Cody Glass also has a proven NHL track record.
People just want young prospects shoved into the lineup because everyone wants the Pens to get younger ASAP but most of the kids we have at camp either aren't that good or need more time in WBS to develop before they get called up.
It's not a failing for these kids to not make the team out of camp. There will be injuries. There will be call ups. When the Pens had the youth wave in 2016 that lead to a cup it was only after giving Rust, Kuhnhackl, Wilson, etc time to marinate a little in the minors. Not one of those guys made it right out of camp.
The thing that frustrates me with Sullivan won't be him not giving guys like Poulin or McGroarty spots immediately. It will be when an actual good NHL ready player in Puustinen is cast aside in favor of other players.
McGroarty going to the minors so that Beauvillier can play instead? Not a problem to me. McGroarty needs time anyways. Someone like Noel Acciari being kept and played over Puustinen? Yeah that sucks, because Puusy is actually ready and productive and should be in the lineup.
I agree with this as well, McGroarty going to WBS is not a bad thing at all, for him to by pass that and make the roster would be him having an insane camp, which I mean he is having a good one, but not an incredible enough one to make it imo, if you're pretty good in camp, that's fine, you need to be great to make it without any sort of pro experience and Rutger to me shows he can be great if he gets a little more seasoning with more minutes, perfectly fine and if he thrives down there, Dubas will make sure he gets called up asap.
But Poulin? I think he's been a bad fit and there's no usage that Sullivan would plan on using him for that would help him at all and that is unfortunate, you don't want to see a lad like that get written off and I hope he's claimed so maybe that shot in the arm and a new system helps him thrive.
But to potentially lose a player like Puustinen on waivers because of this coach's desperate need for veterans, only to play more stone handed wankers, is just wrong. Puustinen should be on that 3rd line to help create more depth scoring.
It's curious to read about Cody Glass - He had a "break out" season in 2022-23, which was barely better than DOC's stats while getting a lot of decent usage in Nashville as a C, fine, but the next season he starts off with a knee injury, misses the first 18 of 28 games because of a shoulder injury, has something like 2pts in his first 17 games, gets healthy scratched a ton, but he finishes the season with 11pts in 24 games, and ends up being a healthy scratch in all of the playoff games. Throughout the season, because of how his year went to start the season, he struggled mentally, a lot, but found his way through it. It's crazy to go through that on a team that actually supports him, vs say what the Penguins do to the players in a similar situation - young, trying to make the team etc, I'm more shocked the Pens younger players don't seek out a mental health professional based on the stupid shit this coach does to these players, sit them for a period for a mistake, even if they play well prior to that, no logical implementation of accountability at all.
The shitty part is while it'd be great to see Glass succeed, it'd now be at the expense of a player that should have had that same treatment and because they went so hard with the veterans, the spot he should be playing in, 3C, is now not even a proper option.
I still would be happy to see something like:
O'Connor, Crosby, Rust
Bunting, Malkin, Rakell
Hayes, Glass, Puustinen
Beauvillier, Eller, Puljujarvi
