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Just reading The Athletics' season previews for the Pens....they have them finishing with 95 points, 64.1% chance of playoffs and 1% chance of cup hahaha
"The weaknesses
The Penguins’ greatest weakness is, of course, being old. Old as dirt. For professional hockey, certainly, but not the Earth. Either way, there’s not much to be done about that one. The ages of players like Crosby, Malkin, Karlsson and Letang are taken into account in their projections, even though none of the four have seen considerable dips just yet. Where it’s most reflected is in their defensive projections. All four produce enough offensively to act as a counterbalance, but they also set the tone for a team that, defensively speaking, is below average in plenty of spots.
Ironically enough, the most glaring functional issue outside of their best players’ birth certificates is a near-total lack of projected offense from the bottom six. Dubas deserves some amount of credit for constructing a group that has, if nothing else, a clear identity and relevant skill set. That’s where the previous regime in Pittsburgh failed most egregiously; the last set of depth players didn’t do anything with any degree of competence.
This one does; all three new guys put up expected goal percentages and shot percentages better than their teammates last season. They can play their shift, then turn things back over — but make no mistake, scoring goals is not part of the deal. Such affairs remain the domain of the top six forwards and top two defensemen. Nieto had the most efficient point-producing stretch of the group last season, putting up 1.52 points per 60 at five-on-five during his 45 games with San Jose. Colin White, with the team on a PTO, brings more of the same. There are a couple of interesting players in the mix — Drew O’Connor showed a flash or two when he made it in the lineup last season, and Alex Nylander could end up adding some sort of offensive element to the third line — but nothing good enough to positively affect the projections." |
