AHL: Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins: '24-'25 The Players Sully Hates

[Speaker City]

McG is making Tangradi look like Lindros mixed with Lucic

Plus if you have $500,000, Tangradi can help you find your dream home in the Pittsburgh area.

 

[HandshakeLine]

it takes some GMs years to make their own Naslund for Stojanovs.

 

[SomeDude]

it takes some GMs years to make their own Naslund for Stojanovs.

Don’t worry, Columbus is totally going to bail us out by giving us Jiricek for him.

 

[eXile3]

People really like to shit on McGroaty for struggling at the pro level while ignoring Yager regressing in the WHL.

 

[Empoleon8771]

People really like to shit on McGroaty for struggling at the pro level while ignoring Yager regressing in the WHL.

Yager isn't even Moose Jaw's top scorer either. A 17 year old Lakovic has 28 points to his 26 points.

 

[Speaker City]

Yager is using this year to learn how to play the game the right way...

 

[HandshakeLine]

I mean I think it’s possible neither of them makes it to the NHL.

But just still lolling over the very real fact that Tangradi is a licensed realtor.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Yeah, you would think if he top six potential he’d have scored more in the AHL by now…I didn’t mind taking a chance on him, but not for Yager

This is why I refuse to get excited about any prospect we have. 99 times out of 100 they don't come close to the player folks on here start comparing them to when we first acquire them.

 

[HandshakeLine]

This is why I refuse to get excited about any prospect we have. 99 times out of 100 they don't come close to the player folks on here start comparing them to when we first acquire them.

To be fair this is every prospect on every team. It’s just amplified here because our roster is populated by half a dozen of these “coulda but didn’t” guys.

 

[McGroarty2]

To be fair this is every prospect on every team. It’s just amplified here because our roster is populated by half a dozen of these “coulda but didn’t” guys.

Maatta was the next Lidstrom at one point.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

To be fair this is every prospect on every team. It’s just amplified here because our roster is populated by half a dozen of these “coulda but didn’t” guys.

I feel like even our supposed top end guys never pan out. Other teams will often see these random 5th rounders who tear up junior and fans get excited about fizzle, but largely their first rounders seem to meet expectations (the good organizations, anyway). But with us, even guys who were projected to be "top line forward/top pairing defense" at the time they were drafted end up being fringe 4th liners.

 

[Speaker City]

This is why I refuse to get excited about any prospect we have. 99 times out of 100 they don't come close to the player folks on here start comparing them to when we first acquire them.

My favorite is during the draft, when the 189th pick is described as "offensive abilities with responsible defensive play, like a Marian Hossa" instead of being realistic and saying hes the next Glen Metropolit.

 

[HandshakeLine]

in te

Maatta was the next Lidstrom at one point.

For sure, and tbh, he was great before his condition derailed his career. But that’s more the norm than not— 1st rounders who are promising but never quite pan out are basically the interchangeable cogs of NHL bottom sixes and 3rd pairings. We just seem to have precious few beside Jake and Letang (who are at the end of their careers anyhow) who exceed their draft expectations. And I don’t know if that comes down to scouting, development, or coaching.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

in te

For sure, and tbh, he was great before his condition derailed his career. But that’s more the norm than not— 1st rounders who are promising but never quite pan out are basically the red shirts of NHL bottom sixes and 3rd pairings. We just seem to have precious few beside Jake and Letang (who are at the end of their careers anyhow) who exceed their draft expectations. And I don’t know if that comes down to scouting, development, or coaching.

I think they all dovetail and are dependent on one another to maximize a player's potential.

Which is why this team is f***ing terrible at it.

 

[HandshakeLine]

I think they all dovetail and are dependent on one another to maximize a player's potential.

Which is why this team is f***ing terrible at it.

For sure, you need to have a commitment to development though out the organization, which is why I ALWAYS thought it was stupid that we couldn’t work rookies into the lineup even when we were competing.

I believed even back in 2019 it was a giant red flag with Sullivan and what do you know? Guess I was right there. Sadly.

There is nothing inherently incompatible with developing talent while you compete, unless you are run by idiots.

 

[Dennis Reynolds]

Maatta was the next Lidstrom at one point.

If your answer to the question "why didn't you become elite?" is "cancer," I think that's pretty valid.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

For sure, you need to have a commitment to development though out the organization, which is why I ALWAYS thought it was stupid that we couldn’t work rookies into the lineup even when we were competing.

I believed even back in 2019 it was a giant red flag with Sullivan and what do you know? Guess I was right there. Sadly.

There is nothing inherently incompatible with developing talent while you compete, unless you are run by idiots.

I've never understood that, either. People act like just because you dish the majority of your (crappy low tier) firsts and seconds during the competing years that it automatically means that you might as well just give up on drafting, development and steadily pipelining players to the NHL because there is no point. It's a very binary off/on way to look at running a team. Which is no surprise because this is the NHL and it's run by meathead cretins stuck in the 70s.

There was absolutely no reason why this team shouldn't have been at least transitioning young players into depth roles on a year-to-year basis while they were within their window. None. Hell it was a big reason they won B2B. But no... they wanted to go out and pay top dollar for the McGinns of the world for reasons.

 

[HandshakeLine]

If your answer to the question "why didn't you become elite?" is "cancer," I think that's pretty valid.

His cells didn’t have enough stick to itness.

I've never understood that, either. People act like just because you dish the majority of your (crappy low tier) firsts and seconds during the competing years that it automatically means that you might as well just give up on drafting, development and steadily pipelining players to the NHL because there is no point. It's a very binary off/on way to look at running a team. Which is no surprise because this is the NHL and it's run by meathead cretins stuck in the 70s.

There was absolutely no reason why this team shouldn't have been at least transitioning young players into depth roles on a year-to-year basis while they were within their window. None. Hell it was a big reason they won B2B. But no... they wanted to go out and pay top dollar for the McGinns of the world for reasons.

My reason has a first name, it’s M-I-k-e-y

 

[Ryder71]

I'm not gonna say anything specific to what may happen here, but I don't know that taking a big swing now is the right thing to do.

 

[Turin]

McGroat will be fine. His start was handled in the worst way possible.

 

[HandshakeLine]

the most important thing is that he has a bostonish name, really.

 

[eXile3]

People who don’t want to tank for a top 5 pick should pay attention.

Unless it’s a deep draft Yager and McGroaty are the types of prospects you get mid round.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Yeah, but even if we tank getting a good player isn't always guaranteed. Most of the scouting reports so far (again things can change) seem to suggest that there's a sharp dropoff after the first 4 or so. So even if we bottom out, we could still end up picking in an unfavorable spot.

Don't get me wrong though, I'm pro-rebuild. I just think that we should be doing a smarter job of starting it than we're doing now.