2011-12 Pittsburgh Penguin Prospect Thread

[burgh_fan66]

Pittsburgh Penguins Prospects

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---------------------Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins -------------------Wheeling Nailers

Top Prospects
1. Beau Bennett
2. Simon Despres
3. Eric Tangradi
4. Tom Kuhnhackl
5. Joe Morrow
6. Dustin Jeffrey
7. Robert Bortuzzo
8. Brian Strait
9. Ken Agostino
10. Brad Thiessen

For more information visit Hockeys Future

Prospect Hockey Leagues

AHL------ ECHL------ OHL------ QMJHL------ WHL------ NCAA------ USHL------ BCHL------ AJHL

[Tomahawk27]

Interesting list. I'm not sure if I personally would consider Jeffrey and Tangradi prospects but that's just me. Also surprised that they have Bennett listed above Despres, I know wing isn't a strong position of ours but Despres seems to have all the tools

[burgh_fan66]

Jeffrey and Tangradi have 40 and 15 career regular season games respectively so I see why they are still considered prospects (especially Tangradi). As for Despres or Bennett they have the two with identical 8.0C grades meaning they have them rated very closely together so I think the difference is probably negligible.

Edit: This information is on the site but for those who don't want to look I will explain what that grade means. The 8 is the player's talent out of 10. A score of 8 makes the player's talent comparable to:

Defense: Dan Boyle, Duncan Keith, Kimmo Timonen
Forward: Patrick Marleau, Jason Spezza, Mike Richards
Goaltender: Cam Ward, Marc-Andre Fleury, Tomas Vokoun

The C means the player only has an average chance of reaching their potential and could likely fall two grades (meaning to a 6 in this scenario). So the expected bottom worth of these players are comparable to:

Defense: Jordan Leopold, Chris Campoli, Shane O'Brien
Forward: Trent Hunter, Manny Malhotra, Matt Cooke
Goaltender: Scott Clemmensen, Ty Conklin, Alex Auld

I must say I really like this grading system of theirs.

[Tomahawk27]

The grading system is pretty unique and helpful. For the sake of the team, I'm hoping they reach their potential, I really like that first group lol

[burgh_fan66]

This was announced a few days ago but some might have missed it so I thought I'd post it:

FORWARDS
Chris Barton — Rookie tryout from Merrimack; second on team in scoring last year behind top prospect Stephane Da Costa
Cody Chupp — tryout; spent all last season in AHL with Texas Stars
Brian Day — AHL contract; led Colgate with 21 goals as a junior in 09-10; 7 pts in 10 gms with Bridgeport last season
Brandon DeFazio — AHL contract
Devin DiDiomete — tryout
Brian Gibbons — NHL contract
Bryan Lerg — AHL contract
Denver Manderson — tryout; 113 pts in 50 gms as Beau Bennett’s linemate in BCHL in 09-10
Martin Moucha — tryout; Wyoming Seminary graduate and Mountain Top resident played five games with Elmira last year (ECHL)
Ryan Schnell — AHL contract
Zach Sill — AHL contract
Ben Street — AHL contract
Zach Torquato — tryout; 07 Detroit draft pick; OHL scoring star; spent most of last year in ECHL, 12 gms with Rockford
Paul Thompson — NHL contract
Keven Veilleux — NHL contract
Geoff Walker — AHL contract

DEFENSEMAN
Simon Despres — NHL contract
Alex Grant — NHL contract
Andrew Hotham — AHL contract; put up numbers in OHL, Canadian college
Joey Mormina — AHL contract
Nick Plastino — tryout; OHL guy spent last four seasons in Italy
Philip Samuelsson — NHL contract
Carl Sneep — NHL contract
Chad Langlais — tryout; undrafted out of University of Michigan; put up some numbers
Cody Wild — tryout; 06 Edmonton draft pick; AHL experience with Providence, Springfield last four years

GOALIES
Patrick Killeen — NHL contract
Alex Kangas — tryout; 06 Atlanta draft pick; three-year starter at U of Minnesota, though not last year as a senior

http://blogs.citizensvoice.com/penguins/?p=4107

Obviously the WBS roster will also include some players who are or were in the NHL training camp but these are the guys who are battling to fill it out.

[burgh_fan66]

I'm going to try to post some updates in here but since I don't know much about the Pen's minor leagues it will mainly be other sources. Here is an analysis of the WBS roster.

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/article...eason_preview/

[Tomahawk27]

Even if you don't know much about the prospects, I appreciate you posting the links. It pretty much said what I already knew/was thinking but nice to read an analysis regardless. I'll be looking forward to how they develop and some of the numbers they put up

[burgh_fan66]

No problem, I knew most of what was in the article to but I am trying to educate myself a little more. You might visit this site but if not you may like it they usually post highlights of the WBS games.

http://thepensblog.com/wbs/

Main site also has some Penguin posts.

[burgh_fan66]

Here is another top 10 list that varies quite a bit from what I already posted.

1. Joe Morrow, Defense
2. Simon Despres, Defense
3. Tom Kuhnhackl, Right Wing
4. Eric Tangradi, Left Wing
5. Roberto Bortuzzo, Defense
6. Beau Bennett, Right Wing
7. Brian Strait, Defense
8. Scott Harrington, Defense
9. Kenneth Agostino, Left Wing
10. Philip Samuelsson, Defense

http://www.puckprospectus.com/articl...articleid=1044

[Tomahawk27]

Hmm, interesting but I think the first list is the more accurate of the two. Morrow may have more offensive upside than Despres but considering Despres is closer to the NHL and there isn't that big a difference between potential, I still have him over Morrow. I would also put Bennet and Tangradi ahead of Kuhnhackl

[burgh_fan66]

A few weeks old but it is worth a read. It is an update on the WBS Pens and the Nailers plus an update on some individual players like Despres and Thiessen.

http://thehockeywriters.com/pittsbur...league-update/

[Tomahawk27]

Pretty good read, nice to hear that guys are doing well

[Tomahawk27]

Post Gazette did a story on the top 10 Pens prospects:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11359/1199222-61.stm

To point out, both Jeffrey and Thiessen were not included because they are not on entry level contracts. Another player to keep an eye on is Ben Hanowski (3rd round in the 09 draft). He is still in college but he is the all time leader in points in all of Minnesota high school hockey. There are a few knocks on him but whenever you break the all time record in a hockey state like Minnesota, that says something

[Tomahawk27]

I would also like to point out the fact that the majority of those listed are defense. Obviously nothing wrong with having a solid defensive core and I'm sure at least one of these guys will be traded in the future but for a team lacking scoring wingers (both Kennedy and Neal are free agents after this season I believe) I would like to see another forward or two

[burgh_fan66]

Thank you for the list I missed it with the busy holiday season and all. By the way Kennedy is under contract through next season and Neal is only an RFA after this season so the Pens still have some control on both.

However not too much cap room being cleared up after this season. Our 6 UFA's have a combined salary this year of just over 4.5 million dollars. So there isn't a whole lot of room to give Kennedy and Neal a big raise, so we will need to get creative.

Bottom line it would be nice to have some more winger prospects.