Congratulations to the Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks. I love seeing a smart organization rewarded for their efforts.
Since the beginning of 2009 to the present Chicago leads the NHL with a Score-Adjusted Fenwick of 59.2%(!). Next best is Detroit at 53.2%. So the present day "dynasty" team is also the best possession team, go figure...
On a day like today Sid and Geno have to be asking themselves why they can't have a Stan Bowman calling the shots for them.
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The Pittsburgh Penguins signed a defenseman from the SHL yesterday named Niclas Andersen. I can't pretend to have seen him play but from everything I have tracked down he is a low level player who will more than likely make his impact with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
I asked Hockeybuzz's own Bill Meltzer his thoughts on Andersen since he does keep tabs on the SHL
@GunnerStaal Borderline. Could be serviceable 3rd pairing guy. Won't be intimidated, though.
— Bill Meltzer (@billmeltzer) June 15, 2015
Jim Rutherford spoke to Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette:
What does Andersen bring to the organization?"This is a good find for us. He'll be a good depth defenseman. He's real good defensively. A real good penalty killer. There will be an adjustment to the game coming over here [to North America]. I would suspect he would start [the season] in [Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League] and wait for his opportunity. He was captain of his team. Tommy Westlund, our European scout, knows him real well. He's got great character, great leadership. He's going to fit into our organization pretty good."
The alarm bells always go off for me when a description of a defenseman is lacking anything about their skills and leans heavily on defending, penalty killing, and tangibles IE: Rob Scuderi
He has some size (218 pounds) and you talked about his defensive abilities. Is he primarily a "stay-at-home" type of defenseman?"Good-sized guy. At this point, that's the way I view him. It's more on the defensive side."
Size means nothing absent skill.
Here is the part of the interview where things get a little spicier.
The window for teams to use buyouts starts two days after the last game of the Stanley Cup Final. Is that anything you are considering?"No, we don't have any plans to buy guys out."
It is tough to gauge this comment. I wouldn't expect the team to come out and say "We are buying out Rob Scuderi" That would eliminate any chance of Pittsburgh moving him in a trade. However, if Rob Scuderi is a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins roster in October that is just an unacceptable outcome. Totally unacceptable.
Are you still negotiating with college free agent defenseman Mike Reilly?"We've had communication with him from within the organization over the week and again today. We just continue to work hard at it like these other teams are. But there has been good communication over the weekend."
There is a lot of competition for Reilly and the odds are probably not in Pittsburgh's favor even if they make a full court press.
This from Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Tribune:
The Penguins can’t give University of Minnesota defenseman Mike Reilly the playing time (or promise of it) that he can likely get elsewhere. As a result, I see him going to the Blackhawks, Kings or Wild … not to the Penguins.I wrote about this for Tuesday’s print edition, how Reilly has not visited Pittsburgh, and fail to see how the Penguins’ current blue-line situation can look all that appealing to the 21-year-old Reilly.
Currently, he’s staring at the possibility of Rob Scuderi, Kris Letang, Olli Maatta, Derrick Pouliot, Ben Lovejoy, Ian Cole, Scott Harrington, Brian Dumoulin and Taylor Chorney possibly competing for NHL work in 2015-16.
Tough to sell potential playing time there.
With the hockey action over for 2014-15 we should expect to see a lot of rumors and player movement in the coming weeks leading up to and including the draft. Should be fun to follow
Thanks for reading!
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