Earlier in the NHL season Jake Guentzel made his NHL debut with the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was a very successful debut. He scored on his first shift and on his first NHL shot ala Mario Lemieux. He followed that up by adding a second goal in his debut game. All in all he was given a five game stint with the big club where he put up three goals and four points. It was a successful start to what should be a somewhat successful NHL career.
Since being sent down he has taken the AHL by storm. He has been a scoring machine. It hasn’t gone unnoticed as he was awarded the AHL rookie of the month for December. In ten games during December he registered 11 goals and 17 points. Here is a game by game look at the amount of points he has earned each game since being returned to the Baby Penguins.
A plethora of multiple point games and very few games left off of the scoresheet. He is tracking great towards NHL success. At his age you want to be at a point per game to make future NHL success likely. Right now he has 34 points in 27 games which is a 1.29 per game rate. Guentzel is currently third overall for the entire AHL in the points race trailing only Ken Agostino who has 46 points in 35 games and is tied with Cole Schneider who has 34 points in 28 games. Only Agostino has a higher points per game among the league’s point leaders at 1.31. And yes if that Agostino name sounds familiar it is the Agostino who was traded by the Penguins for Jarome Iginla.
It isn’t so much a matter of if Guentzel will be an NHL player, but when that will be. As it stands right now the Penguins have a top nine of Conor Sheary, Chris Kunitz, and Carl Hagelin that they are comfortable with. If Guentzel isn’t going to take time from those three, the organization’s thinking is that more ice time in the AHL is better than fourth line minutes at the NHL. Injuries and trades can certainly change the landscape, but for now the organization is content letting Guentzel rip apart the AHL. Not bad for a third round pick.
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