Line Combos: Pens 2022-2023 Training Camp thread: Its happenings

[Andy99]

Happy to leave Pit because no opportunity to make the club…that about sums it up lol…

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[LOGiK]

Happy to leave Pit because no opportunity to make the club…that about sums it up lol…

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Who wouldn't be happy? It's an NHL call instead of going back to the cesspool of mundane. (ahl)

 

[chethejet]

After this year, Petts has 2 years left on a bad contract. Hextall is limited this year but no question with cap space next year he can address the LD position with Dumo in all probability done here after this year. Move Petts and Jarry at 6 million AAV gives the Pens 18 million of cap space to work with. Hextall was able to move GMJR contracts in Matheson, Marino that were using to much cap space.

 

[Gurglesons]

Sleepy put a band aid on the D, and let’s not pretend Dumo belongs on the top pair or Pettersson belongs on the second pair. To me, Dumo (in his current state) and Pettersson are bottom pairing dmen. We essentially don’t have a second pairing on D. Sleepy still has a lot to do on the back end.

We didn’t have a second pairing last year. We had a group of players who can play # 4 minutes in Matheson, Marino and Dumo. Right now we have Petry who is a # 2 and then Dumo, Pettersson and Rutta who can play # 4. That’s an improvement.

 

[vodeni]

We didn’t have a second pairing last year. We had a group of players who can play # 4 minutes in Matheson, Marino and Dumo. Right now we have Petry who is a # 2 and then Dumo, Pettersson and Rutta who can play # 4. That’s an improvement.

I hope you're right on this one

 

[Flying Dego]

Who wouldn't be happy? It's an NHL call instead of going back to the cesspool of mundane. (ahl)

I can easily see Big Z getting tweener minutes in Calgary and thriving. Just seems wasteful to me all in the name of keeping Archibald who would have certainly made it through waivers.

Happy for the guy. He deserves regular NHL minutes to prove his worth. I just hope it's not so good it haunts me knowing what could have been.

 

[LOGiK]

I can easily see Big Z getting tweener minutes in Calgary and thriving. Just seems wasteful to me all in the name of keeping Archibald who would have certainly made it through waivers.

Happy for the guy. He deserves regular NHL minutes to prove his worth. I just hope it's not so good it haunts me knowing what could have been.

Penguins really haven't had much solid NHL spots filled by promotions lately... have they?

 

[Gurglesons]

I can easily see Big Z getting tweener minutes in Calgary and thriving. Just seems wasteful to me all in the name of keeping Archibald who would have certainly made it through waivers.

Happy for the guy. He deserves regular NHL minutes to prove his worth. I just hope it's not so good it haunts me knowing what could have been.

He will likely not get any in Calgary. Sutter has a bunch of his favorites on L4 in Lucic, Lewis and Brett Ritchie.

 

[Flying Dego]

He will likely not get any in Calgary. Sutter has a bunch of his favorites on L4 in Lucic, Lewis and Brett Ritchie.

They have to have some plan for him. I'm going out on a limb knowing little of Calgarys situation but if Line 4 is filled maybe they seem him as a nice L3 compliment.

 

[Andy99]

After this year, Petts has 2 years left on a bad contract. Hextall is limited this year but no question with cap space next year he can address the LD position with Dumo in all probability done here after this year. Move Petts and Jarry at 6 million AAV gives the Pens 18 million of cap space to work with. Hextall was able to move GMJR contracts in Matheson, Marino that were using to much cap space.

Uh, hate to break it to you but they’re going to re-sign Dumo…already started talking to his agent lol…just a matter of how much and where he plays…but we definitely need to find a top pairing LD in the off-season regardless…it’s not Rutta on his off-hand, or Smith lol…or anyone we currently have in the system unless someone like Swoyer or St whatever makes a jump

 

[Gurglesons]

They have to have some plan for him. I'm going out on a limb knowing little of Calgarys situation but if Line 4 is filled maybe they seem him as a nice L3 compliment.

Why? We took Friedman on waivers and he only played 31 games since.

 

[Flying Dego]

Why? We took Friedman on waivers and he only played 31 games since.

Different strokes for different folks.

No way to know yet we'll see how the season goes.

Uh, hate to break it to you but they’re going to re-sign Dumo…already started talking to his agent lol…just a matter of how much and where he plays…but we definitely need to find a top pairing LD in the off-season regardless…it’s not Rutta on his off-hand, or Smith lol…or anyone we currently have in the system unless someone like Swoyer or St whatever makes a jump

If life were simple EOY we let Dumo walk and trade Petts

X-Tang
X-Petry
Smith-Rutta

Is it a tall ask to replace those spots? Yes. But that's why GMs are paid the big bucks and I'm just some dude hyperfocusing on someone else's job.

 

[Peat]

I can easily see Big Z getting tweener minutes in Calgary and thriving. Just seems wasteful to me all in the name of keeping Archibald who would have certainly made it through waivers.

Happy for the guy. He deserves regular NHL minutes to prove his worth. I just hope it's not so good it haunts me knowing what could have been.

I don't think that's certain at all. Given he got more than minimum wage despite playing virtually none of last season, it seems quite possible other teams wanted him, and if they did, that they still want him and would love him for free.

 

[Flying Dego]

I don't think that's certain at all. Given he got more than minimum wage despite playing virtually none of last season, it seems quite possible other teams wanted him, and if they did, that they still want him and would love him for free.

That's a risk I was more than willing to take. Also you know none of the Candian market would've claimed him so his market is limited to begin with.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Every year, we're all like "X can happen if Y walks and Z is traded which will leave the team with [insert colossal number] of free cap" fantasy land delusional shit. Dumo's probably gonna be re-signed, Zucker's probably gonna be re-signed, Jarry's almost assuredly gonna be re-signed.

The future is now, boys. Get excited!

 

[Gurglesons]

That's a risk I was more than willing to take. Also you know none of the Candian market would've claimed him so his market is limited to begin with.

Unvaccinated can play in Canada this year.

 

[eXile3]

Did our coaching staff lose their magical powers by not “fixing” POJ or Smith?

I thought they fixed every d men or something?

That’s not reductive at all.

 

[Empoleon8771]

I know why people are complaining about not waiving Archibald to keep Zohorna, but people do realize the two play completely different roles on this team, right?

I've said this multiple times, but I like Zohorna as a center and I wanted to see the Penguins try to develop him into a defensively focused 4C. I think he has the talents to do it and his size is best used in that kind of defensive role. But the team didn't really use him like that, and it seems like they didn't view him in that kind of role. Zohorna's usefulness in a depth role is severely limited if he's not killing penalties, based on how Sullivan uses his roster.

Zohorna had no future here higher than an extra forward who could play all 3 positions. He's a UFA after the year on a team swimming in forward depth, so it's very unlikely he would have stayed beyond the year. Unless they were going to change course with him and make him a Brian Boyle type of 4C (which I think they should have done), he wasn't going to be doing anything for them to begin with.

 

[Pens x]

I know why people are complaining about not waiving Archibald to keep Zohorna, but people do realize the two play completely different roles on this team, right?

I've said this multiple times, but I like Zohorna as a center and I wanted to see the Penguins try to develop him into a defensively focused 4C. I think he has the talents to do it and his size is best used in that kind of defensive role. But the team didn't really use him like that, and it seems like they didn't view him in that kind of role. Zohorna's usefulness in a depth role is severely limited if he's not killing penalties, based on how Sullivan uses his roster.

Zohorna had no future here higher than an extra forward who could play all 3 positions. He's a UFA after the year on a team swimming in forward depth, so it's very unlikely he would have stayed beyond the year. Unless they were going to change course with him and make him a Brian Boyle type of 4C (which I think they should have done), he wasn't going to be doing anything for them to begin with.

If you want to waive Z, fine, but for god’s sake, not at the expense of a 30 year old plug. We will have injuries, give me the guy that isn’t a terrible player who plays all three spots over the guy who tries real hard but sucks.

 

[Darren McCord]

I know why people are complaining about not waiving Archibald to keep Zohorna, but people do realize the two play completely different roles on this team, right?

Which is why people wanted to keep Zohorna. They have enough players on the pk in the bottom 6. Even in practice Archibald was used on the second unit. He will get bump when TB is back.

Poehling
Kap
TB
Carter
McGinn

If Zohorna pans out, it will be a two way winger with good possession number and some skill. You dont have to PK to be effective in a bottom 6. Especially on a team where almost every player in the bottom 6 can PK. I dont know why you want Zohorna to be something he is not.

 

[3ladesof5teel]

Which is why people wanted to keep Zohorna. They have enough players on the pk in the bottom 6. Even in practice Archibald was used on the second unit. He will get bump when TB is back.

Poehling
Kap
TB
Carter
McGinn

If Zohorna pans out, it will be a two way winger with good possession number and some skill. You dont have to PK to be effective in a bottom 6. Especially on a team where almost every player in the bottom 6 can PK. I dont know why you want Zohorna to be something he is not.

But they have nobody really to play an agitator/sandpaper role that will play the body.

They have plenty of tweener NHL/AHL guys. DOC is a much better fit for the Zohorna role.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Which is why people wanted to keep Zohorna. They have enough players on the pk in the bottom 6. Even in practice Archibald was used on the second unit. He will get bump when TB is back.

Poehling
Kap
TB
Carter
McGinn

If Zohorna pans out, it will be a two way winger with good possession number and some skill. You dont have to PK to be effective in a bottom 6. Especially on a team where almost every player in the bottom 6 can PK. I dont know why you want Zohorna to be something he is not.

1. 5 PKing forwards isn't a lot to begin with.
2. Of those 5 PKing forwards, you have one guy that they should be trying to not overuse (Carter) and 2 guys who basically didn't PK last year (Kapanen and Poehling).
3. The Penguins don't need skilled wingers with good possession numbers because they're overflowing with those already. If Zohorna fills that kind of role, he was replaced by Heinen, not Archibald. That's the guy who pushed Zohorna out of here.
4. Sullivan has stressed the importance of depth guys killing penalties over the years, to make sure he's not taxing the top guys too much by having them kill penalties. Trying to act like Zohorna not killing penalties is no problem is completely contradictory to how Sullivan uses his players.

Zohorna is an absolutely not useful player with the Penguins if he's a bottom-6 skilled winger. They have numerous options for bottom-6 skilled guys between Heinen, Kapanen, Caggiula, Poulin and Puustinen, and Sullivan usually only has 1 or 2 skilled wingers in the bottom-6 to begin with. Zohorna's only spot to be useful in that kind of role with the Penguins is 3rd line LW and 2nd PP unit, but that's the role Heinen took when he came back.

Zohorna would have had much more of a future here had he transitioned into a more defensively focused C/W that kills penalties, because the Penguins don't have as many options for that as they do for bottom-6 skilled wingers. It's the same transition that O'Connor is currently going under. He has no future here as a skilled top-9 winger, his future here is a 4th line defensive winger opposite of McGinn.

 

[Buddy Bizarre]

Which is why people wanted to keep Zohorna. They have enough players on the pk in the bottom 6. Even in practice Archibald was used on the second unit. He will get bump when TB is back.

Poehling
Kap
TB
Carter
McGinn

If Zohorna pans out, it will be a two way winger with good possession number and some skill. You dont have to PK to be effective in a bottom 6. Especially on a team where almost every player in the bottom 6 can PK. I dont know why you want Zohorna to be something he is not.

Rust also PK's and Sid does sparingly.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Rust also PK's and Sid does sparingly.

Sullivan does not like using either of those guys to kill penalties because he doesn't want to tax them with too many minutes.

I think it's pretty bizarre to suggest playing Crosby on the PK more, which has the risk of him getting injured from blocking a shot, just so you can play Zohorna in a depth role.

 

[Darren McCord]

Sullivan does not like using either of those guys to kill penalties because he doesn't want to tax them with too many minutes.

I think it's pretty bizarre to suggest playing Crosby on the PK more, which has the risk of him getting injured from blocking a shot, just so you can play Zohorna in a depth role.

Rust Pk'd a ton to end the year last year after they got Rakell. He was used a lot. They could easily put Rakell on unit one and give Rust more PK time.

1. 5 PKing forwards isn't a lot to begin with.
2. Of those 5 PKing forwards, you have one guy that they should be trying to not overuse (Carter) and 2 guys who basically didn't PK last year (Kapanen and Poehling).
3. The Penguins don't need skilled wingers with good possession numbers because they're overflowing with those already. If Zohorna fills that kind of role, he was replaced by Heinen, not Archibald. That's the guy who pushed Zohorna out of here.
4. Sullivan has stressed the importance of depth guys killing penalties over the years, to make sure he's not taxing the top guys too much by having them kill penalties. Trying to act like Zohorna not killing penalties is no problem is completely contradictory to how Sullivan uses his players.

Zohorna is an absolutely not useful player with the Penguins if he's a bottom-6 skilled winger. They have numerous options for bottom-6 skilled guys between Heinen, Kapanen, Caggiula, Poulin and Puustinen, and Sullivan usually only has 1 or 2 skilled wingers in the bottom-6 to begin with. Zohorna's only spot to be useful in that kind of role with the Penguins is 3rd line LW and 2nd PP unit, but that's the role Heinen took when he came back.

Zohorna would have had much more of a future here had he transitioned into a more defensively focused C/W that kills penalties, because the Penguins don't have as many options for that as they do for bottom-6 skilled wingers. It's the same transition that O'Connor is currently going under. He has no future here as a skilled top-9 winger, his future here is a 4th line defensive winger opposite of McGinn.

I agree Zohorna was replaced by Heinen. But Archibald was replaced by Poehling. I would rather have Zohorna of DOC as the 13th forward over Archibald. I say that because I could easily see Sullivan going to Archibald over Poehling.

I am not worried about them losing Zorhona. I am worried about them using Archibald and Caggiula over the prospects.