Excellent post! I disagree with most of it, but excellent post nonetheless.
That's fine, I am not here to have everyone agree with me, as long as they hear me out, all good with me mate.
I have no issue with Rakell. I think he is fine. You can put him at RW on line 1, at LW on line 1, at RW on line 2 or even have him lead a third scoring line. All good for me.
Rakell has been his best on Crosby's LW and has produced his best on Crosby's line, on Malkin's line he hasn't been a fit, the proper fit on Malkin's line with Bunting has always been Puustinen and Crosby's line NEEDS Rakell for the 2-way play he brings since Rust is allergic to it the last couple of seasons and Crosby needs help there more than blokes here want to admit. Rakell on that line also elevated that line defensively while still producing well offensively. The issue with Rakell was a lingering shoulder injury and even given that, he was producing at a 50pt rate after he came back from his injury. There is no issue with Rakell, other than blokes here manifesting it or having severe tunnel vision and judging him on the first dozen games where he was all goose eggs.
For me, I want to start training camp with the same first line that we had when last season ended. O'Connor-Crosby-Rust. Why? Because it is the best matchup line we can put together to go against the opposition's best. It can be our Barkov line. Crosby is not at that level of a defender (nobody is, aside from Jordan Staal) but he is also (still) a better offensive player than Barkov. O'Connor brings far more size and speed to the line, while Rust is Rust. I would take him off the Crosby line before O'Connor to insert Rakell, personally. But again, my thinking is to create two scoring lines BEHIND the Crosby unit. Rakell could play a big role in that.
O'Connor-Crosby-Rust had good moments, but defensively that is a line that isn't going to be great going forward and the progress Doc has made could be all for naught imo.
For example, DOC-Sid-Rust allowed more goals against than they scored, I am unaware if you know this or care about that stat, because the production itself isn't good enough to warrant keeping that as a unit because it's also one of the major issues that Jake-Sid-Rust had, which was better when Rakell was the RW on that line, but Sullivan has no clue how to utilize his own systems or ideas other than when he feels it's appropriate, it only matters to one line.
O'Connor has been far better in his 3rd line usage where he gains this momentum and then Sullivan pulls him up to Sid's line and he produces but that line also gets caved in defensively. This team is better when DOC is on the 3rd line and feasting on mismatches and providing secondary scoring that this team needs, especially with the idiotic minutes Sullivan provides the bottom 6.
Rakell is the best option for Line 1 and his production warrants it as well as his play away from the puck, what it does for Sid's line and the betterment of this team. I like DOC, but I also don't think it's a bad thing for him to be on the 3rd line where he has produced very well.
The issue actually is - Do you keep Rakell with Malkin and Bunting because that's also been pretty decent, or do you go with the better solution of keeping him with Sid and Rust where the team would benefit with Puustinen in Rakell's spot on the 2nd line and Rakell back with Crosby?
If Puustinen isn't the option for L2 because of whatever ignorance Sullivan has towards non-veteran players, then the combo of O'Connor and Puustinen has been strong, this is where a bloke like Roslovic would really elevate that into a proper scoring threat. It then means when you dump Smith, you need to find a new RW for that 2nd line or if you go back to Rakell on L2, you need a new L1 LW.
Eller should be the 4C, it's a bad sign if he's back to being 3C, as much as I have liked him back in his Habs days to being a thorn with the Caps, if he is anchoring the 4c role, the line-up is in a great spot. His smarts and game elevates that L4 into a line you can actually throw out there to forecheck and create chances and havoc as well as being smart defensively and actually be worthy of being out on the ice to hold leads.
I also have no issue with Gruden. I think he is part of the solution. I see him as maybe the 13th forward or possibly not making the team out of camp depending on performance, but I see him playing games for sure. I see more upside with guys like Poulin, Koivunen and even Puljujarvi for the bottom six, but Gruden is solid. And, if Sullivan insists that he cannot live without certain PKers, then I would rather Gruden over the likes of Acciari and Eller at this point. Those two should be dealt. So my only issue with Gruden is if we do NOT trade those guys. We are going to need more offense than what Gruden brings if those two also on the team. We certainly don't want to be in a position where we actually miss Jeff Carter's offensive contributions in 2024-25.
Gruden has 4th liner potential in a good way in that he plays that role very well. Quick, smart, defensively responsible, has some scoring touch, plays with an edge and is a pain in the ass to play against. There's no notion of "he could be a top 6 winger some day!" he's good for that role and there's nothing wrong with it.
Puljujarvi is a top 6 potential player that is rebounding (if he can) and is out of place on the 4th line, that's not who this team should be looking at for a mainstay on the 4th line but he can definitely elevate it with his game if he continues to trend the right way. Poulin to me is a project they need to walk away from. Sullivan is never going to find the correct usage for him and it's at a point where both sides need to walk away. Koivunen for the 4th line? Mike, Mike Sullivan, is that you? Get off the message board you wanker.
Jokes aside, Ville Koivunen is not someone you play on the 4th line, you play him in WBS, let him get his game to the point where it's painfully obvious he needs a call up and you do that when there's an opening in the top 9, plain and simple. Koivunen is not close to ready, he needs to play in WBS and get that experience.
If we roll into the season with a 4th line of - Gruden, Eller, Puljujarvi - I think I'm good with that. It has a bit of everything you want.
You dump Nieto and Acciari the moment you can or keep one of them as the 13th to rotate with Gruden, ideally we see neither Nieto nor Acciari here. Personally I would dump both and let Ponomarev, Gruden, Joshua (if signed), Koppanen all battle it out for that 4th line LW job and the 13th forward position. Nieto can be sent down to WBS and they'd be fine with his entire cap hit going away. Acciari they should move asap.
PS - Vellucci trusted Gruden far more than some of the veterans, to play on the PK, there's trust there in his game and abilities, I think for the L4 spot, he's what you want there because you know he's going to be the right bloke for that role and deployment. There's no sense of "we're wasting him on the 4th line!"
I wouldn't qualify Bemstrom.
I kinda understand (maybe) why you hate the Oilers. It seems to me lots of Pens fans do. I grew up a Gretzky-Lemieux fan, and then Jagr, and Paul Coffey was one of my favorite players even before he joined Mario and the Pens. So I root hard for them to beat the Florida frickin' Panthers. I am confused about one thing, though. Which city participating in the Cup final is more known for cocaine? Maybe I am stuck in the 80s, I suppose.
I might have been one of the few rare blokes that didn't like Gretzky at all.
I grew up a Mario Lemieux fan, like most lads that lived in Pittsburgh or old enough to watch him play. The other players outside of the typical favs from Pens fans (Jagr, Francis, Coffey, Stevens, Tocchet, etc) for me were players like Modano, Roenick (before we realized he was an absolute tosser as a person), Hawerchuk, Lafontaine, Fedorov, etc.
Oilers to me though, there's just this sense of entitlement, I will never forget interacting with that fan base when that Hemsky for Staal bs was a discussion, their ignorance towards the tanking, how they tried to relate to the Penguins situation all the while thumbing their nose at us because "we were gifted Crosby" etc, f*** them.
Also, Gretzky since retirement has turned into this epic twat of a bloke. His idiotic comments about so and so being great, etc. I mean at one point he was hyping Sam Gagner for having a good run that one year.
I mean it's frustrating talking about this team in a hopeful manner because the coaching staff is just an epic farce, but I just feel like there's some good there that they can go to, to make it less guess work and idiot proof.
Rakell/LW, Crosby, Rust
Bunting, Malkin, Puustinen/Rakell
O'Connor, 3C, Puustinen/Puljujarvi
Gruden/Koppanen/Nieto/Ponomarev, Eller, Puljujarvi/RW
Man, adding McGroarty to the pool would be a tremendous win this off-season.
If you can do Pickering + 2nd, you take best dman available with the other 2nd. You then hope to trade Jarry and get a young dman back.
The entire reason McGroarty might be available is because he didn't like how the Jets used veterans over their young players that were playing well and felt like they didn't really want to give youth that much of a shot.
Knowing what you know about this team, you really think McGroarty would welcome a trade to the Penguins, given that he's done enough research to know the issues of that veterans vs youth in Winnipeg, and actually sign?
I don't think he would. If he's smart enough to see that, he's smart enough to see the usage of youth in Pittsburgh.
