Remember like 2 years ago when I said Reinhart and Pulock won't be impact players for you for 4-5 years? I got a lot of poop for that
- rangerdanger94

Like anything you say doesn't make them right. Anybody who knows anything about hockey knows it takes the prospects a couple of years to make an impact

I've lost a lot of interest in Reinhart. Still a big Pulock fan though. Still think he ends up being the best value of that draft.
- jmatchett383

Rumors are they are going to try and trade Reinhart at the draft. They love Pulock and he has jumped ahead of Reinhart as far as top prospects go. I'm expecting Pulock on the back end for the isles next year

Well, can't get too crazy... its like, how above Michael Jackson do you put his nose? Its always just 1 spot above.
- Guile

I think you've got that one backwards, too. MJ was great. His nose and creepy late life legacy? Way down on the list.

Rumors are they are going to try and trade Reinhart at the draft. They love Pulock and he has jumped ahead of Reinhart as far as top prospects go. I'm expecting Pulock on the back end for the isles next year
- Vukota

Sounds like Pulock is ready now. They waited until Strome absolutely dominated the AHL for a while before calling him up and that's paid dividends so it seems they're doing the same with Pulock.

Sounds like Pulock is ready now. They waited until Strome absolutely dominated the AHL for a while before calling him up and that's paid dividends so it seems they're doing the same with Pulock.
- rangerdanger94

They probably would have kept him if they didn't trade for Leddy & Boychuk. Glad they did so he could go down and get the work in. He has a monster shot can't wait for his arrival next year

So Kappy is coming to WB. Interesting. I hope they broadcast a couple of games.
- madmike71

Thats great news. The earlier the AHL seasoning and adjusting to the NA game begins the better. Lets see what hes got.

Thats great news. The earlier the AHL seasoning and adjusting to the NA game begins the better. Lets see what hes got.
- Willaged

He should be here withing a week. I'm guessing he will have 6 games to play in before any playoffs.

Whoa whoa whoa...wasn't this the forum that was talking about playing Flyers-level "goon" hockey and taking players out was what's wrong with hockey nowadays?
- jmatchett383

That's a pipe dream. I'm just getting with the program that the NHL endorses.

http://espn.go.com/espn/o...many-unsafe?ex_cid=espnFB

Who would have guessed?

They probably would have kept him if they didn't trade for Leddy & Boychuk. Glad they did so he could go down and get the work in. He has a monster shot can't wait for his arrival next year
- Vukota

How much grief would I get if I started talking about development times for Penguins prospects on the Islanders board?

How much grief would I get if I started talking about development times for Penguins prospects on the Islanders board?
- Emperor Filonius

Fair Enough

Fair Enough
- Vukota

Just razzing you. You guys were on quite a tangent, lol.

Yeah, but most players are. Every fan base wants immediate return from their picks, but the guys who can step right in are few and far between.
- jmatchett383

Every player is a crap shoot but you look at your deficiencies and try to plug the holes and roll the dice. I don't mind taking a chance if it looks promising. Then there is chemistry and of the relationship stuff who gets along with who.

Just razzing you. You guys were on quite a tangent, lol.
- Emperor Filonius

Consider myself razzed.

Late to the discussion here, but.....

I have no issue with a team "tanking". First off, don't forget, they players on the ice are going to play hard every night because they have pride in what they do, and none of them would lose intentionally. The "tank" comes from how the team is constructed by ownership and the GM. Bottom line is it is their business and if the business chooses not to put the best possible team on the ice in the hopes of landing a mega talent in return, then that is their choice. Teams that tank in this day in age take a huge risk of alienating the fans and having attendance drop all for a possibility to draft an elite player, who may or may not even pan out.

The Penguins absolutely tanked to get Mario, but the Devils were tanking right along with them. No denying any of that. But I'm here to tell you it was a painful, awful process, and even with Mario, it took the Penguins another 5 years to even make the playoffs. Nothing was anything close to guaranteed in terms of success in the early Mario era.

But the notion that the Penguins "tanked" to get Crosby and Malkin is revisionist history. The team flat out stunk on its own merits because they were in financial trouble and had to trade away the core of a team that had gone to the conference championship in 2000. They were in financial trouble mostly due to the mismanagement of the Baldwin/Marino ownership group, and partially because the fundamental finances underpinning the NHL business model were hopelessly broken and needed a lockout and salary cap to fix.

-In 2002-2003, the Penguins were actually competeing for a playoff spot when they traded away Kovalev in February, and then a whole chunk of other complementary players for peanuts at the deadline. They simply had to do this because of the way Marino had run the team into the ground financially. They finished next to last overall but via the lottery were slated to pick 3rd. They has to acquire the first overall pick via trade with Florida and subsequently took Fluery. This was a dumb move on Florida's part but so be it. The 3rd pick in that draft turned into Nathan Horton. How different would the Pens be if Patrick had not moved up to pick MAF and had stood pat and taken Horton, who is a nice player, but not had anywhere close to MAF's impact.
-The year the Penguins finished last overall (2004) because of all the frantic cost cutting trades the season before and they drafted Malkin, but people forget that they "lost" the lottery for Ovechkin to Washington. There was NO guarantee that Malkin would become the player he was, or even come over from Russia. He was very much an unknown factor and there was far from any rejoicing about a bright future at that point.
-The 2005 Crosby pick was the result of lottery, and despite all the jokes about Bettman rigging it, had only a 3 in 48 chance of picking Crosby. Simply put, they got lucky.

My whole point here is that: Any team that "tanks" also has to get a huge amount of luck to be successful, and there is no guarantee it will work in your favor. The Penguins didn't so much tank as they got exceedingly lucky in the way that things fell, and made some astute moves along the way. For one reason or another, things haven't worked out in the same fashion for Edmonton. They may or may not happen for Buffalo and Arizona either, so in my opinion, there does not need to be any substantive change to the process, its a risky enough play as it is for any team sitting at the bottom of the barrel.
- Emperor Filonius

This should be read by all visitors from other teams as a condition to post. Lol. Pretty pathetic reading the non sense tank garbage from those that have no clue whatsoever about those Penguin teams.

So Kappy is coming to WB. Interesting. I hope they broadcast a couple of games.
- madmike71

Just saw that on DK's site as well. As he points out, this automatically burns a year of his ELC and I don't think they'd do that just to get a handful of WBS games in. I think they have plans for him to play in the playoffs. In what capacity, I have no idea.

This should be read by all visitors from other teams as a condition to post. Lol. Pretty pathetic reading the non sense tank garbage from those that have no clue whatsoever about those Penguin teams.
- Sell My Monkey

Nobody thinks you guys tanked for Crosby or Malkin. They think the league rigged the Crosby draft for you guys though.

Just saw that on DK's site as well. As he points out, this automatically burns a year of his ELC and I don't think they'd do that just to get a handful of WBS games in. I think they have plans for him to play in the playoffs. In what capacity, I have no idea.
- YouMeAndDupuis9

He's under 20 so he has to be on the NHL roster for 10+ games to burn a year.

Nobody thinks you guys tanked for Crosby or Malkin. They think the league rigged the Crosby draft for you guys though.
- rangerdanger94

Which is an equally ignorant opinion.

This should be read by all visitors from other teams as a condition to post. Lol. Pretty pathetic reading the non sense tank garbage from those that have no clue whatsoever about those Penguin teams.
- Sell My Monkey

During the darkest days and the Pens were icing a minor league team, they still managed to get 80% capacity in the igloo. It was never a fan support issue. The ownership ran the team into the ground with one abhorrent decision after another. I was always amazed that such dumb guys/owners could ever reach the level of ownership of a professional sports franchise. Didn't have the brains to run a lemonade stand.

He's under 20 so he has to be on the NHL roster for 10+ games to burn a year.
- jfkst1

I think WBS games count too though.

I'm sure this has been mentioned, but that idea will be the death of the trade deadline.

Funny I bet pens fans were not talking about the system being broken when they drafted Lemieux, Crosby, and Malkin. Your superstars show the slightest sign of aging while your GMs casually throw around draft picks and now it's time to abolish the draft and give everyone a shot. Waaaaaaa my penguins won't be good forever! Abolish drafts! Drafts are unfair! Waaaaa!

I think WBS games count too though.
- YouMeAndDupuis9

No, they don't if the player is <20 and Kapanen is 18.

Penguins fans:

How would you rank these goalies from best to worst:

Cam Ward
Cory Schneider
Brayden Holtby
Marc-Andre Fleury
Jaroslav Halak
Steve Mason
Henrik Lundqvist
Sergei Bobrovsky
- jmatchett383

Lundqvist
Schneider
Bobrovsky
Fleury
Halak
Holtby
Mason
Ward

That said you could interchange them all from Fleury to Mason depending on who is on a hot streak.

I think there is a big gap between the top 3 and rest.

Unfortunately Jersey and Philly have wasted brilliant years from their tenders and you could say the same about the Blue Jackets, but their season was trashed due to early season injuries.

I think the playoff stigma hurts the regular season results MAF brings, he would have to carry this team to the conference finals and not give up a bad goal in a losing conference final series effort for that stigma to be removed.

No one outside that locker room trusts him and I wonder how many long term Penguin players trust him too?