I am of the mind that one if not multiple young wingers should be getting cups of tea up here just to see how they fit while there is a winger shortage on this team.You still probably need to bring a guy in, but if they find one AHL guy who can contribute to the top 6 and that saves a second costly trade. Teams often think guys aren't ready and they prove them wrong....
I don't watch enough of WBS to know if any of these guys are close to ready, but I agree with the sentiment. When was the last time we gave a WBS player an honest cup of coffee in a top 6 role? When was the last time such a player earned a permanent roster spot? I literally can't recall the last one. I don't even recall the last time we gave somebody a shot.
We don't have any forwards who are ready, save Megna.
Rust MIGHT be ok IF we had serious injuries and ran out of bodies, but really he should stay down there. He's not good enough to supplant anyone in our line up, because he won't be an offensive contributor at the NHL level yet.
Wilson is not ready, period. I'm very excited about him, but he needs time. At least 1 more full season after this one.
Archibald was the one guy I thought may be a darkhorse to crack the Pens team this year, but that was before his injury. Him missing that time set him back, and he's nowhere near ready. IF he has a very strong finish to this season (and I actually thought after last year that he could be one of those guys who transitions to pro and is dominant right away), he may have a chance to crack the line up next year. But he's not ready now.
Dea, who is still a rake, has been a healthy scratch in the AHL. I don't know if he'll ever be an NHLer, but if he ever is, it's certainly not this year.
Kuhnhackl and Uher (the latter of whom is probably the closest to being able to be a 4th liner), still need to become even stronger and more dominant in their two-way roles before they're ready.
I'm excited about the players we have down there in terms of being guys who can potentially really fill out our bottom 6 or maybe bottom 9 in about 2-3 years. But none of them are ready now, and none of them have the chance to be a top line guy.
Wilson and Archibald are the only ones, besides Megna, to have the chance at a top-6 role in the future, and we're still SERIOUSLY lacking size in our organization. That's why I don't want to trade Sutter, and it's why we need to find a guy who has both
SIZE and SKILL for our top 6 going forward. If we have Sutter + Sundqvist + someone else (like an E. Kane or Ladd or Wheeler or Coyle), that's what we really need to complement all of our other guys who are 5'11/6'0 or less.
. Give a Wilson or a Dea or Rust a shot... whats the worse that can happen? they cost you an almost meaningless game or two in December? Heck maybe guys getting that kind of shot would ignite a guy like Zlobin into upping his game like he did in the playoffs last year
