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

[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