The Pittsburgh Penguins have sent Daniel Sprong back to juniors
The #Pens have assigned Daniel Sprong to the Charlottetown Islanders of the QMJHL. Details: https://t.co/wTpIkLqrlJ pic.twitter.com/0I77S1qmhP
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 19, 2015
There is no other way to put it. They grossly mishandled him this year.
The general manager and coach were not on the same page regarding his ice time this year to the point that the GM called out the coach about it and then fired him. A week later the GM has sent said player back to junior hockey when the new coach didn’t use him.
Says a lot that I'm mostly relieved the Pens didn't wait until game 42 to send Sprong back to juniors.
— Andy Smith (@thatandysmith) December 19, 2015
As others have pointed out, the #Pens have already burned the first year of Sprong's entry-level contract. Seems wasteful.
— Wes Crosby (@OtherNHLCrosby) December 19, 2015
The decisions regarding Daniel Sprong this season can be best be described as: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
— Adam Gretz (@AGretz) December 19, 2015
Daniel Sprong still prime prospect for #Penguins. Great shot, strength, skill. But any defensive deficiency unlikely to be solved in QMJHL.
— Shelly Anderson (@_ShellyAnderson) December 19, 2015
Daniel Sprong gains nothing by going back to junior hockey. I agree with Shelly in that he isn’t going to become a better defensive player playing against junior players.
Sending back Sprong makes sense, but only when viewed through the prism that was created by keeping him and not playing him to begin with. By sending him back now they avoid the next contractual landmark being hit in his ELC (becoming UFA sooner). The handling of Sprong was aimless and appeared to lack planning. The same could be said for other Rutherford moves in his Penguins tenure (Carolina as well).
Rutherford as utterly botched the: 1) salary cap wrt defensemen last season, 2) Despres trade, 3) defense this season, 4) Daniel Sprong
— C. Tompkins (@Null_HHockey) December 19, 2015
There is no rhyme or reason to how Jim Rutherford conducts business. His best moves as a General Manager haven’t been overly impressive. Toronto gave away Kessel and people shouldn’t be bending over backwards to praise the fact Pittsburgh improved from the Craig Adams, Tanner Glass, Max Lapierre, and to a lesser extent Brandon Sutter days of the bottom six.
The James Neal trade was forced at the NHL draft, yet involved no draft picks.
The defense corp. is currently a complete mess.
The GM and Coach were never on the same page despite being a recent hire.
Jim Rutherford's tenure has played out exactly like a Jim Rutherford tenure was always going to play out. Aimless with random results.
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Brand new Hockey Hurts Podcast discusses what a mess the Penguins are (pre Sprong news). Includes specific details to fix PP (peronnel and X's/O's). You can find that here
Thanks for reading!