The Pittsburgh Penguins prospects are acquitting themselves well in their postseason run with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. It is the playoff run general manager Kyle Dubas has hoped to see, and it has come at the right time.
Except for one move, the Penguins’ offseason has been staid, if not sleepy, so far. Dubas re-signed fourth-liner Connor Dewar and depth defenseman Ilya Solovyov. And, of course, Evgeni Malkin. But Ryan Shea and Noel Acciari appear headed to free agency with goalie Stuart Skinner and winger Anthony Mantha.
Clearly implied during Dubas’s postseason comments, Mantha told the team during his exit interview he would hit the free agent market. Whether Dubas wanted Mantha back seemed moot, as the player had obviously made his choice. And based on chatter around town, plus the obvious situation, Skinner also expects to be a free agent.
It was time for the prospects to give Dubas no choice but to clear space, and they are doing their best.
**Why not bring back Shea? After bringing back less consequential players, is Dubas leaving the door open for Owen Pickering?
It would be a risky third pairing: Pickering-Harrison Brunicke. After all, Brunicke has predominantly played with Alex Alexeyev in Wilkes-Barre, not Pickering (who was getting around with the aid of a walking boot last week).
A Sam Girard or Solovyov-Brunicke pairing would seem sketchy, too.
**The blue line construction was shaky at best this season, but Karlsson’s reawakening saved the day. Parker Wotherspoon’s emergence was the perfect balance to Karlsson, and Shea’s steady play allowed others to have wandering campaigns without destructive consequences.
A subpar defense could rapidly sabotage competitiveness. The Girard trade remains confusing, if not confounding, and piecing together a blue line with both Girard and Kris Letang becomes an obstacle course for coach Dan Muse.
*The collision of a potential youth movement and keeping veterans is, at best, difficult to reconcile. Brunicke and Pickering should be given the benefit of the doubt next fall, but when zooming out to look at the current roster construction, it seems to be one or the other, not both.
**Over the last few weeks, I’ve seen growth in Sergei Murashov’s game. His rebound control is getting better, and that is probably the biggest hurdle between him and significant NHL success.
Playing every other day has helped him tremendously, though the last time we talked to him was after his big Game 4, first round win in Hershey. He kept his answers delightfully simple. He didn’t break down his game–“I’m just trying to stop the puck”–and nor did he offer much insight into his game. Instead, he demurred to most questions.
But he is a deep thinker about the game and life. He has a philosopher’s mentality. Actually, he’s similar to former Penguins goalie Matt Murray and current netminder Arturs Silovs in that way. The goalies zoom out on the world at large.
**Tristan Broz is another prospect who is embracing the playoffs, and his game is growing. His setup of Ville Koivunen in Game 3 for the game winner was everything you’d like to see from a center: speed, awareness, vision, precision passing, and timing.
Broz’s growth is tangible. He is eighth in AHL playoff scoring, despite playing just 12 games. Broz has three goals and eight assists, and also 27 penalty minutes.
**The pressure of the playoffs is bringing out the best in everyone, but also pushing the prospects to elevate their games. Perhaps that is the biggest benefit. The confidence and lessons learned, should transfer forward.
**If Dubas cleared space for Broz, Pickering, Rutger McGroarty, and Ville Koivunen, which would likely put the team outside the playoff picture, would you approve?
**This writer’s head is still spinning from the 180 spin with hurricane force that Penguins fans did on the core three. A year ago, there was ample advocation for shedding two, if not all three, and getting on with the rebuild. But a year and one playoff appearance later, the mere mention of not re-signing Malkin was met with an army of angry comments, emotional accusations, and the movement’s catchphrase, “He’s a point per game player!”
Dubas has been weaving all over the highway to accomplish the hybrid rebuild. Trading for youth, but keeping Mantha and Acciari at the deadline was a conflicting message. Which lane will Penguins fans take?
**Imagine how many goals Egor Chinakhov is going to score in the 2027 All-Star game with the 3v3 international tournament format? Penguins teammates have already predicted he can score 40 in an NHL season.
**At Stanley Cup media day, Vegas Golden Knighs forward Mitch Marner teed up a tell-all on Toronto if Vegas wins the Stanley Cup. I would advise heavily against that because it won’t make any difference, and the effect will boomerang back on him with a multiplying effect. Fans up north will not take kindly to being told they are a big reason why no Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup since 1993.
Not coincidentally, the mid-1990s was when sports radio and 24-hour news really began to hit, and a few years later, every home had high-speed internet. In other words, fans could consume, share, opine, or vent just about 24 hours a day.
I love you, but sometimes perspective is the casualty … for all of us.
**An NHL player who previously played for a Canadian team broke it down for me (and to clear the innocent, it was not Stuart Skiner or Erik Karlsson. Don’t assume the player was a Penguin). The player said that the external pressure to win can be so oppressive that coaches feel it first, and his belief was that coaches can bring that pressure and negativity into the room and transfer some of it by putting more pressure on the players, which only makes matters worse.
It was one man’s opinion, but it made sense to me. Perhaps his story can bring attention to some wrongs that are able to be righted, but if he just complains about the intense scrutiny, he should prepare to deal with questions for the next few years, or at least until every Toronto writer and TV network asks him three times each.
**The legal system and the court of public opinion have never had a strong relationship. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.
**’Tis the season. There is a lot of trade speculation out there, but history is a pretty good barometer of what is possible. For example, Justin Brazeau has little to no trade value beyond a mid-round pick, but combining the Penguins’ secondary players such as Brazeau or Tommy Novak with the treasure trove of draft picks becomes plausible to get small upgrades.
But an impact player is an entirely different conversation.
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