Connect with us

Penguins Notebook

Backchecking the Pens: June 24, 2017

Published

on

Pittsburgh Penguins

UPDATE (2:26 PM)-

If you want a good roundup of the Penguins’ picks, head on over to their official page.

UPDATE (1:15 PM)-

Penguins draft picks so far:

1st round: Traded in the Ryan ReavesOskar Sundqvist deal

2nd round: Zachary Lauzon

3rd round: Clayton Phillips from Fargo of the USHL.

4th: no pick

5th: Jan Drozg & Linus Oland

UPDATE (1:06 PM)-

Here’s Jan Drozg in action in the Swedish Elite League:

Some draft analysis on the Penguins’ third round selection from our Dan Kingerski.

The Penguins traded out of the first round in the Ryan Reaves deal, which included the Blues 2nd round pick, number 51 overall.

With that pick, the penguins selected Zachary Lauzon, a defenseman who played for the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in the QMJHL.

UPDATE by Joe Steigerwald (10:38 AM)-

If you’re reading this, you already know. The Penguins traded once and future 3rd and/or 4th line center prospect Oskar Sundqvist for St. Louis 4th line tough guy Ryan Reaves. You can read Dan Kingerski’s reaction here, or scroll through the tweets below to get people’s takes on the subject.

The bottom line is, Rutherford and Sullivan were sick of having their superstars roughed up and wanted someone for protection. That someone is Ryan Reaves, who finished a perfect 6-0 in fights last season (as judged by the people at hockeyfights.com). Reaves is 6-foot-1, 225 pounds, fast, and someone who will be counted on to punish opposing defensemen on the forecheck.

Naturally, the trade brought condemnation based on Sundqvist’s perceived value as the 3rd or 4th line center. But it seems the Penguins top brass was serious when they said they were tired of players targeting Crosby.

Sundqvist was sparingly used this season, registering 0 points in 10 games and didn’t appear in a single playoff game, even with injuries to Crosby and Bonino.

Reaves is a seven year veteran of the league, and was deemed important enough to be protected in the recent expansion draft, ahead of players like David Perron and Jori Lehtera. Reaves’ perceived “goonism” may have colored Penguin fans/bloggers views on the trade, but St. Louis hockey blogs were singing his praises just a few days ago, saying his value on the ice was greater than the aforementioned Perron, whose 15-20 goals and playoff disappearing act can be easily replaced. Reaves’ skill set as a protector and forechecker may be more useful than the raw stats would dictate. He also has worked hard to reinvent himself, improve his skating and footwork, which Dan mentioned in his column and has been noted by other writers.

Knocks against Reaves include his Corsi numbers in St. Louis, which were sub 50% (and -5.4% relative) and lack of ice time, never having averaged over nine minutes in a full season.

UPDATE (9:41 AM)-

UPDATE (9:38 AM)-

UPDATE (9:02 AM)-

UPDATE (8:01 AM)-

UPDATE (7:57 AM)-

**Plenty of reaction to the Pens trade last night for Ryan Reaves.