I don't think so. No individual trophies even though he's better defensively than Toews and should have a Selke under his belt. He's a great player but I don't see how his career equates to HHOF.
Injuries? No worries.
Chicago just proved all pens fans excuses wrong. Chicago isn't big. Why don't they get hit? You can't catch up to the puck moving that fast and the stars spin out and barely retaliate. Injuries? No worries. Play draft picks? Wait...whaaaat? What about experience?
Pens organization should blame themselves for doing everything the Hawks didn't do to succeed.
You can go cliche and say the East sucks, but the Lightning gave Chicago more trouble than anyone expected. Had Stamkos showed up even in the slightest, and Bishop not pulled a Fleury in game 5, this is a totally different series.
Congrats Chicago, this is a Dynasty! And they will stay on top, I have no doubt about it! They have great coaching, they have great depth, they are excellent at drafting players! That´s how you get to the top and stay there!
No matter if they have to trade 1 or 2 players because of the cap this summer. They already signed Panarin, I´m pretty sure they will get Reilly as well.
This is THE franchise, everybody should take them as a role model. From a Pens standpoint, it is a shame that this organization was not able to duplicate that, this should have been the final almost every other year.
Bolded is false. They are average to below average in drafting.
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/teams/dr00005218.html
I'm not sure how anyone can mimic thier "model" in the NHL today.
No way a team could hold onto a group like Toews, Kane, Hossa, Keith, Seabrook for as long and as cheap as they did unless the group collectively agree to leave a bunch of money on the table.
Hell, everyone that group^ are paid 6.3M and under still, to this very day with 3 Cups in the bag.
If Hossa stuck with the Pens and signed for 5.275M for a gazillion years(like he did with the Hawks) and they eventually managed to find a dominate top 3 D-Core(like the Hawks have), they would be in a pretty similar spot. They'd also need a Saad like player as well. Oh yea, thats right, we could've drafted him.
This was one of the worst hockey seasons in a long time.
Well, when I look at that list, there is an impact player that played a crucial role almost every year. Sure, Kane or Toews may be easy picks, but still.
2005 Hjalmarsson (No. 108)
2006 Toews (No. 3)
2007 Kane (No. 1)
2009 Kruger (No. 149)
2011 Saad (No. 43)
2012 Teravainen (No. 18)
Not rating the Drafts 2013 and 2014 just yet, but I am sure there will be at least one good roster player for them each year.
If the Pens would have drafted like that......you know what I mean?! Yes, Sid and Malkin were easy like Toews and Kane (we still took Staal). But I don´t see the Kruger´s, Saad´s, Teravainen´s or Hjalmarsson´s anywhere in the Pens organization, do you? I get what you are saying, don´t get me wrong. But at least one roster player almost every year is pretty good imo.
Stop comparing the Pens to Chicago.
Chicago won out on a boatload of assets that brought back more good assets.
The Pens were never in the position the Hawks were in and vice versus.
The Hawks were not what the Pens were suppose to be. The Hawks didn't have duel 8.7 contracts to contend with until this upcoming season.
It may hurt to see another team win three while the Pens had turmoil for half a decade, but that's just how the cookie crumbles.
Hats off to them.
Pens barely had any bullets but hit some too. Pens just needed more bullets. Especially in the 1st-3rd rounds.
People have said Fleury won't win another Cup, he can if the team in front of him is actually good.
...and if he plays at least decent hockey himself.