It’s the last Monday in a seemingly endless August, so let’s turn our attention to how the Penguins are presumably about to enter training camp in a couple of week. It was expected some more veterans would be shipped out this summer — but that hasn’t happened yet. Maybe it’s just around the corner, but for now we’ll go with what is on hand to project what the depth chart appears to be at this point.
Two top lines
Rutger McGroarty – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Rickard Rakell – Evgeni Malkin – Ville Koivunen
That’s
how the top-six looked in the last game before McGroarty broke his foot in April, so we’ll leave it like that for now. The cloud hanging over the Pens is a potential trade of Rust or Rakell for futures or a young player, in which free agent addition Anthony Mantha is waiting in the wings to jump into a scoring line.
The full-throated expectation of most people is that McGroarty and Koivunen will make the NHL lineup and be in a featured position right from Jump St., but another scenario that could play out is a soft camp for either sending them back to Wilkes to start the season. That gives the youngster a chance to work on his game and get a lot of minutes and still opens a door for Mantha to start out in a big position. Wouldn’t dismiss the possibility of that, however we’re not going to project it.
Lower forward lines
Anthony Mantha – Tommy Novak – Philip Tomasino
Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Justin Brazeau
Admittedly this is more “what I hope it looks like” rather than “what it might actually look like” since aimless veterans like Noel Acciari, Kevin Hayes and Danton Heinen still linger on the edges and ready to steal a lineup spot. Pittsburgh can’t keep all of those players around, which is leading towards a real logjam if there isn’t going to be any trades prior to opening night.
On the surface, these forward lines are pretty fun. Mantha is the oldest player in the bunch, and even he is only 30-years old. It’s high time for some youth to get into the lineup, and everyone loves the lockerroom DJ (Hayes) or blood ‘n guts warrior (Acciari) but those guys just don’t have much of a place any longer.
Top-4 defense
Kris Letang / Erik Karlsson
Parker Wotherspoon / Matt Dumba
We’re gonna get a little crazy on defense, because no matter how you slice it, coming up with an even semi-viable lineup it going to require some creativity and winging it with some wild ideas. Letang has major limitations at this point of his career, but has been surprisingly effective in penalty kill metrics in recent years, suggesting that he can simplify and play defense in the right mindset or occasion. A new coaching staff could impart a new direction on Letang, usually the trope is an offensive forwards becomes more of a two-way player at the end of his career, but why not angle that towards making Letang into the partner for Karlsson, who can still do most of the heavy lifting moving the puck (in an area of Letang’s game that is slowing mightily). There’s no perfect or even good solution, and maybe this ends up falling apart, but where else can you turn?
The second pair isn’t much to write home about either, Wotherspoon has been decent in a small role and the Pens need someone on the left side to step up, maybe it can be him. Dumba is no world beater at this point either, but maybe a change of scenery can help him recapture some magic that he hasn’t had since playing in Minnesota. That’s very wishful.
Lower pairs
Ryan Shea / Harrison Brunicke
Owen Pickering / Connor Clifton
This outlook probably bumps Pickering down to WBS to start the season, maybe he can beat out Shea for a spot and rise up in the lineup during camp. Not listed, you might notice, is Ryan Graves, who we’re about completely done with. Maybe he proves differently in camp too, but at this point there’s no reason to hold our breath and expect much better than what has happened over the last two years.
The big takeaway is that I think Brunicke will make the team out of camp. Maybe the Pens get exceedingly bold and let him play with Pickering, but that potential future pair is still a little too green to pencil in for now. Shea is nothing special but is a 28-year old adult who has shown he can perform the basics of a third pair spot fairly reliably. If you’re thinking that’s not exactly top praise, you’d be correct, but it’s the smallest of places to hang your hat on and see how it goes for a while.
Clifton is one of those guys in September that you’ll say, “oh yeah, they picked him up, huh?”. So, there’s that.
Goalies
Tristan Jarry and Arturs Silovs
Silovs needs waivers to go to the AHL and the Penguins presumably didn’t give up a draft pick for him this summer to immediately drop him out of the picture. That’s bad news for the immediate NHL outlook of Joel Blomqvist. Who knows what will happen with Jarry, but there’s pretty much no where to go besides up from a season that saw him banished to the AHL on two different occasions last year.
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The big conditional of this exercise is that a trade could change everything, and immediately. In a perfect world, flipping Rust/Rakell for an actual good defenseman would bring a ton of balance to the Pens. That’s probably not going to happen but until that other shoe drops (and if it does) the above could be about what we’re looking at with only a few more weeks until training camp begins.
