Two Penguins Prospects Invited To Team USA World Junior Summer Showcase
Two Pittsburgh Penguins are invited to the Team USA World Junior Summer Showcase this summer.
Video Transcript
This is where you trust a guy like Dan Muse.
Yeah.
That's really what it comes down to for me, is that Dan Muse has a very long-standing track record of being able to get the best out of players like this.
the work he did, you know, at, at the USHL level, the, the, with the national team.
Like, he, he's just a good grower.
That's what he's known for.
Look at Ben Kindel last year.
He's probably another great example.
you nailed it.
If you're ranking players by hands, and dangle ability, and raw shooting skill, Hermansson's top 15.
There's no question about it.
Yeah.
I put him at 20. and consistencies, doesn't do it every shift, aloof sometimes defensively, questions about his decision-making processes.
I don't think it You know, I think when you sign him up with a retriever, I think it's no mystery that he looked really good with my large adult my small adult son, Nils Barthelsen, on the international stage because Barthelsen flies around at 150 miles an hour.
That's his game.
He's a wild forechecker, he plays with reckless abandon.
he's all over the place on the ice, and I think Hermansson benefited from that greatly, 'cause, you know, there was a lot of times where, you know, Barthelsen's the one that is, is, you know, k- kinda, kinda doing the retrievals and a lot of the heavy lifting and then just getting him the puck where he could release it and vice versa.
So I, I, you know, I, again, I, I've always bet on the skill in that case, and I don't think that he's, you know, complete You know, obviously like 20 and 50, I don't think it's, I don't think I dropped him that far.
but I, I just, the inconsistency part is what really, is really gets me.
But you have to acknowledge, too, right?
Like, you mentioned it, Hunter, he's playing in J20, made the jump to Allsvenskan, which is like the SHL version of the AHL.
Right.
It's the one step down from the SHL.
And in, Allsvenskan's full of adults, right?
It's an adult It's a pro league.
and he did it against adults.
And he was doing it against adults, and I think he's proven that he can skate through contact.
He's proven that he can, you know, keep one hand on the stick and protect the puck while he's fending somebody off with the other one.
a- and he pulled out some, you know, stuff that, moves that make you go to the edge of your seat.
There's no other way to put it, right?
Really dramatic toe drags.
you know, flipping the puck into an area for himself, like making, like self- you know, to spring himself off the wall.
but a- again, like I just, I, I, I don't know what he is in the NHL.
That's, that's a que- that, you'll hear me say that 1,000 times about players in this class, is I have just a hard time knowing what they are at the next level because their, the picture of them was so incomplete in junior.
and he's one of those players.
