Ryan Wilson: Matt Cullen and the Sergei Gonchar theory + Guerin and Minnesota Matt Cullen and the Sergei Gonchar theory + Guerin and Minnesota

Pens are just keeping Dad in house in case they need him to come out of retirement after the All Star Game

Dun Dun Duuuuuuunnnnnnnn.........

Pens are just keeping Dad in house in case they need him to come out of retirement after the All Star Game

Dun Dun Duuuuuuunnnnnnnn.........
- RoloTahmasee

I just noticed your join date for the first time. What did you do to celebrate your big 10 year HB anniversary last week?!

i think ownership under estimated the losses of boterill and sexton. hopefully pegula will make another mistake and fire him so he can step in to the role he should have had already.

Celebrate

Anaheim - Internal Cap

Detroit - Yzerman is no dummy

Columbus still has room, but probably wants a GOOD player

Ottawa has room but is a cap FLOOR team

NJ and LA are probably the only realistic teams but NJ won't want term since they are on the upswing
- RoloTahmasee

Yes, some of those teams will only be interested in a good player, not taking on JJ. Even for a guy like Rust, the options are limited.

If it's just dumping a bad contract, there are very few realistic destinations and there will be completion to use them. Good for a team that wants to weaponize it's space. Bad for teams like us.

Dude it’s a pretty happy horsepoop holding hands into the metrics sunset while being politically correct crowd around here.
- Grinder47

And that being what you see is proof that the eye test alone is faulty based on your biases.

Of course your eye test also believes Garrett Wilson should have been on Crosby's line....

Ah yes... The "cringy" Botts meme......as he was responsible for both those cup teams and all the good moves. Rutherford owns all the bad ones.

As far as Buffalo goes.... They've been tanking and drafting high for years now. Shouldn't their system be on the upswing? Still haven't sniffed the playoffs though. You can't blame the GM of the minor league team when the influx of talent is low draft picks and undrafted free agents.

Rolo, “Pens are just keeping Dad in house in case they need him to come out of retirement after the All Star Game

Dun Dun Duuuuuuunnnnnnnn......... ”

Would you prefer Dad or Kunitz in that role?

Mind you, Kunitz wanted to go to Chicago so it is completely possible that he wouldn’t want the job.

Yes, some of those teams will only be interested in a good player, not taking on JJ. Even for a guy like Rust, the options are limited.

If it's just dumping a bad contract, there are very few realistic destinations and there will be completion to use them. Good for a team that wants to weaponize it's space. Bad for teams like us.
- Tojo.

I'm sure a high draft pick would entice some teams. The question is how motivated is JR to move JJ? My guess is probably not nearly as much as most of us are. But one way or another, we need cap space. The last resort is probably giving Rust away. I think Rust has a net positive to neutral value.

Botterill is responsible for every Pittsburgh penguin Stanley cup. Including 91 92 and 09.

I’m no WBS expert (neither is RW) and Tojo knows much more than I do but here’s what I see:

Jarry AHL sv% since 15-16:
905, 925, 901, 915

DeSmith sv% 16, 17, 18:
925, 926, 910

Murray sv% 2014, 15, 16:
920, 941, 931

Goalie stats this past season: Jarry at 915, Peters at 890, Muse at 906

Highest offensive producers this past season were 57th and 60th in the league. Prow lead the team in scoring.

In 2018 Sprong was lighting it up and was 5th in league scoring, Dea was 39th, Blueger was 65th. Blueger and Dea obviously didn’t finish the year with WBS last year, Dea had 40 in 26 and Blueger had 39 in 45 this year for WBS

In 2017 we had the great Kostopoulos put up 54 in 74 which was 26th in the league, Warsofsky had 47 in 58, Sundqvist had 46 in 63, Simon had 46 in 70, Porter had 46 in 69. All of those are top 75 in scoring

So looking at it I think goaltending clearly got much worse, our offensive production got worse, and if you look at the names on the backend we went from Warsofsky, Pouliot, Erixon, Ruhwedel, Corrado, Prow and Gaunce to Prow, Czuczman, Summers, Taylor, Abt. Warsofsky is back and we added POJ to the backend. Up front they possibly added Palve, Almeida, Bjorkvist, and Bellerive. Larmi had an awesome playoff run in net. I think WBS should have a pretty solid team for the 2020 season 🐧

I’m no WBS expert (neither is RW) and Tojo knows much more than I do but here’s what I see:

Jarry AHL sv% since 15-16:
905, 925, 901, 915

DeSmith sv% 16, 17, 18:
925, 926, 910

Murray sv% 2014, 15, 16:
920, 941, 931

Goalie stats this past season: Jarry at 915, Peters at 890, Muse at 906

Highest offensive producers this past season were 57th and 60th in the league. Prow lead the team in scoring.

In 2018 Sprong was lighting it up and was 5th in league scoring, Dea was 39th, Blueger was 65th. Blueger and Dea obviously didn’t finish the year with WBS last year, Dea had 40 in 26 and Blueger had 39 in 45 this year for WBS

In 2017 we had the great Kostopoulos put up 54 in 74 which was 26th in the league, Warsofsky had 47 in 58, Sundqvist had 46 in 63, Simon had 46 in 70, Porter had 46 in 69. All of those are top 75 in scoring

So looking at it I think goaltending clearly got much worse, our offensive production got worse, and if you look at the names on the backend we went from Warsofsky, Pouliot, Erixon, Ruhwedel, Corrado, Prow and Gaunce to Prow, Czuczman, Summers, Taylor, Abt. Warsofsky is back and we added POJ to the backend. Up front they possibly added Palve, Almeida, Bjorkvist, and Bellerive. Larmi had an awesome playoff run in net. I think WBS should have a pretty solid team for the 2020 season 🐧
- WSCTeton17

No way. Bill Guerin doesn’t look at charts and used to fight people. Even given his long and successful nhl career he knows sh it about hockey.

Ah yes... The "cringy" Botts meme......as he was responsible for both those cup teams and all the good moves. Rutherford owns all the bad ones.

As far as Buffalo goes.... They've been tanking and drafting high for years now. Shouldn't their system be on the upswing? Still haven't sniffed the playoffs though. You can't blame the GM of the minor league team when the influx of talent is low draft picks and undrafted free agents.
- madmike71

Spot on

No way. Bill Guerin doesn’t look at charts and used to fight people. Even given his long and successful nhl career he knows sh it about hockey.
- Grinder47

Agreed. No reason to make informed decisions when you can just punch someone instead.

And that being what you see is proof that the eye test alone is faulty based on your biases.

Of course your eye test also believes Garrett Wilson should have been on Crosby's line....
- Tojo.

Your stats say Dominick Simon is a future hall of famer. That’s enough to hold a gun to the head of whoever’s making them and empty the clip.

Your stats say Dominick Simon is a future hall of famer. That’s enough to hold a gun to the head of whoever’s making them and empty the clip.
- Grinder47

No worries man. I called Simons mechanic and told him to cut his brake lines next time he comes in.

No way. Bill Guerin doesn’t look at charts and used to fight people. Even given his long and successful nhl career he knows sh it about hockey.
- Grinder47

My wife left me when I started looking at charts.

My wife left me when I started looking at charts.
- burgh4life87

You sure it wasn’t because of replacement level performances between the sheets?

My wife left me when I started looking at charts.
- burgh4life87

My first wife left me and I don’t ever really look at them. Both cases not the charts.

nothing like complaining about the possibility of people potentially giving undue credit to a newly hired person who has never been in a player development role

seriously, are we going to assume that in the future the fanbase will automatically label matt cullen the "forward whisperer"?

What that really means is.....
1.) making the assumption that there is an underachieving forward that comes to pittsburgh and thrives.
2.) we assume people will collectively give credit to Matt Cullen without having any idea whether or not he helped or didnt help.
3.) Then, we assume that the fanbase will think Cullen will fix all our reclamation projects in the future.

what a moronic thing to write a blog about.

You sure it wasn’t because of replacement level performances between the sheets?
- Feds91Stammer

My nut for per60 was probably a bit too high.

And that being what you see is proof that the eye test alone is faulty based on your biases.

Of course your eye test also believes Garrett Wilson should have been on Crosby's line....
- Tojo.

Grinder thinks that because literally no one ever agrees with his hot takes that must mean that we always agree with each other’s takes, which is not the case.

nothing like complaining about the possibility of people potentially giving undue credit to a newly hired person who has never been in a player development role

seriously, are we going to assume that in the future the fanbase will automatically label matt cullen the "forward whisperer"?

What that really means is.....
1.) making the assumption that there is an underachieving forward that comes to pittsburgh and thrives.
2.) we assume people will collectively give credit to Matt Cullen without having any idea whether or not he helped or didnt help.
3.) Then, we assume that the fanbase will think Cullen will fix all our reclamation projects in the future.

what a moronic thing to write a blog about.
- YouMeAndDupuis9

Yes, I fully believe a chunk of the daft fanbase could give him such accolades without any logic behind it.

He's already mad at a label that Cullen hasn't received, yet he continues the narrative that somehow Botterill controlled this team from behind GMJR, pulled all the strings, and now we suck.