The Pittsburgh Penguins lack dynamic young forwards in their organization sans Daniel Sprong. They currently have a pretty bleak setup at the left wing position. This is an area that will definitely need to be improved upon.

I would suggest calling Steve Yzerman in an attempt to improve this organizational weakness.

The #TBLightning have assigned Jonathan Drouin to the @SyracuseCrunch.

— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) January 2, 2016

Jonathan Drouin was apparently not thrilled about it

A very unhappy-looking Jonathan Drouin walked out of Amalie Arena Saturday morning, carrying his equipment.

Drouin was reassigned to AHL Syracuse, not an easy pill to swallow for the touted prospect. While it was not officially labeled a conditioning assignment, GM Steve Yzerman said this was a move "specficially so he gets playing time," comparing it to what they did with goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Drouin, 20, has been limited to just 19 games this season due to two different injuries, playing in just five since mid-November. Yzerman said there's no "set date" for Drouin's return to the NHL.

Here is the context for this move. Apparently Jonathan Drouin has been hurt quite a bit this year and they are probably looking to get him some more ice time. However, they could give that to him at the NHL level if they really wanted to. Tampa Bay hasn't been the offensive power house at even-strength that they were last season. They were first in the league in goals for per 60 at 2.75 and now they are sitting in 22nd at only 1.97. Jonathan Drouin has a 5v5 points/60 of 1.88 in his NHL career which is legitimate top six offense.

Jonathan Drouin was selected third overall in the very strong 2013 draft class. Most of that draft class has started to make an NHL impact before Drouin has. Other players chosen include: Nathan MacKinnon, Aleksander Barkov, Seth Jones, Sean Monahan, Rasmus Ristolainen, Max Domi, and to a lesser extent Elias Lindholm and Valeri Nichushkin.

Some people have criticized Jonathan Drouin's ability to play a 200 foot game but I always have found that line of thinking funny because it never seems to apply to players who are completely inept offensively. It is one of those silly double standards that punishes skilled players. Hockey is so weird like that.

The Penguins have a prospect that is suffering from that same mentality at the moment. That prospect is Derrick Pouliot.

As far as the Penguins are concerned I would float Derrick Pouliot to Tampa Bay and allow them to counter back. The worst thing that Yzerman can say is no.

Stranger things have happened on the trade market before IE: Anybody trading for Rob Scuderi.




*Pouliot chart was a custom made request from @MimicoHero in August*

Thanks for reading!

Join the Discussion: » 255 Comments » Post New Comment

» Getting your Penguins fix

» My thoughts on Penguins thoughts

» It's their fault

» Still alive, for now

» Going to need some help now