GDT: 2024-2025 Training Camp

[GilbertSeinfeld]

That would be absolute must see cinema...the head coach of the Blackhawks battling for a spot on the Pens D-corps.

That's how you get Bedard to the Penguins.

9D chess.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

From Taylor…she doesn’t mention Broz…but the lineup is the following so I don’t understand how he got to work with Hayes…

Ville Koivunen - Evgeni Malkin - Rickard Rakell
Emil Bemstrom - Vasily Ponomarev - Valtteri Puustinen
Tanner Howe - Corey Andonovski - Jimmy Huntington/Marc Johnstone

Kris Letang - Matt Grzelcyk
Nikolai Knyzhov - Mac Hollowell
Philip Waugh - Nathan Clurman

Filip Larsson
Joel Blomqvist

Team 3 (gold)

Michael Bunting - Lars Eller - Cody Glass
Kevin Hayes - Noel Acciari - Blake Lizotte
Jonathan Gruden - Tristan Broz - Avery Hayes/Raivis Ansons

Ryan Graves - Jack St. Ivany
Ryan Shea - Scooter Brickey
Owen Pickering - Isaac Belliveau


• Jarry with a big pad save on Howe early on.

• Acciari with a wrist shot from the slot on Larsson. Larsson makes the save, but the rebound pops out to Lizotte and Lizotte buries it. Team 3 takes a 1-0 lead.

• Murashov is on the bench to start, his Penguins pads have finally come in. White base, as mandated by the team. Black down the outer end, gold triangle at the top. Still working with a blank helmet for now.

• Grzelcyk rings one off the post off a feed from Letang.

• Now Koivunen gets a breakaway, but Jarry makes the save.

• End of the first half. Jarry gets a shutout, and Lizotte's goal is the only one to beat Larsson. Now Murashov is coming in for Jarry and Blomqvist is replacing Larsson.

• I mentioned this at the Prospects Challenge, but Murashov has a fun start-of-period routine. He stands like a full-on starfish, then goes into a full squat and launches himself in the air.

• Kevin Hayes makes it a 2-0 game for Team 3, beating Blomqvist from the doorstep.

• Team 2 is on the board -- Huntington with a wrist shot to beat Murashov.

• Malkin comes flying up the right wing and tries taking a shot on Murashov but Graves drops and blocks the shot. Then Malkin gets another shot at it and beats Murashov, and yelled "YEAH!" like this is a serious game. It's tied, 2-2.

• Team 3 regains the lead. Kevin Hayes gets a breakaway and makes easy work of it, beating Blomqvist. 3-2

Everything I read doesn't mention Puustinen on any line-up. I hope he is claimed on waivers and this f***ing media and fan base eats shit for it.

 

[SEALBound]

Everything I read doesn't mention Puustinen on any line-up. I hope he is claimed on waivers and this f***ing media and fan base eats shit for it.

He'd get two games with the other team and then waived again.

Every team has 2-3 Puustinen-level players.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

He'd get two games with the other team and then waived again.

Every team has 2-3 Puustinen-level players.

The fact that you say this tells me you don't know shit about Puustinen and how supposedly teams have mulitple types of him around the league.

It's ok to say "I don't f***ing know anything about the player" instead of being an ignorant muppet.

 

[SEALBound]

The fact that you say this tells me you don't know shit about Puustinen and how supposedly teams have mulitple types of him around the league.

It's ok to say "I don't f***ing know anything about the player" instead of being an ignorant muppet.

You sound like someone on the mainboards trying to hype up Harkins to other teams for a trade.

Look, I like Puustinen. I do. I hope he does well ultimately. But, yeah, I would say that every single team in the league has a comparable prospect. It would stink to lose him but I'm not going to dilute myself for one second into thinking he's going to break out into some top line player if he got claimed. He'll be lucky if he has numbers comparable to those of Dom Simon at the end of his career.

I think WAY too many people here have a warped view of him because our prospect pool has been so bleak for so long. If he was drafted by say, Carolina, he wouldn't have any NHL games under his belt.

 

[The Old Master]

Totally agree with this. Cap hits are for GMs to worry about, not the coach. Putting the 6M cap hit (for the Pens) Kessel on the third line while entry-level contracts were playing with Sid wasn't such a bad thing in 2016, after all.

how much of that was the coach, or sid and geno not wanting him on their line?

 

[DearDiary]

The fact that you say this tells me you don't know shit about Puustinen and how supposedly teams have mulitple types of him around the league.

It's ok to say "I don't f***ing know anything about the player" instead of being an ignorant muppet.

Instead of being toxic, why don't you explain to the rest of us what we don't know.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

You sound like someone on the mainboards trying to hype up Harkins to other teams for a trade.

Look, I like Puustinen. I do. I hope he does well ultimately. But, yeah, I would say that every single team in the league has a comparable prospect. It would stink to lose him but I'm not going to dilute myself for one second into thinking he's going to break out into some top line player if he got claimed. He'll be lucky if he has comparable numbers to Dom Simon at the end of his career.

No, the typical narrative here would be - "Oh he only did well there because he was given minutes he'd never get here, I don't think he's good at all" which is proving the exact point of playing a talented player in a position to succeed. The issue here is you draft, develop, then use these players when they show the ability to succeed and look like they can with better usage, as @AuroraBorealis pointed out as well - point production wise, his stats are far more impressive than Drew O'Connor and yet blokes here seem enamoured with him when he barely does ok with the usage he got and gets praised like it's some insane break out year for him when it really isn't.

He's not a dime a dozen player at all, teams don't have a bunch of players like him, maybe some might have a player in that kind of situation, sure, we literally talked about one to death that Toronto just finally signed that Dubas drafted, the irony there was blokes here wanted to trade for him as well.

For Puustinen's sake I hope he is claimed on waivers and a coach gives him the chances a stupid f*** like Sullivan refused to even when Puustinen proved he belonged.

Instead of being toxic, why don't you explain to the rest of us what we don't know.

I've done it several times, as has @AuroraBorealis - So instead of being ignorant about it, use the f***ing search feature.

 

[Empoleon8771]

I don't want to see Puustinen waived, but the fact that he's signing a league minimum deal after putting up fairly good production last year makes me feel it's pretty obvious he's a replacement level player

He's just another Dominik Simon, which I don't mean as an insult. Decent bottom-6 guy for a few years then gets passed up by younger guys, after which he probably goes back to Europe.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

how much of that was the coach, or sid and geno not wanting him on their line?

How much of Kessel's issue was Sullivan not understanding where Kessel fit best?

Which was always running his own line the way Sid and Geno run theirs. The issue came to a head when Sullivan kept shoving HMK down their throats and caused a rift between Kessel and Geno and Geno wasn't all that happy with Sullivan. It caused JR to panic trade Hagelin because of how he was being used to shake up the roster. Hagelin meanwhile was fine with his usage on the 3rd line and his production looked like his usual average there, Kessel was fine on the 3rd line as well, but because Mike Sullivan thinks he knows best, also being a broken twat of a coach that ran out of ideas, he kept going back to what worked sporadically - HMK.

I don't want to see Puustinen waived, but the fact that he's signing a league minimum deal after putting up fairly good production last year makes me feel it's pretty obvious he's a replacement level player

He's just another Dominik Simon, which I don't mean as an insult. Decent bottom-6 guy for a few years then gets passed up by younger guys, after which he probably goes back to Europe.

Drew O'Connor signed the same type of contract. He signed a 1-way deal so he earns more regardless of being in the AHL at the same cap hit as last season.

I don't think you know the difference between your ass and your face saying shit like he's a Dom Simon type.

 

[HandshakeLine]

"mom, jimmy's being TOXIC again."

Yinz are 35 years old, learn to insult each other like adults.

 

[Darren McCord]

Instead of being toxic, why don't you explain to the rest of us what we don't know.

I do think Puustinen has more upside than people give him credit for.

His shooting % last year was 5.8 when his WBS average was 11.6 on average. Know its a big if. But if he can figure out how to score at a similar rate in the NHL he would have had 10 goals and 15 assist last year in 52 games. That's not a bad pace for a 24 year old rookie. That was spending most of his time on third line with Eller.

The fact people want to dump him is weird to me. If he can learn to get his shot off faster and be a 15 goal 25 assist guy on the 3rd line that seems pretty good. Especially because most of hist points were at even strength.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

"mom, jimmy's being TOXIC again."

Yinz are 35 years old, learn to insult each other like adults.

For real. Ya waffle-stomping, deep fried f*** nugget.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

We could just dump Eller for a 5th and waive Acciari or something. Neither are any sort of loss, and certainly not make-or-break for a team like this.

Not that I think guys like Pono, Poulin, Puustinen, etc. are gonna come in and kill it as full time NHLers, but like, you're not losing a damn thing by getting rid of two (or more lol) vets from this bottom-6.

View attachment 908008

Eller's a solid player who could help this team, and potentially return a 2nd or 3rd at the deadline. Why dump him now?

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

I think WAY too many people here have a warped view of him because our prospect pool has been so bleak for so long. If he was drafted by say, Carolina, he wouldn't have any NHL games under his belt.

Instead, he'd be dealt to the Penguins for their elite winger and Penguins fans would fool themselves into thinking he's a high end prospect.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Puus seems likely a little whatever. But I mean... he's NHL ready and gives me Sheary-esque vibes while producing mainly on the 3rd line and that ain't nothin'

If he can kick in like 15+20 on THIS team's third line in like 70ish games for league minimum I'd call that a nice win.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Drew O'Connor signed the same type of contract. He signed a 1-way deal so he earns more regardless of being in the AHL at the same cap hit as last season.

I don't think you know the difference between your ass and your face saying shit like he's a Dom Simon type.

Yes O'Connor got that deal because he had 17 points in 78 games before signing that deal.

I do think Puustinen has more upside than people give him credit for.

His shooting % last year was 5.8 when his WBS average was 11.6 on average. Know its a big if. But if he can figure out how to score at a similar rate in the NHL he would have had 10 goals and 15 assist last year in 52 games. That's not a bad pace for a 24 year old rookie. That was spending most of his time on third line with Eller.

The fact people want to dump him is weird to me. If he can learn to get his shot off faster and be a 15 goal 25 assist guy on the 3rd line that seems pretty good. Especially because most of hist points were at even strength.

Who is saying that they should dump him? Most people just think he's another Simon type, not that they should be trying to get rid of him.

He's in the same category as those Simon/Kahun/Sheary/Heinen types, it's just a question of whether he flashes out in 3 years or if he can carve out a nice career as a journeyman bottom-6er.

 

[Gurglesons]

how much of that was the coach, or sid and geno not wanting him on their line?

Sullivan is interviewed in Custance's book "Behind the Benches" and basically says he wanted Kessel on L3 from day one.

It's honestly weird to read now. Because, all he does is stack all the good players in the top six and let the bottom six be a total wasteland when his entire method in the cup runs was having 4 balanced lines that could play all situations and score.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Sullivan is interviewed in Custance's book "Behind the Benches" and basically says he wanted Kessel on L3 from day one.

It's honestly weird to read now. Because, all he does is stack all the good players in the top six and let the bottom six be a total wasteland when his entire method in the cup runs was having 4 balanced lines that could play all situations and score.

Which ironically is what Tocchet does in Vancouver, so Sullivan talked about it, did it, then abandoned it in 2018.

 

[Gurglesons]

Which ironically is what Tocchet does in Vancouver, so Sullivan talked about it, did it, then abandoned it in 2018.

I guess. I don’t think Tocchet is really anything. He pulled the same shit Sully does with Kuzmenko.

 

[eXile3]

I don’t understand the Simon comparison for Puus. Puus is more talented offensively.

He should be getting 35 points a season playing up and down the 2nd and 3rd line. A young player on a cost controlled contract. Instead he’ll get waived for some overpaid vet.

 

[Empoleon8771]

I don’t understand the Simon comparison for Puus. Puus is more talented offensively.

He should be getting 35 points a season playing up and down the 2nd and 3rd line. A young player on a cost controlled contract. Instead he’ll get waived for some overpaid vet.

It hasn't really shown with their historical AHL production. The two were extremely comparable in their times in the AHL for WBS:

Simon: 44 goals and 111 points in 159 games
Puustinen: 49 goals and 114 points in 169 games

The two are very similar with their total production. I don't mean it as an insult towards Puustinen when I make that comparison because Simon was a pretty decent bottom-6 guy for a 3 year stretch.

Puustinen has had better production in the NHL so far, with Puustinen's 5v5 points/60 last year of 2.03 being better than any of Simon's seasons in the NHL (1.68, 1.71 and 1.47). Puustinen did that with about 40% of his ice time with Crosby or Malkin (mostly Malkin), while Simon did that with about 55% of his ice time with Crosby or Malkin (mostly Crosby). I think Puustinen is better than Simon, but I think he's closer to Simon than he is to someone like Sheary though.

I think calling him a Dominik Kahun caliber player is actually pretty fair. Kahun didn't last as long as I expected him to in the NHL but he was a very solid player while he was in the NHL. He finished with a 1.88 5v5 points/60 over his 3 years in the NHL.