It must be tempting. After just a couple of seasons of putting plans in place and subverting the long-standing Pittsburgh Penguins tradition of win-now mode in favor of building for the future, it would seem the current Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins playoff run is showing the organization is flush with prospects ready for NHL work.
Or at least they are ready for an extended chance at NHL work.
This season, general manager Kyle Dubas maintained his hybrid rebuild approach, keeping the Penguins veterans in place and allowing the prospects to earn spots around them. In total, a dozen rookies suited up for the team, which was the second most in the NHL (Montreal, 13).
But that still didn’t track on the “tank” for Gavin McKenna approach. No, the Penguins NHL lineup remained competitive with veteran acquisitions.
The theory of plugging in the prospects around the Penguins veteran core including Sidney Crosby but also players such as Bryan Rust, is sound as it takes pressure off the young players and allows them to play with established players who can help their games both on the ice and off.
The approach certainly didn’t hurt Ben Kindel, who stuck in the NHL as an 18-year-old, but he was one of just two rookies to stick. The other was goalie Arturs Silovs, who turned 25 in March, but nine other rookies came and went back to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton or, in the case of Harrison Brunicke, back to his Kamloops junior team.
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are currently on a playoff run, that team’s first in more than a decade. It’s a prospect laden roster with hopefuls such as Rutger McGroarty and Owen Pickering, now reaching maturity at 22 years old.
For the players from the 2022 draft class (Pickering, McGroarty, Ville Koivunen) the 2026-27 NHL season represents their 5+ year, which means five seasons from their draft day, statistically making it their make-or-break year.
However, Dubas is admittedly willing to part with some of them in a trade to find an impact player in their mid or later 20s. Dubas also admitted he didn’t know if such a trade was possible.
Maybe it’s unnecessary.
While Dubas has given no indication that he intends to veer from his plan to continue on the hybrid rebuild approach, both developing players for the next Penguins era but keeping enough veterans to be competitive, perhaps it is time to consider clearing some brush to open spots for the prospects and lowering the bar for them to earn those spots.
It would seem there are already spots waiting for right-handed defenseman Harrison Brunicke and goalie Sergei Murashov (or Joel Blomqvist), but the rest will have to elbow past veteran competition.
For organization and prospects, the situation has changed. A year ago, the organization did not have enough prospects to consider such a youth move, and the few prospects who were on the cusp were given a chance. Now, those same prospects have taken a few lumps from the game, learned what they didn’t know, and after a summer of digesting their lessons and physically fine tuning what they need, they will be as ready as they’re ever going to be to begin the journey.
After being around the WBS Penguins for several days during their playoff run and getting to interact with them away from the brightly lit press interviews, it is obvious there is a fierce community is forming. The players genuinely like each other, but they push each other, sometimes hard, to be better. It has become a tightknit fraternity of prospects.
Make no mistake, behind the scenes, the up-and-down took its toll on a few of the Penguins prospects this season, and they were a bit surly after getting sent down, sometimes for the second or third time.
McGroarty was no fan of being returned to WBS later in the season. Pickering was humbled, if not rattled, by a rough game in Winnipeg and a subsequent quick demotion at mid-season. And one wonders what Tristan Broz thought after getting his long awaited call-up, one NHL game, then watching a few more before being sent down.
Further, PHN has written and talked about our estimation that the biggest impediment to Ville Koivunen’s season was getting in his own head over a lack of scoring at the NHL level. Like the rest, Koivunen will have a summer in the gym and months to think of what must be done, and at his post-season press conference, Dubas still had praise for Koivunen’s play.
Down on the farm, the prospects have chips on their shoulders and have built some hate which they’ve taken out on opponents, but there’s a limit to inciting that competitive anger before it becomes destructive.
So what exactly will the Pittsburgh Penguins gain by not creating more space for them? It was a surprising and uplifting playoff run this season, but one must ask the critical question–what is the value of a few more wins with veterans next season vs. a few more losses and a lot more answers via the prospects?
The Evgeni Malkin contract situation is hanging over the organization, and after a season Malkin poking the organization for a new deal, it seems it is he who is holding up the process. From an age standpoint, Malkin will turn 40 this summer. Sidney Crosby will turn 39 on Aug. 7, and Kris Letang will turn 39 next season. Adding to the veteran core, Rickard Rakell turned 33 in early May. Bryan Rust also turned 34 in May (where does the time go?!), and Erik Karlsson will turn 36 this week.
That’s a lot of veterans.
The result is that the top of the Penguins’ lineup is locked with players now past their prime and it would be unprecedented for the Penguins, with that aged core, to become Stanley Cup contenders. Such a feat has not happened in the modern era except for the 2002 Detroit Red Wings, who splashed free agents with millions to assemble a Hall of Famer-laden roster (10 of those players are in the HoF).
Are all of the Penguins veterans needed to maintain culture and progression?
Realistically, there are no less than five, probably six, and maybe eight players currently with WBS who could make the leap. Brunicke and Murashov seem quite likely. After them, there is Pickering, McGroarty, Koivunen, Broz, Avery Hayes, and maybe, just maybe, Bill Zonnon.
In fact, it might seem counterproductive to leave only a couple of roster spots open for so many deserving players. They weren’t necessarily deserving a year ago, but the group has grown this season and they’re now chasing an AHL Calder Cup.
There would be little benefit for a repeat both in Pittsburgh and WBS next year. Maybe Dubas will compromise with a hybrid to the hybrid rebuild and open a few more spots because prospects are changing the situation. Hey, that’s what they’re supposed to do.
Dubas is getting what he wanted, albeit a year later, so will he adjust? It must be tempting, and it would not be the wrong decision.
Tags: Owen Pickering Penguins Prospects rutger mcgroarty
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