Several prospects in Pittsburgh Penguins top 20 ready for NHL duties

[HF Article]

Photo: Former 8th overall draft pick Derrick Pouliot will likely join the NHL Penguins for good this season. (Courtesy of Joe Sargent/NHLI via Getty Images)


</p> The Pittsburgh Penguins improved their NHL roster a fair amount in the 2015 offseason, but it was at the expense of their future. Once possessing one of the deepest groups of defensive prospects in the league, trades and graduations have left the coffers empty. It will only get worse too, as several of the Penguins’ top prospects are set to graduate during the 2015-16 season.

There are numerous prospects who can compete at the NHL level right now, but none outside of defenseman Derrick Pouliot project to be impact players in the immediate future.… read more

The post Several prospects in Pittsburgh Penguins top 20 ready for NHL duties appeared first on Hockey's Future.



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[plaidchuck]

Several? You are quite optimistic there HF Article.

 

[Le Magnifique 66]

Who says we don't have enough solid young prospects coming up?

 

[Mischa]

Several? You are quite optimistic there HF Article.

Well they consider pouliot, dumoulin, plotnikov, and clendenning prospects and also wilson, rust and sundqvist who I don't think you could disagree with. I'd definitely say that's several

 

[Jag68Sid87]

In terms of high upside, we have only two though: Pouliot and Sundqvist. Three if we count Matt Murray.

Other high upside prospects are Sprong and Jarry, and they're not ready for NHL duties.

 

[wej20]

In terms of high upside, we have only two though: Pouliot and Sundqvist. Three if we count Matt Murray.

Other high upside prospects are Sprong and Jarry, and they're not ready for NHL duties.

If anything I'd count Murry before Sundqvist if we're considering high upside.

 

[Penguinator]

In terms of high upside, we have only two though: Pouliot and Sundqvist. Three if we count Matt Murray.

Other high upside prospects are Sprong and Jarry, and they're not ready for NHL duties.

Murray is almost a sure shot for the NHL imho, Sprong is do or bust, magical hands but we know what can happen... Not sure about Jarry though, on the bubble?

 

[Empoleon8771]

In terms of high upside, we have only two though: Pouliot and Sundqvist. Three if we count Matt Murray.

Other high upside prospects are Sprong and Jarry, and they're not ready for NHL duties.

I really don't consider Sundqvist to have high upside. He has the upside IMO of a good 2nd/3rd line center. That's not that high. That's like saying Rust has high upside because he has the upside of a TK-like 3rd line winger.

I also think Jarry is too low on this list, his team got torn apart after last year and still had a solid season this year. Didn't he finish 2nd in goalie of the year for the WHL? I see no reason he should be below players like Clendenning or Blueger.

 

[Shady Machine]

I really don't consider Sundqvist to have high upside. He has the upside IMO of a good 2nd/3rd line center. That's not that high. That's like saying Rust has high upside because he has the upside of a TK-like 3rd line winger.

I don't necessarily think Sundqvist has high offensive upside but his overall upside is definitely higher than Rust. What a weird thing to say. Sundqvist's upside to me is a very good 3rd line center, wish size, snarl, shutdown capabilities, and can put up 40 points. I guess it depends on your definition of high upside. Your definition is weird.

 

[Empoleon8771]

I don't necessarily think Sundqvist has high offensive upside but his overall upside is definitely higher than Rust. What a weird thing to say. Sundqvist's upside to me is a very good 3rd line center, wish size, snarl, shutdown capabilities, and can put up 40 points. I guess it depends on your definition of high upside. Your definition is weird.

My definition of high upside is a legit top-6 forward, top-4 D or a starting goalie. I don't know how that's a weird definition. A 3C isn't high upside.

I said Rust's upside was a 3rd line winger and Sundqvist's upside was a fringe 2/3C. So I have no idea why you're saying that I said that Sundqvist's upside was not higher than Rust's, I specifically said it was.

 

[Shady Machine]

My definition of high upside is a legit top-6 forward, top-4 D or a starting goalie. I don't know how that's a weird definition. A 3C isn't high upside.

I said Rust's upside was a 3rd line winger and Sundqvist's upside was a fringe 2/3C. So I have no idea why you're saying that I said that Sundqvist's upside was not higher than Rust's, I specifically said it was.

I think a 3C that provides 40+ points, shutdown defense, physicality and size is relatively high upside. That said, I can understand not thinking it fits the term "high upside" to many.

My point with Rust was it sounded like you were saying if Sundqvist has high upside, so does Rust. That's a weird statement since Sundqvist will be a better player than Rust and by a pretty significant margin IMO. So it was an invalid comparison.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

My definition of high upside is a legit top-6 forward, top-4 D or a starting goalie. I don't know how that's a weird definition. A 3C isn't high upside.

I said Rust's upside was a 3rd line winger and Sundqvist's upside was a fringe 2/3C. So I have no idea why you're saying that I said that Sundqvist's upside was not higher than Rust's, I specifically said it was.

3Cs are often more important than scoring wingers. I don't think the designation is as cut-and-dried as "top 6 forward > bottom 6 forward".

 

[Shady Machine]

3Cs are often more important than scoring wingers. I don't think the designation is as cut-and-dried as "top 6 forward > bottom 6 forward".

Agreed.

 

[plaidchuck]

Never assume anything with goalies. Sometimes a sure thing like Dipietro is a bust, other times you have some nobody in his late thirties win two vezinas.

 

[Zero Pucks]

Penguins prospect? NHL duties?

 

[Jag68Sid87]

Sundqvist's upside is Ryan Kesler. That's high enough.

 

[steveg]

Sundqvist's upside is Ryan Kesler. That's high enough.

Wow, that's pretty bold. Haven't heard anyone say that before...

Not saying it's not true, as I don't know that much about him, other than what I saw last pre-season...

 

[cygnus47]

"The Penguins system has numerous weaknesses, namely an overall lack of talent at forward and defense."

Sums it up pretty well.

 

[wej20]

Wow, that's pretty bold. Haven't heard anyone say that before...

Not saying it's not true, as I don't know that much about him, other than what I saw last pre-season...

He definitely doesn't have Kesler's skating. I'm hoping Sundqvist becomes a poor man's Jordan Staal.

 

[#66]

He definitely doesn't have Kesler's skating. I'm hoping Sundqvist becomes a poor man's Jordan Staal.

Yup... that's what I think too. If he can be a 40pt 3rd liner that is puck heavy and hard to play against... I'm happy.

 

[steveg]

Yup... that's what I think too. If he can be a 40pt 3rd liner that is puck heavy and hard to play against... I'm happy.

Very much agreed. We just HAD a 40 pt. 3rd line center, who was NOT puck heavy and NOT hard to play against (though good defensively). If Sundqvist eventually becomes a 40 pt. 3C who is good defensively, AND puck heavy/hard to play against, then I'll be thrilled.

 

[mpp9]

I'm interested to see if Sundqvist ends up being a center here. I want to see what he looks like on wing this season.

 

[Riptide]

Several? You are quite optimistic there HF Article.

Well seeing how some of the guys they listed were: Pouliot, Dumoulin, Sundqvist, Rust, Murray, Wilson, Simon and Plotnikov... I think several of those guys could easily play depth roles next season and do well there. I mean (in theory) it's not like we need them to step up and play a top 6 role or even depend on them to be on the 3rd line. For the first time in a long time, they're going to have to battle against quality players just to make the 4th line or be the 13th/14th guy. And Pouliot and Dumoulin are NHL ready.

 

[Riptide]

"The Penguins system has numerous weaknesses, namely an overall lack of talent at forward and defense."

Sums it up pretty well.

While I agree, I'm also not overly worried about it. If we sign Perron next summer, we'll have 5 of our top 6 forward slots locked up for the next 2 years (and the 4 of those 6 locked up for 4/5+ years), with Perron and Hornqvist likely having the shortest contracts.

Which means we need to find 1 prospect or cheap player to round out the top 6. Given that we have a couple of prospects who look like they might be able to fill that role, I'm not really all that concerned about our lack of forward prospects at this time. I'm not worried about the bottom 6 at all as I think we have a bunch of prospects who could easily fill out those roles over the next 2-3 years.

As for our blueline, this is a little concerning... however we have Letang locked up and have Maatta under team control for another 4(+?) seasons. We also have two solid young prospects in Pouliot and Dumoulin who should easily be able to play quality minutes over the next two seasons (if not immediately - if only due to necessity). So while this potentially could be an issue if either of those two fail to live up to expectations, as long as one of them progresses into a top 4 guy, we're going to be okay on the blueline for the next 4+ years.

So yeah, do we have a weak prospect pool? Absolutely. But our NHL roster is good enough that while a weak prospect pool isn't desirable, it's also likely not really an issue for this team as it's currently constructed. We have time to rectify this before it becomes an issue. 2 years ago (and even last year) it was an issue. It's not really this year due to the players we've acquired.