Pittsburgh Penguins Prospects Thread

[CheckingLineCenter]

some visual stuff for Broz from EPRinkside.

Article goes over how he’s a true dual threat guy but lacks some transitional/1v1 ability and isn’t a puck retrieval guy. But shows enough in those areas that he could get there. There’s a lot more detail but idk how much more I can share, so I’ll just link it

Film Room: Tristan Broz's growth in his draft year was impossible to ignore - EP Rinkside

 

[TySmith4Norris]

Decent prospect depth now at goalie with the UMass signing

 

[Peat]

Don't think anyone posted this, interesting rundown of our prospects

Q&A with Penguins director of player development Scott Young on Filip Hallander, Samuel Poulin, more prospects (dkpittsburghsports.com)

There's also a paywalled article on there suggesting there'll be development camp at some point but the paywall cut in before when.

 

[eXile3]

Don't think anyone posted this, interesting rundown of our prospects

Q&A with Penguins director of player development Scott Young on Filip Hallander, Samuel Poulin, more prospects (dkpittsburghsports.com)

There's also a paywalled article on there suggesting there'll be development camp at some point but the paywall cut in before when.

Thanks. Good read. Encouraging that he thinks Hallander has gained half a step. He also says Poulin might compete for a spot and Hallander might be a late year call up. I guess I got it backwards.

 

[Peat]

Thanks. Good read. Encouraging that he thinks Hallander has gained half a step. He also says Poulin might compete for a spot and Hallander might be a late year call up. I guess I got it backwards.

Hextall's talked elsewhere about Hallander maybe competing at camp fwiw.

 

[eXile3]

Hextall's talked elsewhere about Hallander maybe competing at camp fwiw.

I read that. That's why I kind of thought he would be the one competing but it's great they both have support within in the organization.

 

[Tacitus Kilgore]

Thanks. Good read. Encouraging that he thinks Hallander has gained half a step. He also says Poulin might compete for a spot and Hallander might be a late year call up. I guess I got it backwards.

Hexy reads HF and he's tired of reading about us bitching about Sully blocking the youth, this was purely to quiet us down until the season starts

But actually though, it'd be really cool to see Hallander and Poulin get a cup of coffee in the bigs

 

[HandshakeLine]

I gotta say, Hallander looks much, much better than I remembered him being. I'm tentatively excited!

 

[JTG]

Hexy reads HF and he's tired of reading about us bitching about Sully blocking the youth, this was purely to quiet us down until the season starts

But actually though, it'd be really cool to see Hallander and Poulin get a cup of coffee in the bigs

Blocking youth was never Sully's thing. He rode youth to two Stanley Cups.

 

[Tacitus Kilgore]

Blocking youth was never Sully's thing. He rode youth to two Stanley Cups.

He certainly did then, but there's an argument to be made of him changing his ways since 2018. Tbf tho i'm not one of those guys to harp on it

 

[JTG]

Don't think anyone posted this, interesting rundown of our prospects

Q&A with Penguins director of player development Scott Young on Filip Hallander, Samuel Poulin, more prospects (dkpittsburghsports.com)

There's also a paywalled article on there suggesting there'll be development camp at some point but the paywall cut in before when.

I'm probably most intrigued by Legare. With how he can shoot the puck, and has proven to be a lethal shooter, I hope he can get quick enough to properly compete.

 

[JTG]

He certainly did then, but there's an argument to be made of him changing his ways since 2018. Tbf tho i'm not one of those guys to harp on it

But who is he holding back? I don't see guys in WBS ripping it up enough to be much of an impact at t he NHL level. The guys who are in the bottom 6 regularly Sully trusts. I just don't buy that he's keeping youth down at this point.

 

[Peat]

I think the speed with which Marino and DOC got chances right out of the NCAA should tilt the argument back to "Sully will play youth" (even if DOC didn't take his chance). It was a stronger argument when Sprong didn't succeed here and Blueger was cooked as slowly as possible, but these have been two very fallow years for WBS and two of the three best prospects to go through there got their chances very quick.

That said, the next couple years should tilt the argument heavily one way or the other. Economics suggest POJ getting a shot sooner rather than later. Poulin/Legare/Hallander/Puustinen/DOC/Zohorna is a forward class where the odds of there being at least one interesting NHLer feel pretty good, and while nobody's expecting massive things from Reilly/Maniscalco/Bjorkqvist/Almari/Gruden/Bellerive, but they're guys where one of them becoming a useful NHL depth piece feels reasonable. Cam Lee is an interesting boom or bust piece, I'm willing to believe the scouts who insist Drozg has the skill even if the production hasn't come... for the first time in forever, WBS feels like there's a real possible pipeline of talent waiting, something that'll help a few of the guys listed who've been part of it but struggled to stand out. The economics dictate we need to start turning to these guys pretty soon. Wait to see how it plays out and all that, but there's a really good shot that the talent levels in WBS are going to be a peak by the end of this season.

 

[Victor Z]

I think the speed with which Marino and DOC got chances right out of the NCAA should tilt the argument back to "Sully will play youth" (even if DOC didn't take his chance). It was a stronger argument when Sprong didn't succeed here and Blueger was cooked as slowly as possible, but these have been two very fallow years for WBS and two of the three best prospects to go through there got their chances very quick.

Not much of a real chance there, tbh.

O'Connor looked as if he'd been pre-castrated by Sully before ever taking a shift. "Don't you think about playing a 'heavy' game on this team son, because if you take even one penalty you're through." O'Connor's skill set doesn't appear to be overwhelming, so being a "long pants" guy is his ticket to success if he's ever going to find success in the NHL, which means he'll have to try some other team.

O'Connor got three (3) games to begin with in which he averaged about 12:00 TOI but failed to immediately become Kevin Stevens 2.0, and in the remaining games he dressed he was basically stapled to the end of the bench.

 

[Peat]

Or...

Kid got a shot, kid got overwhelmed and didn't take it, team can't afford to keep giving player shots when struggling for results.

 

[Jacob]

Rust got multiple shots. Sundqvist was dumped after a 10 game “shot.” Archibald was up and down for several years.

Sometimes you have to just trust their hockey ability and play them.

 

[Tacitus Kilgore]

But who is he holding back? I don't see guys in WBS ripping it up enough to be much of an impact at t he NHL level. The guys who are in the bottom 6 regularly Sully trusts. I just don't buy that he's keeping youth down at this point.

It's not something that's been wildly apparent to me. But I have seen some things that are irkosome. Refusing to play Riikola over JJ, his alleged dislike of Kahun, his mishandling of Sprong, his insistence of playing DOC with scrubs and then sending him back to the AHL and further screw up his confidence. However I was happy to see POJ get some playing time. It took Zohorna being top scorer in the AHL last year and like a million injuries before he was even tried. And he scored a huge goal which sort felt validating for those here who were calling for him to play for some time.

 

[Gurglesons]

Not much of a real chance there, tbh.

O'Connor looked as if he'd been pre-castrated by Sully before ever taking a shift. "Don't you think about playing a 'heavy' game on this team son, because if you take even one penalty you're through." O'Connor's skill set doesn't appear to be overwhelming, so being a "long pants" guy is his ticket to success if he's ever going to find success in the NHL, which means he'll have to try some other team.

O'Connor got three (3) games to begin with in which he averaged about 12:00 TOI but failed to immediately become Kevin Stevens 2.0, and in the remaining games he dressed he was basically stapled to the end of the bench.

He got out on the # 1 PP for a spell it I remember correctly. Also, do you remember how bad we were in those games?

 

[Randy Butternubs]

Back in August 2020 I said this about Hallander (before he was traded away to Toronto):

"Last week I spent a decent amount of time watching and reading about Hallander. His Timra IK SuperElit highlights sure show why he got bumped up two hockey levels as his skating blew everyone away at that lower level.​

Due to said skating, he was a huge pain in the ass on the forecheck and created a ton of offense because of it. You can tell he's got the smarts and I think his hands are underrated.​

In the subsequent years, his skating didn't stand out nearly as much, but that's to be expected with the increased level of competition. His forechecking, smarts, and hands still stood out though. Looking at game highlights, I think he was one of his team's top PKers. I didn't see lineups posted, but he looked to mostly play LW. Though I suspect he's smart enough to play RW as well.​

Honestly, I think Hallander is what the Pens brass think and hope ZAR is. But he's [Hallander] not physical."​

Now, I've not kept up on him since he was traded away, but wanted to offer a few clarifications. He was a pain in the ass on the forecheck because of his skating and his smarts. He was not hitting people and separating them from the puck. If I'm recalling correctly, he was only credited with ONE hit the season prior to me writing the above. Same thing with his net front presence. He's not nasty in any sense (a la Hornqvist) but he's effective.

And from what others have written about him, it seems like he's re-gained that lost step post-injury. His shot has apparently improved too.

 

[deakka]

Clang by far the best swedish goalie as far as stats goes in the WJSS showcase

Clang .937
Limdbom .895%
Svedebäck .780%

Only stat watching and only like pre-preseason. But we have to cheer for what we can with the state of our prospect pool, right?

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

Hallander’s defensive game (in limited viewings) has always reminded me of Guentzels offensive game. He’s so subtle but so responsible. Anticipates very well.

 

[Peat]

He got out on the # 1 PP for a spell it I remember correctly. Also, do you remember how bad we were in those games?

He played a minute with Geno. I dunno if that was splitting PP1, or him on PP1 in a really injury hit period (at a guess, POJ was the dman on that PP). But yeah, he was there, and he had nine minutes with Kapanen/Zucker/McCann to boot separate from that. 13 minutes on the PP in 10 games overall.

I'm not here to tell anyone DOC got a fantastic chance, but he got a chance and it came earlier than it has for many other Pens prospects. He got a chance quicker than Guentzel. He got PP time from the get go. If the question is "how ready is a coach to give a young player a chance", that should count for something.

It should be beyond dispute that he didn't take that chance. We can speculate as to why, but he didn't. Personally I think that the org made the right decision sending him down to wail on the AHL rather than prolonging a chance he wasn't ready for and that if there was a mistake, it was thinking he was ready for a chance to begin with. You could see the difference in how ready he was and how ready Zohorna was really quick. Hopefully DOC will convert that AHL scoring into making a difference next shot he gets.


Also, not being funny, but Kahun was a 24 year old with a full NHL season under his belt. If we're calling that being a kid, then the number of kids Sully has trusted shoots through the roof. Shit, give the dude credit for trusting McCann, he was only 23 or so when he got him.

Of course the problem there wasn't that Kahun was a kid, it was - most probably - that he didn't trust Kahun on his defensive details and battle level. Same problem with Sprong, with Kessel, with Galchenyuk... I'm not necessarily here to defend that trait, but don't confuse Sully's attitude on said players with his attitude towards youngsters.

 

[Flying Dego]

Not much of a real chance there, tbh.

O'Connor looked as if he'd been pre-castrated by Sully before ever taking a shift. "Don't you think about playing a 'heavy' game on this team son, because if you take even one penalty you're through." O'Connor's skill set doesn't appear to be overwhelming, so being a "long pants" guy is his ticket to success if he's ever going to find success in the NHL, which means he'll have to try some other team.

O'Connor got three (3) games to begin with in which he averaged about 12:00 TOI but failed to immediately become Kevin Stevens 2.0, and in the remaining games he dressed he was basically stapled to the end of the bench.

He got several net front PP opportunities in his limited time. Regardless it was pretty clear his talent isn't anything special. I think it's just an excuse to say Sully stopped his success...

He was noticeably slow in both speed and reads IMO...and his grit was lackluster. Literally nothing worth being upset about with the chance he was given.

 

[Gurglesons]

He got several net front PP opportunities in his limited time. Regardless it was pretty clear his talent isn't anything special. I think it's just an excuse to say Sully stopped his success...

He was noticeably slow in both speed and reads IMO...and his grit was lackluster. Literally nothing worth being upset about with the chance he was given.

I’m not sure that’s true. I think he probably just wasn’t ready.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

I don't even view Zoho particularly highly in a prospect pool full of meh. He showed flashes of nice play, for sure, but Lafferty was even better to start his career in the NHL and now he's not a guy I even want on an NHL contract. I'd like him to get a 4th line spot, but with the amount of bottom-6 guys we've got, I wouldn't really bat an eye if he played in WBS alongside guys like Hallander, Poulin and Legare.