3 Penguins Thoughts: Ponomarev Future, Bad Trades

NEWARK — After a horrible start, the Pittsburgh Penguins were increasingly good Friday against the New Jersey Devils. The Penguins scored four unanswered goals and turned another sad performance into their ninth victory in 15 games.

So much for getting a better draft pick, eh?

Instead of dealing with a bad loss, coach Mike Sullivan was able to speak of the pride the players show when “pulling the Penguins jersey over their heads. ” Sidney Crosby talked about playing for each other and being accountable to each other despite the lack of playoff payoff.

It was a satisfied dressing room.

For the record, I peppered the Penguins postgame recap with 13 Bruce Springsteen references. But in a sign of the time of season, very few people noticed, or at least very few commented. Postgame recaps are a thing of the past. We continue to do them as a recognition of the industry gone by, for the few people who still read them, and for our partnership with WPXI. Over the last few months, even the Associated Press has essentially dropped the recaps written by reporters. The industry has undergone a revolution in the last seven years, and someday soon, we’ll stop with the old-school recap, but for now, I’ll honor the glory days.

But I digress.

Sullivan announced or showed a few things this week, specifically last night.

3 Penguins Thoughts

1. Vasily Ponomarev’s Future is Cloudy

Ponomarev, 23, is an interesting cat. He speaks English, but he has a (sometimes) fun habit of not addressing the question asked—not even close. For example, I asked him Saturday morning what he wanted to show the team in the last three games of the season. He pondered it for a moment and said, “That the AHL is a good development league.”

OK, um, well, OK.

Here’s his postgame radio hit last night with Joe Brand and Phil Bourque. The boys didn’t know who was joining them; they knew only that a player would walk over and pick up the headset.

Ponomarev is an intense fellow, too.

However, his future remains a bit cloudy. He could become a Bobby Farnham type: a fast, gritty, unpredictable type who drags his team into the fight but sometimes goes over the line. I’ve seen him play that game in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

One teammate chuckled at my potential comparison and agreed,  “I could see a bit of that.”

Ponomarev could also go the Blake Lizotte-Noel Acciari route and be a defensive conscience who brings a gritty element to the defensive responsibilities. However, if he’s to do that, he’ll need to earn the trust of coaches. Ponomarev played only three shifts in the third period Friday.

Overall, he got a respectable 10 minutes of ice time, but the lack of third period time is a good indicator of where he stands. He needs to earn a bit of trust, and he needs to play with the puck a bit more. He’s a center, but he won only three of his eight faceoffs and didn’t do a good job of transitioning to offense.

Sullivan could have–should have–used him more in the third period. The Penguins are a rebuilding team, and the young Ponomarev is potentially a part of that. Three games remaining in a lost season is absolutely the time to use him in bigger situations.

The coach will need to be cognizant of development in the future.

Ponomarev is most likely a fourth-line winger at the NHL level, but he’ll need to show more aspects of his game so that he’s more than just a scrappy plug who plays hard in the defensive zone. He needs to be a more complete player, or his career path will resemble Farnham’s, too.

2. Other WBS Recalls

When the Penguins were a week-old flat soda pop in the first period, two players—Ponomarev and Emil Bemstrom—skated like it was Game 7.

However, it does seem the ship has sailed for Bemstrom. He played only eight minutes despite the spirited first-period effort.

One player who has seized his recent call-up, though you may not have noticed him too much, is Joona Koppanen. He’s played exceptionally well and has seen his ice time climb to about 15 minutes. He’s big, he’s quick, and he’s responsible. And when he’s had the chance, he’s done solid work in the offensive zone, too.

Depending on the summer moves, he has a real chance to be a 12th or 13th forward next fall. I’ve rather liked his game so far, and it looks like there’s more to give. Based on ice time, Sullivan would agree.

3. Bad Trades

Remember that time when general manager Kyle Dubas traded Michael Bunting and a fourth-round pick to the Nashville Predators for Tommy Novak and Luke Schenn?

The Penguins flipped Schenn to Winnipeg, thus essentially receiving Novak, a 2026 second, and a 2027 fourth-rounder for Bunting. It’s a mediocre trade on paper, in large part because Novak has two years remaining on his contract that pays him $3.5 million annually.

That’s a lot of money for a center who registered 24 points in 54 games, including two with the Penguins before his mystery injury didn’t heal as expected, and he was shut down for the season.

No one, including the Penguins, can possibly know what they’ve got. Is Novak the rookie who notched 43 points (17-26-43) in 51 games for Nashville two years ago, or the soft center who had just 22 points in 52 games for Nashville this season?

Dubas couldn’t help himself at the Nashville flea market this season. He accepted Cody Glass and a third-round pick as part of Nashville’s salary dump. Dubas gave up a 2027 fourth-round pick to take a chance on Philip Tomasino. And then Novak.

First, Dubas should probably block Nashville GM Barry Trotz’s number. Trotz was able to dump his unwanted salaries on the Penguins for a few secondary draft picks and get Bunting out of the deal. Obviously, Trotz used that cap space poorly, as Nashville will finish with the third-worst record in the league, but Dubas has done his charity work for the year.

Given Dubas’s stockpile of picks, was Bunting for a second and a fourth a good trade?

Novak could tip the scales in his favor next year, but if he doesn’t, the trade will be another bust for Dubas and just another unwanted salary on the books. Statistically speaking, the acquired second-rounder from Winnipeg has less than a 10% chance of making an impact (defined as 300 career points).

Next season, the Penguins will have Novak, Kevin Hayes, Danton Heinen, and Noel Acciari taking up more than $11 million and four of 13 forward roster spots. The Penguins also own Connor Dewar’s and Tomasino’s restricted free agent rights, so it could be six spots.

The Penguins’ other RFA, defenseman Conor Timmins, who was acquired from Toronto with Dewar, has done little to distinguish himself as a reliable D-man. Add Ryan Graves, who has four more years on his contract, and the Penguins’ roster projects to be a bloated, hapless redux of this season’s failure.

Unless Dubas finds a way to cast aside many of the above.

Dubas will need to be on his game this summer. If the Fenway Sports Group is in “the mode of being impatient,” then season three must be the pivot. If it is not, this rebuild will take much longer than anyone wants.