yahoo
The Pittsburgh Penguins have reached the 10-game mark of the season, a point typically used by general managers to evaluate their roster. However, the Penguins' 3-6-1 start has been far from competitive, and the team appears far removed from its intended identity.
Some fans have speculated that the roster was intentionally constructed to be poor, but general manager Kyle Dubas did not sabotage the team to secure a top-10 draft pick. A more straightforward approach to both rebuilding and potentially landing a lottery pick would have been to promote the young players who led the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to the conference final last season.
Instead, Dubas brought in veteran defensemen and forwards, and very few of those additions have panned out. The Penguins have struggled to establish a forecheck, have been poor in defensive assignments and trackbacks, and have lost net-front battles.
Nick Robertson, 25, acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs on July 1 for a fourth-round pick, leads the team with four goals (4-0-4) and may be the best offseason acquisition. Hendrix Lapierre, 24, has been relegated to a depth forward role and has been a healthy scratch for the last four games. Andrei Kuzmenko, 30, has played six games following a difficult family tragedy, but he was not impactful in training camp or preseason. In six games, he has one assist and six shots on goal, and his slow, skill-based style seems ill-suited to the Penguins' forechecking system.
Right-handed defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk, 35, signed a two-year, $8 million deal to play on his offside, but he struggled with the puck and made mistakes that led to goals against before suffering a lower-body injury that has kept him out of the last five games. Left-handed defenseman Declan Carlile, 26, signed a two-year, $3 million bargain deal, looked like a perfect fit early on, but his play has unraveled, and he was exposed while playing top-pairing minutes beside Erik Karlsson. Dubas traded steady top-pair defenseman Parker Wotherspoon to Vegas for younger right-handed defenseman Kaedan Korczak. While Korczak, 26, hasn't been a liability, he hasn't made an impact either.
The problem isn't just that a few new players are failing to integrate; it's the cumulative effect. The team's defensive zone mistakes, shared among many, have been egregious. The turnovers have been stunning. And the lack of offsetting positives has forced the Penguins to constantly fight an uphill battle to stay competitive within games.
It's not only the new additions. Erik Karlsson has yet to play his best game. Sidney Crosby didn't look like himself until the recently completed disastrous four-game road trip. Egor Chinakhov has been quiet, and Tommy Novak has not driven play from the second-line center spot. The jumbled roster has led to a rotating cast of wingers beside Ben Kindel, who seemed poised for a breakout year after an impressive preseason.
There are plenty of culprits for the Penguins' malaise, but the new players have stood out in their inefficacy, especially in the defensive zone, and there have been no signs of improvement. Paradoxically, while Dubas and the organization set the bar for their prospects as taking jobs away from NHL players, the Penguins added numerous players whose jobs had been taken away. Even Karlsson acknowledged the team was in a weird spot when he assessed the situation on the first day of training camp.
So, is a great turnaround fair to expect? The opportunity now exists to take the path not chosen over the summer. Dubas could have created space and runway for his prospects but chose veterans. But after a miserable start with just one regulation win in 10 games and abysmal play, it's time to choose the prospects—the ones with hunger and some edge after being summarily bounced from training camp without much of a shot at making the team. Choose the 22- and 23-year-olds who bring vibrant energy and potential growth.
Sure, the younger players might, and probably will, make plenty of mistakes similar to those the team is currently making. But prospects such as Rutger McGroarty, Avery Hayes, and Harrison Brunicke also have the potential to be much better. It's time.
The Penguins' fourth line, centered by Blake Lizotte, has lacked the spark it had when Noel Acciari was doing plenty of dirty work. The line could be significantly better with either Hayes or McGroarty, both of whom had nine points in the first six AHL games. McGroarty is also a stellar penalty killer, and if his offensive game is blossoming, it can only help. Hayes is a gritty, speedy winger who could help multiple lines establish a forecheck and be tougher to play against.
Perhaps the Penguins' single biggest issue has been unsteady blue line play. The team has lacked transition and sharp breakouts, which have only compounded their struggles in their own zone. Brunicke is a mobile defenseman who is 6-foot-3, now over 200 pounds, and has learned to play with some snarl while showcasing his offensive instincts. He was exceptional for WBS after arriving from the WHL's Kamloops Blazers in time for the AHL playoffs. It would also be a good time to learn about Owen Pickering. The Dubas regime was down on Pickering in his first couple of seasons, but maturity and increased physical stature have changed his game. He's mobile and learning how best to use his size in the defensive zone. For the defensemen, it's also time.
So, while reports swirl that Dubas is pushing trades of one or more veteran forwards to create space, the blue line should be equally in his crosshairs. By his own admission, Dubas was chasing young impact players on the trade block and trying to move up in the draft. Further, Dubas did admit that getting answers on some of his top prospects this season would constitute a step forward, and that was preferable to languishing in the middle.
"But I think because of how much experience those (prospects) have down below, I would say it would be tough to stand at the end of the year and say it's a step back from where we truly want to get to, as long as we're developing our younger players, moving them along," Dubas said.
Actually, the Penguins aren't even a middling team. Every indication through the first 10 games is that they're a bad team. A couple of the prospects could improve with further marination in the AHL, but they could also adapt to the NHL game. They could bring the energy that was so prevalent when the team started 8-2-2 last season with a similar cast of characters and castoffs surrounding the core players. The major differences between this team and that are the blue line struggles and the veteran vibes at the expense of youth. If the prospect class had made the same mistakes in the NHL that the veteran crop of newbies are making, they would be quickly jettisoned back to the AHL.
Dubas could correct both differences immediately, and a team staring at a gray, lifeless winter could be reenergized. And for that matter, so, too, would the fanbase. Yep, it's time.
Key Analysis
The Penguins' early-season woes stem from a failed offseason strategy that prioritized veteran additions over youthful energy. The defensive zone has been a disaster, and the new veterans have largely failed to integrate. With the team already out of contention, the logical move is to give prospects like McGroarty, Hayes, and Brunicke a chance to play and develop, which could inject life into a stagnant roster and satisfy a frustrated fanbase.
Originally reported by yahoo.