Waived: [PIT] F Valtteri Puustinen waived by the Penguins (cleared)

[Empoleon8771]

He's not a North American, nor did he ever play amateur hockey in Boston. He has collectively and analytically outplayed all those guys I mentioned combined in their Penguins careers from a production standpoint.

Because you're comparing an offense only winger who doesn't offer much offense to defense only players who are being deployed in defensive roles. Puustinen is getting waived because they acquired Tomisano, who's just a clear upgrade on Puustinen.

The usage of Puljujarvi is far more egregious than the usage of Puustinen.

 

[biturbo19]

To be more specific, Puustinen's problem is that he has no definable traits that suggests he should stick in the NHL. His best trait is his shot, where he can absolutely pick corners and has a lethal wrist shot when he gets it off. But the problem is that his release is so slow that NHL teams can clamp down on him before he has the ability to get off that shot. He has the space to use it in the AHL but that doesn't cut it in the NHL.

He's small, soft and not good defensively while also not being particularly fast and not having a quick enough release to be a good NHL goal scorer. What is even left there after that? He's another Emil Bemstrom type of player, good AHL producer but not a legitimate NHL guy.

Yeah. Puustinen seems like a pretty classic "AHL/Euro Journeyman" to me. Has the ability to score a bunch at lower levels...but doesn't have the dynamic tools or mentality to score enough at the NHL level to justify a real Top-6 spot and top PP time, etc. And doesn't really seem to offer much of anything when pushed down the lineup as a "role player".


A guy like Tomasino might well fall into the same category as well, but acquiring him is at least a clear upgrade on his chances of making an impact in the Top-6 if he finally "gets it" and thrives with the change of scenery and more opportunity.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Yeah. Puustinen seems like a pretty classic "AHL/Euro Journeyman" to me. Has the ability to score a bunch at lower levels...but doesn't have the dynamic tools or mentality to score enough at the NHL level to justify a real Top-6 spot and top PP time, etc. And doesn't really seem to offer much of anything when pushed down the lineup as a "role player".


A guy like Tomasino might well fall into the same category as well, but acquiring him is at least a clear upgrade on his chances of making an impact in the Top-6 if he finally "gets it" and thrives with the change of scenery and more opportunity.

Yeah and if you look at Puustinen's scoring logs, he basically stopped providing any offense after a hot start. He had 7 points in his first 10 games and then finished the year with 13 points in 42 games.

If you're a 5'9" offense only winger that is putting up a 25 point pace, I'm inclined to believe you won't be sticking around the NHL for very long.

 

[DrDangles]

Sully never gave this guy the chance he deserved. He performed pretty well with his opportunities in the top 6 last season but was relegated to the bottom 6 rather than giving him a chance to work through his growing pains. Then Dubas brought in 20 bottom 6 tweeners to basically push him to the press box.

Processes the game in the offensive zone at an NHL level, has good playmaking skills and an underrated one timer he needs to use more. I hope he gets picked up and starts producing elsewhere.

 

[Turin]

EDMONTON OILERS COME ON DOOOOOOOWNN!!!!!

I would way rather have Puustinen than Kapanen, even if both are roughly useless most shifts Puustinen usually doesn't hurt you too bad defensively.

 

[Empoleon8771]

For what it's worth Puustinen has been surprisingly productive at 5 on 5 since entering the league compared to his draft class. In his first season it felt like he always found his way onto the score sheet whenever he was called up.

View attachment 936058

His production rate is inflated due to a hot 10 game run he had to start last year, where he put up 1 goal and 7 points. He had a 3.56 5v5 points/60 in those 10 games, driven by an insane 2.97 5v5 assists/60.

In the second half of last year (47 games from January 1st onwards), here is how Puustinen's 5v5 production ranked:

-Goals: 4 (tied for 10th with Bunting, who played in fewer games)
-Points: 12 (12th)
-Goals/60: 0.56 (14th including Shea and Gruden, 12th excluding them)
-Points/60: 1.67 (9th)

He was simply not a productive player in the second half of last year, whether you want to look at it at a raw production perspective or a rate perspective. His only saving grace was that he was pretty good at getting primary assists, where he ranked 4th on the Penguins in primary assists. Everything else was completely lacking. Now add on he was absolutely dreadful this year and him ending up on waivers shouldn't be surprising.

 

[Rudy Russo]

Probably to make room for ponomarov

Glass and Lizotte

 

[FunkySeeFunkyDo]

He’s got hockey smarts, but he (along with almost everyone on Pittsburgh) has disappointed this year.

 

[OtherThingsILike]

Aw. He's an easy player to root for, but based on his play this season, this is the right move.

 

[Gurglesons]

If you're getting beat out by one of those guys I'm willing to believe it could be an evaluation mistake by the coaching staff. Now if you're losing icetime to all of them ...

To be fair Jared McCann was losing minutes to Mark Jankowski, Sam Lafferty, Colton Sceviour, amongst others under Sully.

 

[ijuka]

He's not been great, but also pretty brutal PDO for him.

 

[Giskard]

He can only thrive as a top-6 forward given the time to adapt, but after one bad shift Sullivan inexorably bench him. He can't be a 4th liners, he is an offensive player, but for Sullivan everybody has to be a 4th liner first.

 

[David71]

waive bains pick him up vancouver. need more shooters.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Finally. Hopefully he's claimed and liberated. I'm sure the dumb f*** Pens fans on our board that wanted him gone are happy because he couldn't produce on the 4th line with insane goals per 60 Noel Acciari.

A skilled winger that was a poster boy for being Mike Sullivan'd. I really hope he gets claimed and proves a lot of haters wrong.

He can only thrive as a top-6 forward given the time to adapt, but after one bad shift Sullivan inexorably bench him. He can't be a 4th liners, he is an offensive player, but for Sullivan everybody has to be a 4th liner first.

He actually looked great with O'Connor And Eller. He never needed the top 6 usage he just needed to be regularly played and given a fair chance and he wasn't. It ain't that deep mate.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

waive bains pick him up vancouver. need more shooters.

He's a lot better than the dumb shit comments you will see. Look at his numbers from last season, his points per 60, etc. That's before he was used even worse this year. He's a solid top 9 winger.

His production rate is inflated due to a hot 10 game run he had to start last year, where he put up 1 goal and 7 points. He had a 3.56 5v5 points/60 in those 10 games, driven by an insane 2.97 5v5 assists/60.

In the second half of last year (47 games from January 1st onwards), here is how Puustinen's 5v5 production ranked:

-Goals: 4 (tied for 10th with Bunting, who played in fewer games)
-Points: 12 (12th)
-Goals/60: 0.56 (14th including Shea and Gruden, 12th excluding them)
-Points/60: 1.67 (9th)

He was simply not a productive player in the second half of last year, whether you want to look at it at a raw production perspective or a rate perspective. His only saving grace was that he was pretty good at getting primary assists, where he ranked 4th on the Penguins in primary assists. Everything else was completely lacking. Now add on he was absolutely dreadful this year and him ending up on waivers shouldn't be surprising.

Absolutely everything thing about this is asinine and incredibly moronic. If you want to read a description of a player by a bloke that just flat out didn't like the prospect and now is trying to diminish what he did last season with some of the most petty excuses and idiocy, take this as your scouting report.

Otherwise, it's literally a f***ing moronic take, actually quite impressive how much Empo gets wrong.

He's not a North American, nor did he ever play amateur hockey in Boston. He has collectively and analytically outplayed all those guys I mentioned combined in their Penguins careers from a production standpoint.

Empo will spend his life as will Deserted what's his face, to shit all over Puustinen and not get why not playing youth for a team rebuilding, is idiotic.

Hopefully he's claimed. Too bad we can't waive some of the dipshits from our Pens board.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

A lot miss the point about Puustinen. First he wasn't terrible in the preseason. He didn't get as many games and he never got top line usage in the preseason which meant the coach never really intended to try to see if he can shoot more when he was mostly with Eller or rookies. Last season he did look good with Malkin, Smith sucked though but his look with O'Connor And Eller showed a strong third line and that was completely abandoned. Eller then looked bad and Doc does as well this season, Puustinen wasn't the only one that didn't look good. Crosby is easily the worst forward defensively on this team with Bryan Rust, they're both absolute shit and somehow shitting all over a young player is the path this coach and a couple idiot fans chose.

So based on that - never got a fair look with Geno or Sid. Beauvillier was with Sid for the entirety of the preseason for example - his ass was on 3 teams last year.

This season Puljujarvi played well and still got healthy scratched. Logic isn't a word that Sullivan understands, same for accountability. His system is made for grinders and reject plugs that are near the end of their careers.

Drew O'Connor looks like hot garbage.

Puustinen was tried for a bit on the third line and then mostly on the 4th line, not really trying to see if you can get much out of him are they?

Bunting stunk and he was only tried with Malkin or Eller and at times, Noel f***ing Acciari. Sid? Nah.

So the issues are a lot but for some reason, so many wanted Puustinen to fail. A f***ton. It's really bizarre. Blokes like Empo and desertedPenguin seemingly got off on it.

A team rebuilding should be playing youth to see what they can do - Puljujarvi, Poulin, Ponomarev, Puustinen, etc all should be tried higher up but at best are 3rd and 4th line usage only. Yet that's ok because shitting on a player to fail somehow excited the dimwitted.

Tomasino in, Puustinen and a 2027 4th out.

I'll take that tradeoff.

Up until you realize it doesn't matter who we get, they'll always stink in Sullivan's system. Whether it's a North American winger or a Euro one.

Jesse Puljujarvi literally played well and got healthy scratched several times which is just incredibly absurd. The moment Tomasino doesn't win a battle or gets scored on, he's getting benched for the game and then moved down the line up and healthy scratched. If Tomasino was 30, you could maybe hope for more usage and you'd get it.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

If you're getting beat out by one of those guys I'm willing to believe it could be an evaluation mistake by the coaching staff. Now if you're losing icetime to all of them ...

You don't know much about Mike Sullivan and it shows.

 

[MMC]

 

[SEALBound]

Literally zero shock that he clears.

 

[Albatros]

Europe bound.