GDT: 2024-2025 Training Camp

[Deport Ogie]

The genius plan to move Malkin to wing has been around forever.

Malkin as winger to Jordan Staal as 2c was a hot topic in like, his 2nd year as I seem to recall.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Malkin as winger to Jordan Staal as 2c was a hot topic in like, his 2nd year as I seem to recall.

Oh... it VERY much was. "Staalkin" -- barf.

Penguins fans brainworms were evidently at an all time high in that era.

Imagine thinking Jordan Staal over Evgeni Malkin was a smart idea.

 

[Gurglesons]

Staalkingrad.

 

[Deport Ogie]

Imagine thinking Jordan Staal over Evgeni Malkin was a smart idea.

It may be true that 71 went on to win a Conn Smythe and a Hart and Art Ross and whatever but something something long stick something something sod.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

Staalkingrad.

Christ you can't get anything right.

It was Staalingrad.

 

[HandshakeLine]

neat

Oh... it VERY much was. "Staalkin" -- barf.

Penguins fans brainworms were evidently at an all time high in that era.

Imagine thinking Jordan Staal over Evgeni Malkin was a smart idea.

People will still die on that hill from Oil City to oil spill

 

[Randy Butternubs]

neat


People will still die on that hill from Oil City to oil spill

 

[SEALBound]

Malkin as winger to Jordan Staal as 2c was a hot topic in like, his 2nd year as I seem to recall.

Staalingrad.

Good lord, those were some awkward, dark times here. I can't remember who it was but they firmly believed the team was grooming Staal to the be 2C and that it would eventually lead to them trading off Malkin for a wing for Crosby.

They also demanded that Tangradi be given 40 games glued to Malkin's hip so that "we could see what we have". Tangradi was later traded for a 6th after a pedestrian NHL showing.

The only argument I could see to shift Malkin to wing would be a reduction of defensive burden. Problem is, with Sullivan's system and our current crop of centers, it makes ZERO sense.

Now I'm off to find Mike Comrie highlights. A mere 14 year ago we had the pleasure of watching Tangradi-Comrie-Malkin wreck the pre-season. I think this was when Comrie was still scoring with Hillary Duff as well. Good times.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Staalingrad.

Good lord, those were some awkward, dark times here. I can't remember who it was but they firmly believed the team was grooming Staal to the be 2C and that it would eventually lead to them trading off Malkin for a wing for Crosby.

Reactionary perhaps but one can understand how this conclusion was drawn considering that the team consistently seemed interested and often did move Malkin to wing for the sake of Jordan Staal's ego top six playing time. I think it was at least possible that they had something in mind there considering how desperately Shero tried to retain Staal with that ridiculous contract he pushed across the table (and Staal rejected). But I mean... who knows. Nothing official (that I'm aware of) ever came out about all that even after Shero and Disco were long gone.

Obviously doesn't matter, now. In an alternate universe a more serious and less fanboyish GM/coach combo tells Jordy to suck it up and play wing with Geno if he was so hard up on getting into the top six. And after all... he put up his best goal total of his career in that position. I think that would have been a pretty killer line even if Staal often seemed to have the offensive IQ of a canned ham.

 

[DesertPenguin]

Per Taylor Haase, lines today, with my commentary. I think at this point we can read into things:

Drew O'Connor - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust - Top line
Rutger McGroarty - Vasily Ponomarev - Jesse Puljujarvi - The 4th line we want.
Anthony Beauvillier - Blake Lizotte - Noel Acciari - The 4th line we are going to get
Tanner Howe - Tristan Broz - Emil Bemstrom - WBS.

Matt Grzelcyk - Kris Letang - Top pair
Owen Pickering - Scooter Brickey - WBS
Ryan Shea - John Ludvig - WBS first call ups
Dan Renouf - Harrison Brunicke - Bye

Tristan Jarry - Starter
Joel Blomqvist - WBS Starter

Michael Bunting - Evgeni Malkin - Rickard Rakell- 2nd line
Kevin Hayes - Lars Eller - Cody Glass - 3rd line
Valtteri Puustinen - Joona Koppanen - Avery Hayes - WBS. Poor Puusty
Ville Koivunen - Jimmy Huntington - Sam Poulin - WBS. Poor Poulin

Ryan Graves - Jack St. Ivany - 3rd pair
Marcus Pettersson - Sebastian Aho - 2nd Pair / 7th D (Karlsson hurt)
Isaac Belliveau - Nathan Clurman - WBS
Finn Harding - Mac Hollowell - Bye

Alex Nedeljkovic - Backup
Sergei Murashov - WBS Backup

 

[Empoleon8771]

Per Taylor Haase, lines today, with my commentary. I think at this point we can read into things:

Valtteri Puustinen - Joona Koppanen - Avery Hayes - WBS. Poor Puusty

Puustinen isn't going to WBS, he's going to be one of their extras. He's just playing on that line because he's not going to be in their top-12 to start the year.

Koppanen and Hayes are going to be 4th liners for WBS, or at best bottom-6ers. Even if Puustinen was going to WBS, they wouldn't be playing him in that role. I think Poulin's probably in the same boat, although he didn't help his case with his pre-season game yesterday.

 

[DesertPenguin]

Drew O'Connor - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Michael Bunting - Evgeni Malkin - Rickard Rakell
Kevin Hayes - Lars Eller - Cody Glass
Anthony Beauvillier - Blake Lizotte - Noel Acciari
Jesse Puljujarvi - Up for grabs

McGroarty, Ponomarev, Puustinen, Poulin are candidates for the last spot, and that's the order I think they are in for likelihood of making it.

 

[WickedWrister]

 

[SEALBound]

Reactionary perhaps but one can understand how this conclusion was drawn considering that the team consistently seemed interested and often did move Malkin to wing for the sake of Jordan Staal's ego top six playing time. I think it was at least possible that they had something in mind there considering how desperately Shero tried to retain Staal with that ridiculous contract he pushed across the table (and Staal rejected). But I mean... who knows. Nothing official (that I'm aware of) ever came out about all that even after Shero and Disco were long gone.

Obviously doesn't matter, now. In an alternate universe a more serious and less fanboyish GM/coach combo tells Jordy to suck it up and play wing with Geno if he was so hard up on getting into the top six. And after all... he put up his best goal total of his career in that position. I think that would have been a pretty killer line even if Staal often seemed to have the offensive IQ of a canned ham.

Looking back, I don't think that was ever true. Staal never got top 6 time over Malkin. The only top 6 time he got was in 2011 when both Sid and Malkin were injured. I wonder how we would have fared if Staal resigned that deal...?

Puustinen isn't going to WBS, he's going to be one of their extras. He's just playing on that line because he's not going to be in their top-12 to start the year.

Koppanen and Hayes are going to be 4th liners for WBS, or at best bottom-6ers. Even if Puustinen was going to WBS, they wouldn't be playing him in that role. I think Poulin's probably in the same boat, although he didn't help his case with his pre-season game yesterday.

Agree. Looking at those lines, I would guess it's Puustinen and Puljujarvi as the extras with Poulin and Bemstrom going down.

Yes, yes but how does that compare to Brayden Yager?

 

[eXile3]

Christ you can't get anything right.

It was Staalingrad.

One of the best line names that ultimately never was

 

[Dennis Reynolds]

Did Knyzhov even show up? I don't feel like I've read a word about him.

 

[DesertPenguin]

Puustinen isn't going to WBS, he's going to be one of their extras. He's just playing on that line because he's not going to be in their top-12 to start the year.

Koppanen and Hayes are going to be 4th liners for WBS, or at best bottom-6ers. Even if Puustinen was going to WBS, they wouldn't be playing him in that role. I think Poulin's probably in the same boat, although he didn't help his case with his pre-season game yesterday.

Him and Poolparty as the extras then.

WBS top 6 will be something like:

Poulin - Ponomarev - A. Hayes
Koivunen - Broz - Bemstrom

 

[Empoleon8771]

Him and Poolparty as the extras then.

WBS top 6 will be something like:

Poulin - Ponomarev - A. Hayes
Koivunen - Broz - Bemstrom

No the lines they're running with right now are likely going to be the WBS lines. The lines they're using now suggests that McGroarty-Ponomarev-Puljujarvi is WBS's top line and Poulin and Puustinen are the extras. Both Poulin and Puustinen are playing out of position in roles that wouldn't make sense even if they were sent to WBS. Koppanen is WBS's 4th line center, Puustinen would absolutely not be playing in that role if he would be sent down. I might see Koivunen-Huntington-Poulin making sense as a WBS 3rd line, but again it's weird to see Poulin at RW when he's pretty exclusively been a C/LW so far.

WBS is probably running with a top-9 of something very similar to:

McGroarty-Ponomarev-Puljujarvi
Gruden-Broz-Bemstrom (was the line earlier this week, Howe is just a temporary fill-in until he goes back to juniors)
Koivunen-Huntington-Andonovski

Koppanen will be the 4C and you'll have guys like Hayes, Houde, Inama and such vying for the 4th line wingers.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Looking back, I don't think that was ever true. Staal never got top 6 time over Malkin. The only top 6 time he got was in 2011 when both Sid and Malkin were injured. I wonder how we would have fared if Staal resigned that deal...?

Well no Staal didn't get MORE top six time but the idea of moving him to a much more important position on that line while Malkin is already a borderline HOF center is about as dumb as it gets and shows some pretty clear preference IMO.

Like I said it doesn't matter now and I don't want to derail the thread. Sorry.

EDIT: You recall that Staal centered Malkin over the course of several stretches, right? If not I understand where the confusion is.

 

[pistolpete11]

As someone who was one of the first people to jump on the "Let's bring Staal back!" train seemingly every offseason for the better part of a decade, even I wasn't dumb enough to want him to center Malkin.

The only time I ever did or would want Malkin moved to wing would be to play with Crosby. Even then, it would be more for the funsies than thinking it's actually good for the team.

 

[SEALBound]

Well no Staal didn't get MORE top six time but the idea of moving him to a much more important position on that line while Malkin is already a borderline HOF center is about as dumb as it gets and shows some pretty clear preference IMO.

Like I said it doesn't matter now and I don't want to derail the thread. Sorry.

EDIT: You recall that Staal centered Malkin over the course of several stretches, right? If not I understand where the confusion is.

Did he? I don't recall that. When did that happen? I remember Malkin on Sutter's wing to start 2014/2015.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Did he? I don't recall that. When did that happen? I remember Malkin on Sutter's wing to start 2014/2015.

They tinkered around between 09-12 IIRC (Staal was traded after the '12 season). Mostly 2010 I think. I don't believe it was ever more than like a dozen games. For obvious reasons. It sucked.

 

[Sike Mullivan]

Did Knyzhov even show up? I don't feel like I've read a word about him.

The only thing that made him stand out at camp Friday was that he was the only player not to kneel in between drills when Sully talked/drew on the board. He was a very smooth skater, but wasnt very good handling the puck or shooting. You could actually see his shot flutter on its way to the net.
.

 

[DesertPenguin]

No the lines they're running with right now are likely going to be the WBS lines. The lines they're using now suggests that McGroarty-Ponomarev-Puljujarvi is WBS's top line and Poulin and Puustinen are the extras. Both Poulin and Puustinen are playing out of position in roles that wouldn't make sense even if they were sent to WBS. Koppanen is WBS's 4th line center, Puustinen would absolutely not be playing in that role if he would be sent down. I might see Koivunen-Huntington-Poulin making sense as a WBS 3rd line, but again it's weird to see Poulin at RW when he's pretty exclusively been a C/LW so far.

WBS is probably running with a top-9 of something very similar to:

McGroarty-Ponomarev-Puljujarvi
Gruden-Broz-Bemstrom (was the line earlier this week, Howe is just a temporary fill-in until he goes back to juniors)
Koivunen-Huntington-Andonovski

Koppanen will be the 4C and you'll have guys like Hayes, Houde, Inama and such vying for the 4th line wingers.

I see what you're saying. Has Poulin showed enough to earn that spot over the likes of Puljujarvi though? Sully being Sully, Dubas being Dubas sure, but neither of them have shown any real affinity for Poulin, nor do I think he's really blowing the doors off the arena in camp. Puustinen earned a spot last year though, and McGroarty, Ponomarev are waiver eligible.

 

[Ulf5]

Per Taylor Haase, lines today, with my commentary. I think at this point we can read into things:

Drew O'Connor - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust - Top line
Rutger McGroarty - Vasily Ponomarev - Jesse Puljujarvi - The 4th line we want.
Anthony Beauvillier - Blake Lizotte - Noel Acciari - The 4th line we are going to get
Tanner Howe - Tristan Broz - Emil Bemstrom - WBS.

Matt Grzelcyk - Kris Letang - Top pair
Owen Pickering - Scooter Brickey - WBS
Ryan Shea - John Ludvig - WBS first call ups
Dan Renouf - Harrison Brunicke - Bye

Tristan Jarry - Starter
Joel Blomqvist - WBS Starter

Michael Bunting - Evgeni Malkin - Rickard Rakell- 2nd line
Kevin Hayes - Lars Eller - Cody Glass - 3rd line
Valtteri Puustinen - Joona Koppanen - Avery Hayes - WBS. Poor Puusty
Ville Koivunen - Jimmy Huntington - Sam Poulin - WBS. Poor Poulin

Ryan Graves - Jack St. Ivany - 3rd pair
Marcus Pettersson - Sebastian Aho - 2nd Pair / 7th D (Karlsson hurt)
Isaac Belliveau - Nathan Clurman - WBS
Finn Harding - Mac Hollowell - Bye

Alex Nedeljkovic - Backup
Sergei Murashov - WBS Backup

Poor Poulin??? Ffs! Koivunen is slow enough without having to drag those 2 anchors around.