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Some thoughts on things said and done in training camp

September 24, 2022, 3:55 PM ET [41 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Here are a few thoughts about some of the things that have been said or done at training camp





My opinion hasn’t changed on this front. Brian Dumoulin should have been shopped over the offseason. they should still be listening to offers for him. They should have no interest in extending him. This is a player who provided the team quite a number of solid seasons and he has two Stanley Cups to show for it. I don’t think the team is moving towards a third with him on the roster. He looked pretty washed last year. He has a lot of injury miles on his body. If he cannot create separation with his skating, he will not have an opportunity to do the things that made him a solid player such as break out passes and gap control. His perceived value is higher than his actual value. The Penguins had an opportunity to sell high on Brooks Orpik many years ago and chose not to. They’ve had a simialr opportunity here. The difference is they let Orpik walk and with the Dumoulin situation they might be burning cap space they should be allocating elsewhere.

They do need cap space because Ron Hextall hasn’t ruled out a trade to create some





Brian Dumoulin, Brock McGinn, Kasperi Kapanen, and Jan Rutta are 12.8M of unneeded cap hits. Only the Dumoulin one had value at some point. He is in the last year of a deal where he played well during most of the contract. The other ones are waste for the sake of waste.





This isn’t a big surprise. We knew Jarry was struggling and the fact he played in Game 7 was a desperation heave to try and buy the team some more time for him to get right. This is how bad Louis Domingue was in the series. They put a guy with one foot on the ice during Game 7 when he had little quality practice and no ability to push off at an NHL standard. It was the last thing the team probably wanted to do, but they were left no other choice, things were that bad.











It would be really nice if Pierre-Olivier Joseph and/or Ty Smith were able to grab a roster spot and contribute on a regular basis to lighten the log jam of cap space at the position. It seems like Joseph is going to get the look he’s probably wanted to get the last few years. It will be on him to perform in camp and sell his worth. He can’t be sent down through waivers without being exposed anymore so it is either earn a spot or likely sit in the stands.





Ron, Evgeni Malkin has been a hungry and passionate player his entire career. He has been consistently awesome since the day he escaped Russia like a spy in the night. The number of articles you’ll see this year crediting Geno for being more successful because he’s now hungry is going to be greater than zero. In reality, it will be because his health is way better and he will have at least one solid top six forward and one solid top four defenseman on a regular basis, likely Rickard Rakell and Jeff Petry.





It would be pretty great if Valtteri Puustinen were able to ascend from WB/S and carve out an offensive role for the team. They are in dire need of some scoring depth. He’s 23 years old and only had 42 points in 73 AHL games. At his age you’d like it to be closer to a point per game. I’m willing to give him some benefit of the doubt being as it was his first year crossing the ocean. This is a big year to see if he can elevate his game a little more. There will be opportunity for someone to steal some minutes with this forward group. It could be him.

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