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

Don'tcry4mejanhrdina

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Aug 4, 2003
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This space.
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.
Top end guys? What's that?

In all seriousness, who was the last real blue chip prospect the Pens had other than maybe Guentzel? They had a chance at one and completely blew it in 2012 when they selected Pouliot instead of Forsberg who most of this board wanted. I recall some wanted Trouba who also would have been a MUCH better selection.

Before that....Staal? Plus even that pick wasn't that great considering Toews, Backstrom and Kessel all ended up being much better players and were also considered better by most experts at the time as well.

Not to mention giving away a young 30-40 goal scorer like McCann certainly doesn't help with talent acquisition.

The drafting/development has been horrendous for a long time now. Their last real successful pick was Guentzel and that's over 11 years ago....before that it was Rust which was almost 15 years ago.
 

Darren McCord

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Dec 15, 2015
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Good news for WBS, selfishly I'm happy he didn't get claimed!

Me too. WBS having a good year will be great for young players on the team.

McGroat
Broz
Pono
Koivunen
Hayes
Blomqvist
Belliveau

Are all players that I am intrigued about. I am really intrigued by Belliveau think Belliveau is quietly starting to break out down there after being in the ECHL last season.

7gp 1g 2a +8

His +8 is 19th in the league but most guys have 10 more games than him.
 
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Honour Over Glory

#firesully
Jan 30, 2012
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Good news for WBS, selfishly I'm happy he didn't get claimed!
I hoped he would, mostly to see what he could do in any other system. I just don't see him getting used properly ever on the Penguins and trying to discuss him brings out the shit stained trolls in our own board which I had to just put on ignore at this point. But for WBS, this is great, I guess the game I was going to watch on the 29th will be a little more fun. I could barely watch the game today, just watched the Blues game and the Stars shit the bed vs the Hawks instead.

I will never understand the logic behind a rebuilding team having scoring wingers and using them on the 4th or 3rd line or healthy scratch, how they utilized Puusty was idiotic, but what they're doing to Puljujarvi is also f***ing bizarre and insanely out of touch. Just not worth the time talking about the team as much anymore while Sullivan is there.

I'm just going to watch more WBS games this year, the team is fun to watch with Kirk MacDonald as the coach. The long layoff really sucks though, was hoping to see Gruden, Koivunen, and Broz build up their momentum, even Bemstrom.
 
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Honour Over Glory

#firesully
Jan 30, 2012
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He should benefit a lot more with Puustinen, Pono and Poulin going down.

WBS is a good team. McGroat is being given time to work things out.
I just want to see McGroarty show more of his offensive flair, so far his board work, his positioning, etc - they're all good, no complaints there, but his nose for the net, I want to see him play a little more selfish with the puck. He's got the playmaking smarts for sure but he doesn't take the puck and just drive to the net or get close enough in the slot to get his shot off. He's also gotta shoot the puck a lot more, I mean if you get almost 4 shots on net per game like Bemstrom, it doesn't mean shit if it's all perimeter shots, for a player like Rutger, you want to see the obvious skating improvement but he also has a pretty good size for driving the net more often.

The last time Poulin, Pono, etc were in WBS the line-up was:

Bemstrom, Ponomarev, Koivunen
McGroarty, Broz, Poulin
Nieto, Katchouk, Gruden
Andonovski, Koppanen, Johnstone

In the most recent game (last 2):

Bemstrom, Katchouk, Koivunen
McGroarty, Broz, Johnstone
Gruden, Koppanen, Hayes
Imama, Ansons, Joshua

On the 13th it was:

Bems, Pono, Koivu
McG, Broz, Nieto
Gruden, Katch, Andro
Imama, Koppa, Johnstone

I would figure they'd go with the last 2 and substitute it as...

Bemstrom, Ponomarev, Koivunen
McGroarty, Broz, Puustinen/Poulin - Poulin could just slot back into his old spot which would mean Puusty on the 3rd with Gruden and Katchouk.
Gruden, Katchouk, Puustinen/Poulin
Imama, Koppanen, Hayes
 
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Big Friggin Dummy

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Feb 22, 2019
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I don't think McG's got much offensive flair or creativity tbh. I say this as a big McG fanboy. It's why I think he should be up and learning to sort his shit out alongside a Sid or Geno tbh, even with Sully around. If we're waiting for him to post gaudy numbers, we're going to be disappointed forever imo. His value comes as an addition to a line, not a play/production driver imo. He's tough to judge in a vacuum. A smart player who settles into the middle of the ice or along the boards and either cleans up pucks or gets pucks to his linemates. He's gotta learn and adapt to the speed, strength, and skill at the NHL level.

Would definitely like to see more production from him in the AHL though. I do like that he, Broz and Koivunen have shown some nice chemistry together at times. Might have the makings of a solid 3rd line for a long time there.
 
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Big Friggin Dummy

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I don't think McGroarty is slow, his smarts allow him to be in good positioning but he also hangs back a lot to be a support player but above the dot and not below, so he doesn't into the corners or behind the net to battle and he hangs back. I think in his head he's been told he isn't fast enough so he plays cautiously because of it, that's something he can work on too. If you watch his skating, he has strong strides, but they're choppy as shit. He just needs some hard work with getting a smoother stride, his cross overs, his edge work, stuff like that can be improved and you won't suddenly become Connor McDavid, but his skating can definitely improve like Carter Verhaeghe's did.

Verhaeghe is who I felt is the best comparison for Rutger with how he plays, both had the knock of skating and both were pass first playmakers around the same age, for Carter he worked a ton on his balance and edge work and it got him a smoother stride and he was able to use his strides more effectively rather than the choppy style Rutger has imo. So that can be fixed, I just think the biggest waste was them shoving him in every pre-season game and then wasting him in the line-up under Sullivan, I felt he should have been with WBS to start with and he could have worked on more stuff right from the get go. But his skating doesn't worry me, if Carter can fix his with hard work, Rutger is no slouch in wanting to work hard and improve either.

But as for the whole falling out with the Jets, I thought the Pens would kick the tires and land him for something like Pickering and a pick for Rutger and a later pick, something to that extent at most. But Yager straight up? I wasn't a fan of that and I said this at the time - the Pens needed Rutger IN ADDITION TO Yager in this prospect pool, I definitely didn't want to see the Pens move Lucius or anything like that, Rutger is familiar with Chaz in the Jets system and Cruz and Rutger were on the US U18 back in 2021-22. Curious what Cruz does with the Sun Devils after 2yrs with the Badgers.

But yeah, maybe I wasn't that high on Pickering if anything and was ok losing him for Rutger to add to Yager, Lucius, Pono, Koivunen, Broz, etc.

We should be watching a lot of different shit if it weren't for Dullivan (nice btw lol).

It's funny that he thinks he "tries" things and it's usually the bare minimum, like he won't put Bunting with Sid, he won't try Puljujarvi with Sid or even a combination of JP and Geno with another LW, he abandoned a solid 3rd line last year that he didn't want to try this year and Eller suffered because of it and Doc has been a mess as well, he basically survives off of the other team being far worse and a major performance out of Sid, Geno, or EK. I don't want any more prospects up until that f***wad is fired. Let's hope this is the last season, they might wait to do it in the off season out of respect but if they play the whole money owed angle then what the f*** are they Billionaires for? Especially ones that want success with Hockey, because Sullivan ain't it.
Yeah, I'm definitely in the camp where you should be accumulating picks/prospects as opposed to just shuffling them around. It's why I'm wary of chasing Jiricek, even if he's thought of as a very good prospect, if it's gonna cost McG. In a vacuum? Sure, that's fine. But this team should be amassing these guys, not just swapping them in and out imo.
 

Empoleon8771

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Aug 25, 2015
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He should benefit a lot more with Puustinen, Pono and Poulin going down.

WBS is a good team. McGroat is being given time to work things out.

Yeah Bemstrom is a big offensive driver in the AHL, but they didn't have that many other great AHL players beyond him. Puustinen should be that as well and should be able to help out the 2nd line produce more.

McGroarty is currently playing with Broz and Johnstone, swapping Johnstone for Puustinen should dramatically help the offense of that line. WBS's top-9 is actually looking damn nice right now:

Bemstrom-Ponomarev-Koivunen
McGroarty-Broz-Puustinen
Poulin-Katchouk-Hayes

They don't even have a spot for Poulin in the top-6 or a spot for Gruden or Hayes in the top-9, that's a strong forward group.

As an aside, I'd be signing Hayes to a NHL deal soon before someone else poaches him. 7 points in 11 games so far this year
 
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Empoleon8771

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Aug 25, 2015
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WBS has depth, that's for sure.

Yeah as I edited in, they also don't have a spot for one of Gruden or Hayes in their top-9 either. It's very deep.

I'd be trying to sign Hayes sooner than later before someone else poaches him. I'm not sure if he has NHL upside, but he clearly looks like a good AHLer that has years before he'll hit veteran status. No reason to not sign him IMO.
 

Darren McCord

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Dec 15, 2015
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Glad to see WB/S decided to stop sucking and stuck to their game.

That actually have a good team and sully isn’t there coach.

Both them and wheeling are top 10 in their leagues.

Dubas has ton crap with the big club but has put together really strong organizational depth.
 
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