GDT: 2024-2025 Training Camp

[Andy99]

Are there going to be training camp cuts today?

 

[Sideline]

Nothing earth shattering here from Yohe either lol….except maybe this:


• Is Ryan Graves even going to be on the ice come opening night? I’m not so sure. I am sure that currently, he’s not one of the Penguins’ top six defensemen. He’s not had a good camp coming off of last season’s disastrous performance.

Also says Glass has had a good camp…really? not sure what he sees there…Glass and Beau couldn’t score in a brothel


Loved this one too…reality is a bitch lol: “There’s a general theme in the dressing room that the Penguins think they’re a bit better than many forecasts”

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5817120/2024/10/03/penguins-blue-line-questions-bottom-six/?source=emp_shared_article

Graves on waivers would be hilarious and make me respect Dubas for owning up to his mistakes.

 

[Empoleon8771]

I don't think they'll scratch Graves, but that thought was actually something that crossed my mind with respect to Brunicke. It's a question if he can handle it, but if St. Ivany can move to RD, you can solve both the issue of Graves being in the lineup along with Brunicke having a spot for the full season. Your "main" D pairs could be:

Pettersson-Karlsson
Grzelcyk-Letang
St. Ivany-Brunicke
Graves-Aho

While you can rotate in Graves and Aho for Brunicke occasionally to manage him in his first season. Aho prefers RD to LD according to an article from Haase, so I think you could have the position flexibility to work with this. That being said, it's a huge ask of St. Ivany to transition to LD, there aren't a ton of RD that are effective on LD.

 

[Andy99]

I think it's either Puusty or Pool party in the lineup. Acciari will have a guaranteed spot for reasons

Yeah lol…but the smart move would be to keep both Puusty and PoolParty and waive Glass…he’s not worth his $2.5M salary for what he brings…I think they’ll be able to safely waive him and no one will pick him up at that price but if they do, great…if Sullivan ever gets his head out of his ass to stop with the fully defensive bottom six..

DOC-Sid-Rust
Bunting-G-Rakell
Beau-Eller-Puusty
Lizotte-Hayes-PoolParty
Acciari

If McG goes to the A and is scoring like a boss, then bring him up to play with Sid and move DOC down and sit Beau or Lizotte, unless they’re lighting it up…

 

[Empoleon8771]

I think it's either Puusty or Pool party in the lineup. Acciari will have a guaranteed spot for reasons

I actually think it makes sense for Acciari to start in a lineup, at least until Lizotte gets back. They only have 2 PKing centers on the team (Hayes and Eller), and Hayes hasn't really killed penalties for a while.

Once Lizotte is back, I think the lineup shapes up fairly easily with Acciari out:

O'Connor-Crosby-Rust
Bunting-Malkin-Rakell
McGroarty-Hayes-Puljujarvi
Lizotte-Eller-Beauvillier
Acciari-Puustinen

Waive Glass and send him to WBS, he's been pretty firmly outplayed by McGroarty and Puljujarvi and I don't really see a reason to keep him on the NHL roster. Especially when they'd be risking losing Puustinen to waivers while Glass is almost assuredly not getting claimed.

 

[eXile3]

Could you imagine the NHL if they had a similar construct for contracts as the NFL?

Vets like Graves would be cut all the time.

 

[Andy99]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1842209899725398058

Is he gonna play tonight?

More than I expected…still ain’t making the playoff though lol

https://x.com/i/web/status/1842195469344309503

 

[Andy99]

Why are they playing Hayes two nights in a row? Lol…also, can we stop the Grz-Letang experiment? Just awful…

https://x.com/i/web/status/1842211407221145774

 

[Empoleon8771]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1842211390959874172

That 4th line is atrocious but they're at least keeping all of the shit together on the 4th line I guess. Bet this is the lineup they start with assuming Rust is out. Once Rust gets back, I figure they go to:

O'Connor-Crosby-Rust
Bunting-Malkin-Rakell
McGroarty-Eller-Puljujarvi
Beauvillier-Hayes-Acciari

I'm curious for who comes out once Lizotte is healthy, I'd suggest running with Beauvillier-Lizotte-Hayes as L4 and scratching Acciari but I also don't really like Hayes on the wing. They could also do Lizotte-Hayes-Beauvillier, which I like a lot more but I'm not sure they view Lizotte as a winger.

 

[pistolpete11]

The bottom 6 most certainly sucks, but....does it suck any worse than last year? Removing Carter (especially given Sullivan's knack to overplay him), Harkins, and if not removing him altogether at least moving Acciari back to wing seem like steps in the right direction.

 

[Malkinstheman]

I actually think it makes sense for Acciari to start in a lineup, at least until Lizotte gets back. They only have 2 PKing centers on the team (Hayes and Eller), and Hayes hasn't really killed penalties for a while.

Once Lizotte is back, I think the lineup shapes up fairly easily with Acciari out:

O'Connor-Crosby-Rust
Bunting-Malkin-Rakell
McGroarty-Hayes-Puljujarvi
Lizotte-Eller-Beauvillier
Acciari-Puustinen

Waive Glass and send him to WBS, he's been pretty firmly outplayed by McGroarty and Puljujarvi and I don't really see a reason to keep him on the NHL roster. Especially when they'd be risking losing Puustinen to waivers while Glass is almost assuredly not getting claimed.

Yeah this would be my ideal line-up right now. Feel like that third line could be pretty fun

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

If PuckPedia’s buyout calc is correct- Graves makes more sense to keep in the AHL and see if he keeps reporting over the life of his deal rather than buying him out. IMO.

The savings difference between a buyout and burying him is like 1.6M, 890k, and then minimal to nothing.

 

[Malkinstheman]

The bottom 6 most certainly sucks, but....does it suck any worse than last year? Removing Carter (especially given Sullivan's knack to overplay him), Harkins, and if not removing him altogether at least moving Acciari back to wing seem like steps in the right direction.

Game 1 last season they ran this:

Doc-Eller-Harkins
Nieto-Acciari-Carter

Ummm yeah. No matter how much Sullivan messes up the lines, this years bottom-6 significantly better

 

[HandshakeLine]

Our roster sucks, lol. I hate almost all of these players.

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

Game 1 last season they ran this:

Doc-Eller-Harkins
Nieto-Acciari-Carter

Ummm yeah. No matter how much Sullivan messes up the lines, this years bottom-6 significantly better

Eh. 3rd line should stronger on paper but it’s still Eller, a rookie, and a guy who passed thru waivers last year. And a Hayes-Glass-Acciari line might be similar to worse as a 4th line.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Another year of boring-ass low-event nothing! At least the numbers look better!

 

[Sideline]

Why are they playing Hayes two nights in a row? Lol…also, can we stop the Grz-Letang experiment? Just awful…

https://x.com/i/web/status/1842211407221145774

Hayes might be a case of needing an extra body with the minimum required NHL experience. There are league rules in place so fans don't get stuck watching an ECHL roster in the preseason. That's also why you will always see random ancient vets getting PTOs; they count as NHL players so you don't have to send the real roster players to play a back to back preseason game on the road right before the regular season.

 

[Malkinstheman]

Eh. 3rd line should stronger on paper but it’s still Eller, a rookie, and a guy who passed thru waivers last year. And a Hayes-Glass-Acciari line might be similar to worse as a 4th line.

I don't know, no one fighting for a spot this year seems to be a total non factor like Nieto and Harkins were. Hayes will no doubt be slow and frustrating but I have to imagine he's better than Carter was last season. The main difference is that there's a lot of options for the bottom-6 this year atleast

 

[Empoleon8771]

Yeah that 4th line sucks for right now but the bottom-6 should be miles better if this team is ever actually healthy. McGroarty-Eller-Puljujarvi/Puustinen and Lizotte-Hayes-Beauvillier should be a significant upgrade on what they had last year.

 

[Andy99]

We’re moving from maintenance day for Rust, to Rust is out day to day, to he’s out week to week and then season long injury…it’s Rust, so who knows lol

 

[pistolpete11]

Eh. 3rd line should stronger on paper but it’s still Eller, a rookie, and a guy who passed thru waivers last year. And a Hayes-Glass-Acciari line might be similar to worse as a 4th line.

Hayes-Glass-Acciari, if it is even the 4th line, is only the 4th line due to multiple injuries, though.

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

I don't know, no one fighting for a spot this year seems to be a total non factor like Nieto and Harkins were. Hayes will no doubt be slow and frustrating but I have to imagine he's better than Carter was last season. The main difference is that there's a lot of options for the bottom-6 this year atleast

Harkins sure, but kinda hard for me to see it as significantly improved when all that happened is OC is now on L1, and it’s the same centerman.

But if McG can be good, and Puljujarvi is healthy and can be a 15-15-30 guy, then yeah.

Agree when healthy there are more options though. 4th line in its current state is ugly but hopefully things shake themselves out there and it’s more like Beau-Lizotte-Acciari

Starting to think neither Hayes or Glass have a spot when healthy

 

[Empoleon8771]

I don't know, no one fighting for a spot this year seems to be a total non factor like Nieto and Harkins were. Hayes will no doubt be slow and frustrating but I have to imagine he's better than Carter was last season. The main difference is that there's a lot of options for the bottom-6 this year atleast

I think it's this plus also guys like Ponomarev and Broz knocking on the door in the AHL that makes me not worried about their forward depth. I'm more concerned about their D depth because guys like Ludvig and Kral look terrible out there.

Harkins sure, but kinda hard for me to see it as significantly improved when all that happened is OC is now on L1, and it’s the same centerman.

But if McG can be good, and Puljujarvi is healthy and can be a 15-15-30 guy, then yeah.

Agree when healthy there are more options though. 4th line in its current state is ugly but hopefully things shake themselves out there and it’s more like Beau-Lizotte-Acciari

Starting to think neither Hayes or Glass have a spot when healthy

Not sure on Hayes yet but I'm 100% there with Glass. He's been completely outplayed by McGroarty and Puljujarvi so far and I don't see him having a spot with both of those two above him. I wouldn't be surprised for him to end up on waivers due to McGroarty making the team.

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

I think it's this plus also guys like Ponomarev and Broz knocking on the door in the AHL that makes me not worried about their forward depth. I'm more concerned about their D depth because guys like Ludvig and Kral look terrible out there.



Not sure on Hayes yet but I'm 100% there with Glass. He's been completely outplayed by McGroarty and Puljujarvi so far and I don't see him having a spot with both of those two above him. I wouldn't be surprised for him to end up on waivers due to McGroarty making the team.

The beauty of their basis/acquisition cost in both is they should not care about making them fit if they show no pulse. Especially for Glass with 1 year on his deal.

 

[Pancakes]

I'm a little leery of starting McGroarty on the team. I would have liked him to dominate preseason in order to earn that spot and I don't think he has. If he didn't have the billing in our system of being the top prospect on the team I'm not sure he'd make it at all.

That's not to say he's been bad, but I don't see what he's done to earn that spot.