it's an obvious fact that Despres hasn't played "anywhere near the level that people on here claim he has". Please provide evidence to prove this is a fact.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Dont know many names on here(still pretty new), but was in a discussion earlier in the year with at least a handful of people defending Tangradi whether it was saying he was still good or jumping right into blaming his lack of development on whoever best fit their agenda.

Not sure how recent you mean (been a year or so), but you can use my name. I saw enough talent for a big guy to be excited about him. Not the first or last time ill be wrong.

However, the ****ed up things said about him pissed me off. No reason for that.

 

[oconnor9sean]

Stars fan here:

I wasn't sure where to put this, but this'll do. I went back on the history of your board, to 2005, because I wanted to read y'all's GDT for Crosby's first career game, and while I was there, I saw a post where a guy had done an intense scouting report for all of the Pens players. I noticed one interesting name, and turns out, the report was ummm, wrong. lol. Here's the report given for then Pens D Prospect, Paul Bissonnette.

Paul Bissonnette: This guy is just the best! He is the most vocal player I have ever seen on the ice. He is like a conductor on the ice, telling everyone where to go, what to do, etc. When I saw him play 2 years ago with Saginaw, he looked like a man amongst boys; now, he looks like a veteran NHLer, even amongst the other veterans in camp. Has excellent skating ability that allows him to do an excellent job of controlling the gap against oncoming forwards. Makes smart plays with the puck in all 3 zones. Looks amazingly calm out there and doesn’t seem to get rattled. Makes incredibly smart plays in the offensive zones: he doesn’t pinch in often, but does an excellent job of it when he does do it. Makes the hard low wrist shot from the point every time rather than try to wind up for the big slapper, and this resulted in several good chances and at least one goal. His character is sensational. So far in this camp, he has proven to me that whatever great things he has shown in the past are certainly not by fluke. I’ll be very surprised if he is not a top-3 defenseman and a potential captain or assistant with the Pens long-term, and I don’t know how long they’ll be able to keep this guy off the roster. He could play in the NHL right now, IMO. He and Carcillo have easily vaulted their way into top-6 or 8 prospects.

Pretty funny to look at, in hindsight!

See you guys on Saturday!

 

[alcanalz]

Stars fan here:

I wasn't sure where to put this, but this'll do. I went back on the history of your board, to 2005, because I wanted to read y'all's GDT for Crosby's first career game, and while I was there, I saw a post where a guy had done an intense scouting report for all of the Pens players. I noticed one interesting name, and turns out, the report was ummm, wrong. lol. Here's the report given for then Pens D Prospect, Paul Bissonnette.

Paul Bissonnette: This guy is just the best! He is the most vocal player I have ever seen on the ice. He is like a conductor on the ice, telling everyone where to go, what to do, etc. When I saw him play 2 years ago with Saginaw, he looked like a man amongst boys; now, he looks like a veteran NHLer, even amongst the other veterans in camp. Has excellent skating ability that allows him to do an excellent job of controlling the gap against oncoming forwards. Makes smart plays with the puck in all 3 zones. Looks amazingly calm out there and doesn’t seem to get rattled. Makes incredibly smart plays in the offensive zones: he doesn’t pinch in often, but does an excellent job of it when he does do it. Makes the hard low wrist shot from the point every time rather than try to wind up for the big slapper, and this resulted in several good chances and at least one goal. His character is sensational. So far in this camp, he has proven to me that whatever great things he has shown in the past are certainly not by fluke. I’ll be very surprised if he is not a top-3 defenseman and a potential captain or assistant with the Pens long-term, and I don’t know how long they’ll be able to keep this guy off the roster. He could play in the NHL right now, IMO. He and Carcillo have easily vaulted their way into top-6 or 8 prospects.

Pretty funny to look at, in hindsight!

See you guys on Saturday!

Damn, that is horrible. Link to that?

 

[Tasty Biscuits]

That's legitimately hilarious.

 

[oconnor9sean]

Damn, that is horrible. Link to that?

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=173600

The guilty scout is user jmelm, idk if he's still around.


It's really funny going back in time like that. At that same time, you guys were freaking TF out on who was going to be your #2C long term

I'm sure there's some ridiculous stuff on the Stars board that I need to go and find.

 

[Shrimper]

Sorry to carry on picking on one person but;

Letang: Another guy who just impressed the hell out of me. Incredible skating and agility and really good speed. Scored a couple beautiful goals, made great passes, led the rush and jumped into the play. Was also very solid defensively and looks totally calm and composed in the defensive zone. Every time he gets the puck in the offensive zone, it just seems like something good is going to happen. I would also have to say that he has climbed his way into the top 10 or so prospects. In the new NHL with the new rules, this guy could be very, very, very special.

What happened?

 

[oconnor9sean]

I see that the scout is still active on HFPens. He posted at the top of this page.

 

[Farnham4top6]

Damn, that is horrible. Link to that?

Found it
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showpost.php?p=3520682&postcount=1
Saw that I was a bit late, but everyone can make a mistake...

 

[Waffle Fries]

I think I might like the Carcillo scouting report even more than the Biz one.

Edit: This post about Biz is better

Honestly, I can't tell you enough about how impressed I am with Bissonnette. As I said, I really think he could play on our 3rd pairing right away - he's that good. And though I doubt that will happen, it is very obvious to me that he is going to be one of the KEY players for the Pens going forward. Not only do I think he has the chance to be one of the Pens' best dmen, but I also think he has a chance to be among the better defensemen in the league. If what I saw was any indication, Bissonnette will be much better than Boughner.

 

[Shrimper]

I'm just looking at old posts now in GDT. Anyone remember Nils Ekman? Scored 6 goals for the Penguins whilst he was here for one season. Of which 3 came in one game against Tampa.

 

[Farnham4top6]

I'm just looking at old posts now in GDT. Anyone remember Nils Ekman? Scored 6 goals for the Penguins whilst he was here for one season. Of which 3 came in one game against Tampa.

Oh, the pos got a stroke, so he had to retire.

 

[Shady Machine]

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=173600

The guilty scout is user jmelm, idk if he's still around.


It's really funny going back in time like that. At that same time, you guys were freaking TF out on who was going to be your #2C long term

I'm sure there's some ridiculous stuff on the Stars board that I need to go and find.

I love that it's jmelm.

 

[Tasty Biscuits]

Kinda feel bad for jmelm, hopefully people won't hold it against him -- 'twas a different time, folks. Let's just stick to the probable Kuhnackl-bust as an example of prospect over-hyping and never bring up Biz Nasty (or Carcillo) again. No one bats %1.000

And yeah, Letang defintely used to have a bit more poise in his younger days. Not unflappable amounts, but definitely more than he has now for some reason.

 

[alcanalz]

Kinda feel bad for jmelm, hopefully people won't hold it against him -- 'twas a different time, folks. Let's just stick to the probable Kuhnackl-bust as an example of prospect over-hyping and never bring up Biz Nasty (or Carcillo) again. No one bats %1.000

And yeah, Letang defintely used to have a bit more poise in his younger days. Not unflappable amounts, but definitely more than he has now for some reason.

Yeah, I'm sure if each of us made a scouting report of all of our prospects and projections, we'd each look like fools multiple times over.

It's just funny to see them in hindsight, though, especially from that far back.

 

[jmelm]

Kinda feel bad for jmelm, hopefully people won't hold it against him -- 'twas a different time, folks. Let's just stick to the probable Kuhnackl-bust as an example of prospect over-hyping and never bring up Biz Nasty (or Carcillo) again. No one bats %1.000

And yeah, Letang defintely used to have a bit more poise in his younger days. Not unflappable amounts, but definitely more than he has now for some reason.

LOL. That is funny to read that stuff, but nothing to feel bad for. That was a great road trip a buddy and I took driving from Toronto to Pitt. That was the first time I attended a training camp and got to see those guys. I was only 22 back then and have to admit I was pretty high from the excitement of being there and seeing Lemieux & Sid, and also high on grass and beer! And hey, even Wayne Gretzky said that he thought Carcillo would score 30 in the NHL one day

 

[IHWR]

I wouldn't knock jmelm too much for that report. I remember that training camp and Biz actually looked pretty good on D and he nearly made the team out of camp. It's more a case of a prospect having an abnormally good training camp as opposed to a terrible scouting report.

Besides, he's one of the few guys around here that will give his take on prospects and players based on actually watching them play. Obviously he's not going to be right 100% of the time (no one is) but that's what he saw so that's what he wrote. If you want to rag on anyone rag on Biz...he's the one who's play plummeted so much that he was converted into a 4th line plug.

You could go back and quote terrible reports I've posted too...doesn't mean they weren't right at the time.

 

[Shady Machine]

I should say I wasn't knocking him, it's just funny to see NHL nobodies being pimped back in the day as much as that. I'm sure I've done the same thing (I was all over Kirill Kabanov's jock because of some youtube highlights a few years back haha).

I will say, when jmelm likes "this player" he really, really likes them.

 

[IHWR]

I should say I wasn't knocking him, it's just funny to see NHL nobodies being pimped back in the day as much as that. I'm sure I've done the same thing (I was all over Kirill Kabanov's jock because of some youtube highlights a few years back haha).

I will say, when jmelm likes "this player" he really, really likes them.

Yeah I know. It was just a weird time back then. I mean...it wasn't hard for any prospect to look good on that 2005 team...they were garbage.