Presumably, Pittsburgh Penguins forward Rutger McGroarty is now embarking on his full-time NHL career beginning Sunday when the Penguins host the Ottawa Senators.
McGroarty, 21, will return to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins for the upcoming playoff run but should never return. That’s the plan, anyway.
When the Penguins recalled McGroarty and Ville Koivunen Friday, it was anything but a late Friday afternoon news drop. The Penguins made a big deal of the call-ups and announced them at the peak of the day’s news cycle near 11 a.m. The news was well-timed because the Penguins had just 12 hours earlier been embarrassed–again–on the ice.
Thursday night, Sidney Crosby could barely offer a response to breaking Wayne Gretzky’s mark of 19 seasons with at least a point per game. There was a darkness creeping in as the team again found no spark in a bad loss.
Then, Friday’s call-ups.
Read More: Welcome to the Rebuild: Penguins Fragile and Dejected, Get a Ray of Hope
While the team didn’t unfurl banners or specially use the words, they could have: Welcome to the Rebuild!
Fans who have endured this season, including the ugly losses, journeymen players filling larger roles, and other otherwise substandard play, have been waiting anxiously for this moment.
When the team seemed just about ready to collapse under the sad weight of failure and hopelessness, the prospects arrived. Finally, the kids are here. However, it’s been a long time since young players dominated the Penguins roster, and longer still since some of those younger players didn’t have Hall of Fame futures ahead of them.
It’s also important to know that the Penguins are at Base Camp 1 in their arduous climb. They have 30 draft picks in the next three years, a chance to acquire restricted free agents, gobs of salary cap space, and the likelihood of getting one or more top-five draft picks over the next few years.
Penguins Rebuild: Things to Know & Expect
1. Prospects Have More Work to Do
It bears repeating almost ad naseam: Players do not develop in a linear progression. There are ups and downs, and sometimes, the downs last longer, too.
This is merely the beginning of the journey, and McGroarty and Koivunen should not be expected to be their best version. Further, sometimes, their ice times will drop as they are not playing well, just as they’ll get more ice when they are.
Very few explode into the lineup as did Jake Guentzel. Most are more like Bryan Rust, who had a couple of NHL stints and played lower in the lineup. Lost in the din of history, Rust was little more than a fourth-line grinder until he began to show some offensive prowess a couple of years into his career (a fact former teammate Jason Zucker teased him about regularly).
At the outset, high expectations are more often met with disappointment. So, keep expectations to a minimum and enjoy the ride—the ups and the downs.
2. The coaches have a job to do
A prospect’s progression is not a solo act. The coaches will play a big role in instruction, which also includes rewards and punishments.
Without accountability, prospects can develop many bad habits. Heck, even young future HoF players who are Stanley Cup champions can develop bad habits without oversight and correction (See also: 2011-2014 Penguins).
As an extreme example, note former Philadelphia Flyers coach John Tortorella’s handling of electric rookie Matvei Michkov this season. The two didn’t joust verbally, but Tortorella was sometimes exasperated by his wunderkind’s lack of details or enthusiasm to play a competent NHL game and benched him during games with more than occasional frequency.
It’s going to happen to the Penguins, too, because winning and losing are tied to development. Wins and losses must matter, albeit in a different way—wins and losses are the team’s daily tests. To remove one consequence is to weaken the other.
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan will be judged on a different scale moving forward. He’ll be judged by the prospects’ development, which means he has every incentive to both push them and play them.
It will be a new world for everyone.
3. This is Going to Suck for a While
Journeymen stopgaps and plugs will also fill the roster as the Penguins’ seeds grow and a few high draft choices join the club. General manager Kyle Dubas, who has amassed 30 draft picks over the next three drafts, is at the beginning of the process, and there won’t be enough worthy prospects to complete the NHL roster. However, Dubas also won’t spend assets on short-term fixes, so there will be many players, such as Danton Heinen and Kevin Hayes, who dot the roster or play higher in the lineup than they would with other teams.
The results of those players, combined with youngsters figuring it out, are almost certainly going to lead to poor results.
Those poor results and rough waters are the very reason that Dubas kept some of the star players. The team needs to remain competitive to properly mold the prospects, but it won’t be competitive enough to win consistently.
Combined with a lack of wins will be the near-term lack of prospects. There just aren’t that many who will be ready for their NHL chance. Owen Pickering, Tristan Broz, and Harrison Brunicke are the most likely next wave of skaters. Avery Hayes very well get an NHL shot or two, as well.
4: Not every prospect will succeed
In fact, most prospects won’t succeed.
One of the more contentious issues is a lack of success. Many will clamor for this player or that winger to play with Sidney Crosby, otherwise they’re being wasted or not being given a fair chance!
The recent poster child for this belief was Emil Bemstrom. Almost inexplicably, some Sullivan foment formed around Bemstrom despite his myriad of NHL opportunities with both the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Penguins. If only he got to play with Crosby, he’d prove he’s an NHL player, and Sullivan was at fault for holding him back, right?
No joke, that sentiment was force-fed to Pittsburgh Hockey Now numerous times over the past few weeks.
Most young players will be in the 10-15 minute per game range, just as they will be for the rest of their career. If a player can’t get to work in 12 minutes of ice time (relative average of a third-liner), then they’re not going to get more.
Ultimately, responsibility rests on the player to achieve.
Responsibilty rests on the coaches to manage the team for maximum success while balancing the need to put players in positions to be successful.
And the GM is responsible for knowing which prospects are succeeding and which aren’t and for acquiring the most talent possible.