Expectations for what a Penguins rebuild might look like and what it might produce
November 15, 2024
Expectations for what a Penguins rebuild might look like and what it might produce
9 comments
>The overall point here is, we can look at these future draft picks, or players like Vasiliy Ponomarev or whatever future prospects they acquire in the coming months or next year or two and discuss their long-term future all we want. But there is a very good chance none of them will ever play in a playoff game for the Penguins.
Remember guys, other teams’ draft picks are obviously worth less than good old fashioned Penguins’ picks…
>Especially if they are unable to get (or do not prioritize) first-round picks as part of the returns.
I can also “prioritize” gas being $1.50 a gallon. Whether they want to work with me on that is the real issue.
>You are not going to rebuild with late third-and fifth-round picks, or with other team’s fourth-and fifth-best prospects.
Cause a guy like Rob Scuderi (5th round pick) was definitely not integral to the 09 team.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t the last sell off they did due to necessity to keep the team in Pittsburgh because of the bankruptcy? So a lot of the players traded were for pennies on the dollar.
Adam does incredible work and this piece raises valid concerns. I’ll push back that they won’t have to worry about the bankruptcy specter like before which will help. They just need to tank, get as many lotto tickets as they can, and win one of the next 3 lotteries to truly lock it in. Hagens, McKenna, and DuPont are all potential cornerstone guys with McKenna being the potential megastar.
It will be a long rebuild. We have many truly awful contracts and so we have few valuable assets for trade. Most valuable is probably Pettersson. Maybe Letang if he waives his NTC.
Jarry , Sully , Karlsson gotta go 👋
They could still lock in
With the lottery coupled with the hit/miss classes regarding generational talent, many teams’ success is due in large part to luck. It’s almost impossible to gauge how a rebuild will look. I do love the parity in the NHL though. Time will tell.
What it might look like: suck
What it might produce: good, hopefully
Didn’t they also have to undersell most of the pieces they traded due to a gross lack of negotiating leverage at that time?
Even that, if we’re looking at it in a literal sense, was only a 5 year rebuild, one whole season of which never took place, most of those players were already 24 or 25 when we acquired them and they largely came from a very weak and inconsistent era of prospects in hockey.
In terms of tangible differences, a 2nd round pick this year is probably about as valuable as a 1st rounder in 2002 would’ve been because there’s simply way more talent now. And when I say that, I don’t mean like ‘oh a couple elite players might go in the 1st few rounds’, I mean every team with a good scouting department is walking away from the 2025 draft with MINIMUM one elite player.
Hell the pick we got back from Guentzel became Harrison Brunicke, who’s the best RD we’ve drafted SINCE Letang without even having played an NHL *game* yet.
9 comments
>The overall point here is, we can look at these future draft picks, or players like Vasiliy Ponomarev or whatever future prospects they acquire in the coming months or next year or two and discuss their long-term future all we want. But there is a very good chance none of them will ever play in a playoff game for the Penguins.
Remember guys, other teams’ draft picks are obviously worth less than good old fashioned Penguins’ picks…
>Especially if they are unable to get (or do not prioritize) first-round picks as part of the returns.
I can also “prioritize” gas being $1.50 a gallon. Whether they want to work with me on that is the real issue.
>You are not going to rebuild with late third-and fifth-round picks, or with other team’s fourth-and fifth-best prospects.
Cause a guy like Rob Scuderi (5th round pick) was definitely not integral to the 09 team.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t the last sell off they did due to necessity to keep the team in Pittsburgh because of the bankruptcy? So a lot of the players traded were for pennies on the dollar.
Adam does incredible work and this piece raises valid concerns. I’ll push back that they won’t have to worry about the bankruptcy specter like before which will help. They just need to tank, get as many lotto tickets as they can, and win one of the next 3 lotteries to truly lock it in. Hagens, McKenna, and DuPont are all potential cornerstone guys with McKenna being the potential megastar.
It will be a long rebuild. We have many truly awful contracts and so we have few valuable assets for trade. Most valuable is probably Pettersson. Maybe Letang if he waives his NTC.
Jarry , Sully , Karlsson gotta go 👋
They could still lock in
With the lottery coupled with the hit/miss classes regarding generational talent, many teams’ success is due in large part to luck. It’s almost impossible to gauge how a rebuild will look. I do love the parity in the NHL though. Time will tell.
What it might look like: suck
What it might produce: good, hopefully
Didn’t they also have to undersell most of the pieces they traded due to a gross lack of negotiating leverage at that time?
Even that, if we’re looking at it in a literal sense, was only a 5 year rebuild, one whole season of which never took place, most of those players were already 24 or 25 when we acquired them and they largely came from a very weak and inconsistent era of prospects in hockey.
In terms of tangible differences, a 2nd round pick this year is probably about as valuable as a 1st rounder in 2002 would’ve been because there’s simply way more talent now. And when I say that, I don’t mean like ‘oh a couple elite players might go in the 1st few rounds’, I mean every team with a good scouting department is walking away from the 2025 draft with MINIMUM one elite player.
Hell the pick we got back from Guentzel became Harrison Brunicke, who’s the best RD we’ve drafted SINCE Letang without even having played an NHL *game* yet.