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Penguins Prospects Scouting Trip: Who’s Ready, Who’s Regressing (+)
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- Penguins Prospects Scouting Trip: Who’s Ready, Who’s Regressing (+)
WBS Penguins, Pittsburgh Penguins prospects
WILKES-BARRE, Pa.— The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins had their five-game winning streak fed back to them via a 5-0 loss on Saturday and fought through a separated effort Sunday in a 4-3 OT loss to the Cleveland Monsters.
As the Pittsburgh Penguins ' prospects have scraped toward the top of the Atlantic Division and fifth-best in the AHL, the prospects tree is ready to bear some fruit.
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There is no question about that.
However, there is also a growing gap between the few prospects clearly playing at an NHL level, the couple who have regressed, and a largely barren roster around them, which belies the Penguins' successful record.
Following Pittsburgh Hockey Now's analysis Saturday on the dearth of prospect centers at the pro level, the organization is also badly lacking defensemen with a ceiling approaching NHL functionality.
After a weekend in Wilkes-Barre for a first-hand look and some conversations, we have the good, the disappointing, and the needs.
Penguins Prospects Analysis
Absolutely Ready
** Rutger McGroarty . The small details of his game have further improved this season. He is thinking the game a step ahead of the AHL competition. McGroarty will never be a speedster, but he is playing the game faster with good details in both the offensive and defensive zones.
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** Tristan Broz . He might not make Pittsburgh his home as he seems blocked in the Penguins organization, but his game is 200 feet, and he was the team's best player all weekend. He's got a high-revving motor and good offensive instincts. He's not a good enough distributor to play top-six in the NHL, but his skating, details, and drive are ready.
He charges the offensive zone not with intent but demand. There's probably not much more he can do at the AHL level.
** Avery Hayes . He didn't have his best game Saturday or Sunday, but remained a consistent presence around the puck. He's just a scrappy winger who burrows for the puck on the wall and plays well away from the puck. In the middle of the third period Sunday, the small forward dropped the gloves against former Penguins forward Zach Aston-Reese and landed a couple of hard right hands that buckled Aston-Reese.
Hayes is ready for fourth-line NHL duty, right now.
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Probably Ready
** Sergei Murashov . He wasn't great Saturday and was seldom tested in relief of Joel Blomqvist Sunday. Murashov is separating himself in the goalie battle with Blomqvist. The singular thing that Murashov might need to sharpen is his anticipation, but the rub is that he needs to do that in the NHL. Everything else is just consistency.
** Ville Koivunen . After watching him shrink in Pittsburgh, Sunday, I saw the feisty winger willing to play between the dots, go to the net, and be a pest.
"When he's at his best, he's a prick," WBS coach Kirk MacDonald said Sunday. Koivunen again looked like the winger who had a good run in the NHL at the end of last season, and far from the soft, indecisive winger who was quickly booted earlier this season. He was also stronger on his skates–in the NHL, it seemed he was getting knocked around like a piñata. I really liked the state of his game.
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"It's a great example, like yesterday, a couple of turnovers that he knows he can't do. And like you look at the five-game winning streak. I don't think he turned the puck over five-on-five once, and he was making really, really good puck decisions. And the offense just takes care of itself, because he's really good at it, right?" said MacDonald. "He's naturally gifted at (offense). The challenge at this level is not forcing those plays where the turnovers happen, but just playing the high percentage plays. So you get down to the O-zone, and (Sunday) he got back to that. I thought he did a great job.
"He's got to find different ways to attack off the rush … I think when he's playing well, he's getting into guys, behind the play he's chirping, there's a fine line, right? But I think when he's agitating, and not just making skills plays, to me, that's when he's really on."
Regressions
** Owen Pickering : The big defenseman has NHL talent. This writer is firmly in that camp. However, he's playing slowly with big gaps and sacrificing coverage to play in front of the net. He was not involved in the offensive play on Saturday or Sunday. Perhaps it's the WBS system to station near the cage, but that's not Pittsburgh Penguins coach Dan Muse's system, and it costs WBS scoring chances.
MacDonald admitted Pickering had a rough weekend, but came to his defenseman's aid.
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"I think he's done a lot of really good things. He's been defending really well—he got away from it this weekend. Yeah, that's part of the growing pains, MacDonald said. "I have no doubt he's going to show up tomorrow at practice, and he's going to work. I think the more he recognizes that when he defends hard and gets into people—stick on puck, when he closes, puts people into the boards, kills plays defensively, and then he can get up and move it on from the D zone."
**Atley Calvert: From an NHL darkhorse to WBS fourth-liner.
Becoming Interesting
**Emil Pieniniemi. It's been a rocky road to this point. He rejected his Wheeling assignment and left North America, but found he couldn't play back home in Finland because of contractual reasons. He returned in late December, took the tough medicine by playing in Wheeling, and is now with WBS.
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I don't know that I see him as an NHL D-man. He's not a good enough skater to offset his lack of physical play, but he's got some puck skills and a little offensive flare. If he improves his skating or adds some sandpaper, things may change.
**Tanner Howe. A second-round pick should have NHL aspirations. However, Howe hasn't played in nine months. Saturday and Sunday were his fourth and fifth pro games.
It's impossible to judge as he's learning on the fly. He hasn't had a training camp or preseason game to build a mental notebook of the game against grown men. But he moves well, and when he sees an opportunity, he can get there.
The post Penguins Prospects Scouting Trip: Who's Ready, Who's Regressing (+) appeared first on Pittsburgh Hockey Now .
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