Prospect Info: Pittsburgh Penguins Prospects Thread

[Honour Over Glory]

What are people's thoughts on Kuhnhackl so far? NHL wise I mean, not his time in the AHL.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

Anyone have an update on how Sundqvist has looked this year?

With his eyes.

 

[Jacob]

What are people's thoughts on Kuhnhackl so far? NHL wise I mean, not his time in the AHL.

Meh. He's decent at most things but doesn't stand out at any one thing.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

What are people's thoughts on Kuhnhackl so far? NHL wise I mean, not his time in the AHL.

He's looked like a solid fourth liner...very replaceable, but surprisingly competent at just about everything.

I was expecting one brutal game from him before never hearing from him again, but he's earning his keep for the time being.

 

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Yeah, if anything, Kuhn and Rust seem like they could be very good, very effective 4th liners for a long time. I've been happy with both of them, especially when weighed against the Porters, Shearys, and Wilsons of the world.

 

[WayneSid9987]

Kuhn has done well on this call up.
Didn't like his first game but pretty solid after that.
I like his size and nose for the net. (ie. he'll drive the net when he has the puck)
Only 23 so maybe he can find another gear(speed/strength) by 25 to really grab himself an NHL roster spot.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Yeah I thought he was a fairly safe player out there that at times had some decent vision and IQ with the puck and getting in the right spot to pick up loose pucks and also making quick passes. I think he knows what role he has to play and that's what we are seeing, because I see a kid that is willing to do whatever role this team needs from him. That shot of his, I want to see it unleashed hopefully soon because he has a beauty of a slap shot/one timer.

At worst, he seems to be a 4th liner but with an "At best" 3rd liner potential.

 

[#66]

I was never much of a Kuhn fan but hes been ok in his 4th line role.

I really like Rusts game. Good energy up and down his wing, has a little bit of poise with the puck, has a nice shot and you notice him for good things.

Any updates on Tiff?

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Rust doesn't surprise me...this place was down on him because he's the antithesis of a sexy 2nd round pick and probably didn't need to be drafted exactly where he was...but every time I saw him play at Notre Dame I saw a future ideal bottom six player, the kind of guy teams that win have a couple of. I swear he's playing faster now than he was back then, though, and his speed was always one of his best assets.

I hated that pick as much as anybody at the time, FWIW.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

Rust doesn't surprise me...this place was down on him because he's the antithesis of a sexy 2nd round pick and probably didn't need to be drafted exactly where he was...but every time I saw him play at Notre Dame I saw a future ideal bottom six player, the kind of guy teams that win have a couple of. I swear he's playing faster now than he was back then, though, and his speed was always one of his best assets.

I hated that pick as much as anybody at the time, FWIW.

I think he is as well. One thing that I didn't notice/realize was that he's not afraid to just take the puck and go with it. I'm glad he's not deferring to other players on the team.

I'm waiting for Lovejoy to be off the team so Rust can switch his number to 12 (or 21). Then I'll gladly get a shirt jersey.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

I'll rip this bandage off right now - Bryan Rust will not wear #21 for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

 

[MrBurghundy]

I'll rip this bandage off right now - Bryan Rust will not wear #21 for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

Derp!

 

[eXile59]

If I remember correctly people were calling for Pulkkinen with the Rust pick and then when he dropped to the 4th and we took Kuhn people went crazy.

The more I look at Shero's drafting the more frustrated I get. Staal over Toews, DP over Forsberg, Bennett over Kuznetsov, Kuhn over Pulkkinen.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

If I remember correctly people were calling for Pulkkinen with the Rust pick and then when he dropped to the 4th and we took Kuhn people went crazy.

The more I look at Shero's drafting the more frustrated I get. Staal over Toews, DP over Forsberg, Bennett over Kuznetsov, Kuhn over Pulkkinen.

Yeah... I realize that it's easy to poke holes in, now. But it starts to look especially mediocre/awful when you take his once-vaunted "defenseman U" draft picks and realize that they are looking a bit more... questionable... than once thought.

But as a sort of reverse compliment sandwich... I'll say something nice here about how Rust looks like a solid bottom six contributor and there are probably a couple of more guys in that same vein floating around in the system.

But to complete the reverse compliment sandwich... you know it's kind of sad when you are having to point out long-term project, potential bottom sixers as some sort of strength of your team's prospect pool. A good GM and his scouts should be pulling one or two of those guys out of every draft. Not a handful over nearly ten years.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

If I remember correctly people were calling for Pulkkinen with the Rust pick and then when he dropped to the 4th and we took Kuhn people went crazy.

The more I look at Shero's drafting the more frustrated I get. Staal over Toews, DP over Forsberg, Bennett over Kuznetsov, Kuhn over Pulkkinen.

I'll say this in defense of the Staal pick - I don't think Jonathan Toews becomes Jonathan Toews from our third line, either.

The other stuff...I was with just about everyone else here being livid at them (aside from Bennett over Kuznetsov, I was rather indifferent to that) at the time, and time hasn't treated them much better.

 

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Now, some of this is hindsight, but these are the picks that kill me when looking back at Shero's history; Esposito over Pacioretty, Samuelsson and Hanowski (one taken because of his name, one taken because...?) over guys like Reilly Smith, Tyson Barrie, Bennett over Kuznetsov and Nelson, Kuhn over Pulkkinen, Pouliot over Forsberg or Trouba.

Again, some of those are hindsight and the guys weren't really even on anyone's radar (Pacioretty, Smith, Barrie), but the other guys were players tons of us were begging and praying Shero would take at the time, so it's not like they came outta nowhere.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Forsberg & Pulkkinen hold water because they were guys this place universally wanted at the time...and them being passed over fed into the Shero only drafts North American-trained players sentiment that drove me crazy. If the Pens didn't have a mini pipeline coming out of London I'm convinced that we'd have drafted someone like Mike Matheson instead of Olli Määttä.

I was furious we didn't draft Määttä with that 8th overall pick.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I'll say this in defense of the Staal pick - I don't think Jonathan Toews becomes Jonathan Toews from our third line, either.

Eh... you may be right. Toews didn't EXCLUSIVELY play center coming out of college though, did he? I don't know how guaranteed it would have been that he stayed on the third line. Hell... Staal didn't his first year. He was mostly Malkin's LW.

Which, by the way, was one of his best seasons, IMO. Odd that the team kept insisting on trying to reverse that formula rather than ever attempt revisiting it. Things might have worked out a bit different.

 

[plaidchuck]

Staals a weird egg, enough two way skill to be a selke candidate, not enough offensive skill to be an anchor in the top six.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

I'll say this in defense of the Staal pick - I don't think Jonathan Toews becomes Jonathan Toews from our third line, either.

The other stuff...I was with just about everyone else here being livid at them (aside from Bennett over Kuznetsov, I was rather indifferent to that) at the time, and time hasn't treated them much better.

Speaking as a native Winnipegger, Toews was known to be a special player for a long time pre-draft. Scoring 22 goals and 39 points as a 17 year old in the NCAA is no joke.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

I remember wanting to avoid Toews like the plague heading into the draft. I have no problem admitting that I just flat-out never liked the guy and to this day think he gets way too much credit for being surrounded by greatness. If Sid ever had to get called out by his defenseman like Toews did by Seabrook we'd never hear the end of it.

Anyway...I think we're nearly a decade too late to be having this argument in the prospects thread.

 

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

I don't really loathe the Staal pick, but there were a lot of players that should've been taken before him. Toews being very high on that list, even if he didn't turn out to be Mr. Intangibles here.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I remember wanting to avoid Toews like the plague heading into the draft. I have no problem admitting that I just flat-out never liked the guy and to this day think he gets way too much credit for being surrounded by greatness. If Sid ever had to get called out by his defenseman like Toews did by Seabrook we'd never hear the end of it.

Anyway...I think we're nearly a decade too late to be having this argument in the prospects thread.

I agree (on both counts). I've never been as wild about Toews as everyone else seems to be. Would have rather had him than Staal, of course. But it worked out well for the Penguins, in the end. They didn't exactly lose by drafting Staal. He very much helped them win. It just could have been more. Like you said... no reason to clutter this thread up about it further.

Oh... and I wanted Backstrom, FWIW. Thought he could have moved to wing or have been a Malkin insurance policy. Shows what I know. Though obviously he turned out to be quite a player, as well. At center. In the top lines.

 

[jmelm]

Nice to see Archibald has finally started to produce. He's the one prospect I've been most disappointed by in the last few years relative to my expectations of him. I'm not saying he'll become the next Callahan, but it would be great if he could be a feistier "Tyler Kennedy in his prime" kind of player.