PITTSBURGH, Pa – The Pittsburgh Penguins have had plenty of time to lick their wounds and evaluate what went wrong in this year’s Stanley Cup run. This time around it wasn’t their arch nemesis, the Washington Capitals, who sent them home packing. It was the New York Islanders who did them in. With the rise of the Islanders, and the lack of blue chip prospects to sustain them into the future, for the first time in a long time, things don’t look promising in Steel City.
Offensively, the Pens finished sixth in Goals for, 14th in Goals Against, fifth on the Power Play, 19th on the Penalty Kill, and 12th in Face-offs. The Penguins had eight players with 10 or more goals. Jake Guentzel led the team in goals with 40 and Sidney Crosby led the team points with 100 and punched in with 35 goals, good for second on the team. Phil Kessel and Evgeni Malkin are the only other players with the Pens who had over 20 goals. Derick Brassard and Tanner Pearson just missed the 10 plus goal club with 9 goals each.
In the system, Kasper Bjorkqvist (Right Wing) is the Penguins’ top prospect. He is a second round pick, 61st overall in 2016. He scored a career high 17 goals for the Providence Friars in Hockey East (NCAA), good for second best on the team. Center Nikita Pavlychev comes in at #3 and had 14 goals for Penn State in the Big Ten. Pavlychev was tied for 6th in points with 29 points for PSU.
On defense, Brian Dumoulin led the team in plus minus (+31), while Kris Letang led the blueline in goals (16) and points (56). The Penguins top defensive prospect is Calen Addison who is considered the Pens #2 prospect overall. Addison finally got in some game action at the AHL level this year with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and is expected to start the season with the baby Pens this fall. Niclas Almari (eighth) and Clayton Philips (ninth) are the only other defensemen in the team’s top 10 prospects.
Regarding the Penguins’ unrestricted free agents, winger Garrett Wilson is the only forward not signed. On defense, only Zach Trotman is unsigned. Where General Manager Jim Rutherford has his work cut out for him is with a couple of players he already has under contract. His other problem issue is in building up his blueline. It looks as though Phil Kessel is all but gone and rumors of Evgeni Malkin keep coming up but only Kessel looks like he will definitely be gone before July 1st.
Defense will be the team’s priority this off-season, not only through trades but through free agency and the draft as well. The Penguins needs to replenish their overall farm system. Trading away first round picks just won’t cut it anymore, especially in the salary cap era. Moving Kessel, who has three years left on his contract and has a $6.8 million dollar cap hit, will help. Adding talent via trade for someone such as P.K Subban might not be a bad idea but the Pens need to look at some cheaper options as well.
However, this article is about what the Penguins will do with their first round pick at #21. This is considered to be a very forward heavy draft so the defensive talent should slide down to Pittsburgh every time a forward is taken ahead of them. In PHN’s Mock Draft, some quality defenseman are still on the board such as: Matthew Robinson, Tobias Bjornfot, Moritz Seider, and Ville Heinola.
The forward depth in the draft is showing itself to be true with Raphael Lavioe, Ryan Suzuki, Connor McMichael, and Brett Leason still on our board. Rutherford will be tempted to add to the Penguins offense but he will have to resist the temptation this time around. The draft is not supposed to be about the here and now. Rutherford needs to think about the road ahead and that is exactly what Rutherford will do when he makes the following announcement in Vancouver.
“With the 21st overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, the Pittsburgh Penguins select, from Lukko, Finland, Ville Heinola.”
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