Pittsburgh Penguins All-Time Draft - (Round 25)

[mikey287]

Yeah, I mean, I'm not disagreeing at all. Again, "solid" - a pretty anonymous third pairing guy that we probably won't talk about too much again...you didn't do it wrong certainly...if anything, I'm just confessing my lack of knowledge on him...I'm not really sure how highly he was regarded in his NHL days...

[mikey287]

Oh foxtrot, I didn't even see the Jan Hrdina pick...damn, he was my next pick actually...I've been considering him for a few rounds and thought, "eh, one more..." ...well, that sucks noodles...

[Gaucho]

Same here.

[MRandall25]

I couldn't believe he lasted.

[mikey287]

I just couldn't really place him. It was really just a miss on my part. Duane Rupp would probably be there for my next pick but I thought, "forced ice time getting forward that has artificially-inflated offensive numbers and wasn't elite defensively" vs. "unspectacular minute-muncher that logged top minutes for a meh team"

The deal breaker was: I had a third line center already that was right-handed and better defensively. I needed a second-pairing defenseman. My loss is your gain. That's a good value pick right here for sure. The more I think about it, the more I believe he should have gone sooner. Nice snag.

Hopefully we get these last couple picks before mine in here before the night is over...I'll be gone probably all day tomorrow with limited/no cell phone reception (hockey rinks aren't terribly friendly to that)...but it's not a race I suppose...let's see what happens...

[Rylan]

Yea I would love to pick tonight.

[mikey287]

Yea I would love to pick tonight.

I get a bad feeling/weird inkling you're taking my guy before I get the chance. So, as a result, after this next pick (to allow time to adjust, of course), in place of the 24-hour clock we're currently on, I'm instituting a 24-second clock...and if I don't like it after my pick, we'll just go back to normal...

[Rylan]

I doubt it. If the player I want makes it I will be pleasantly shocked.

[meow]

I'll take super pest Jarkko Ruutu. A real a-hole the ice. Agitator, instigator, pot stirrer, mucker, grinder, repeater, sandpaper, fighter, shoot-out specialist, shift disrupter, banger... that's all

[Rylan]

With the 93rd pick in the LGP draft. the Degloving Kings are proud to select from Moscow, Russia.

RW Aleksey Morozov



The incredibly talented underachieving Russian. He could do it all, but as a Penguin it never fully happened. He had 2 seasons where he had around 50 points. Marred by inconsistency, and seemingly didn't like to shoot, he seemed to flounder unless it was against the Devils. But those 2 50 point seasons are reason enough for me to believe in Morozov to work on my team.

[Gaucho]

Sorry bro, long gone.

[MRandall25]

Yeah, I thought Mikey got him in like round 5

[Rylan]

Whoopsie. I thought so but I forgot to check for the first. Good looking

[Rylan]

I knew I should have control-f'd that

[Gaucho]

So...

[dman66]

At least I'm not the one holding it up this time

[Gaucho]

Didn't think Morozov was going to be selected at all.

[MRandall25]

Didn't think Morozov was going to be selected at all.

I had him on my list, but was only going to take him in the last round if he was available.

[mikey287]

sorry been away for hockey all weekend...still not back...from my phone: Craig Adams, RW - will explain later, soonish...

[Gaucho]

Nick Harbaruk, RW



Hard-working, hard-hitting checking winger, defensive specialist and penalty killer. Born in 1943 in occupied Poland, Harbaruk sadly died last year from bone cancer. 308 GP for the Penguins, recording 40 G & 61 A.

[meow]

Ok, I think I got the Google Doc up to speed.

[mikey287]

Ok, long weekend in the world's worst place - Long Island. Didn't miss a lot, so I'll just make some comments to get this going again a little bit...

- Never really thought about drafting Jarkko Ruutu. Didn't play very long here...I guess he's a mediocre 4th liner or solid extra forward at this level. I have a hard time placing him.

- The selecting of Aleksey Morozov is overdue. Lot of games for us, a scorer stuck in a depth role, produced exclusively during the dead puck era. His highest ATOI season (by more than 2 minutes) saw him score 25 points in 27 games. It would have put him firmly second in scoring to Mario, which is essentially 1st among mortals. He played for some awful teams, in a low-scoring era...the case against him is his inconsistency and the fact that his coaches never trusted him to really lead the way for the team (except in 2003, when it was looking like he was going to be a first liner perhaps). The only reason why I can see Morozov not being picked until now is because he's viewed as a top-six or nothing player - which isn't unfair. But in terms of straight value, he should have been picked already. Who was the original pick here? I see it was edited? Cunneyworth?

- Nick Harbaruk - he was on my list, decent depth guy. Probably more of a 4th liner than 3rd. A righty that can kill penalties, sounds like fine depth to me. Little worried about his short career, makes me feel a bit uneasy that he might have been a product of expansion roster spots, but I don't think he's such an obvious case for that that he deserves to be run through a torture test individually...he scored some goals in a depth role on an iffy team, sounds good enough to me...

- Craig Adams - I was worried I wouldn't get him actually...I need another third liner because I don't trust Adams to take that many minutes, but I think he's a proven defensive commodity and worth taking a fraction early...plus, he was once 51st in Selke voting! Beat that!

I got him for his defensive ability and his elite PK ability...

Times in franchise history when the Pittsburgh Penguins had a penalty kill 2% (absolute, not relative) above the league average w/leaders in total PK ice time among forwards:
1992-93 (2.79%): Ron Francis, Mario Lemieux, Dave Tippett (ineligible), Joe Mullen
2009-10 (2.33%): Jordan Staal, Craig Adams, Matt Cooke, Pascal Dupuis
2010-11 (4.13%): Craig Adams, Maxime Talbot, Pascal Dupuis, Matt Cooke
2011-12 (5.09%): Craig Adams, Matt Cooke, Pascal Dupuis, Jordan Staal

So, on the three of the four best PKs in Pens history (a couple by a mile), Craig Adams is 1st, 1st and 2nd in SH TOI for them.

Side note: the only times the Penguins PK was above league average in their history: '68 (1.48%), '69 (.52%), '71 (1.44%), '73 (.15%), '75 (.89%), '93 (2.79%), '94 (.68%), '96 (1.23%), '98 (1.47%), '09 (1.66%), '10 (2.33%), '11 (4.13%), '12 (5.09%). Rough.

[Gaucho]

I think anyone who's seen Morozov play for an extended period of time knows why he dropped this far. Like pretty much anyone else that got the chance he looked awesome on Mario's wing for a few weeks, but that's about it. The fact that he played on some awful teams makes his stats actually look even worse. How a player with this much talent and plenty of ice time (before being relegated to the 4th line, that is) manages to score only 5 goals in a season is beyond me. I know that I'd rather have Ruutu on my team than Morozov.

[mikey287]

I think anyone who's seen Morozov play for an extended period of time knows why he dropped this far. Like pretty much anyone else that got the chance he looked awesome on Mario's wing for a few weeks, but that's about it. The fact that he played on some awful teams makes his stats actually look even worse. How a player with this much talent and plenty of ice time (before being relegated to the 4th line, that is) manages to score only 5 goals in a season is beyond me. I know that I'd rather have Ruutu on my team than Morozov.

Well, I think many of us remember Morozov fairly well at least...but how much of a chance did he really get vs. what did he earn? I mean, look at the names ahead of him and with him in ice time at those times (available on NHL.com back to 1998), some of them are really...interesting...

I know Morozov was an under-achiever. I know he wasn't exactly Mr. Worker Bee out there...but given the nature of the team, the need to get production out of limited salaried players and the investment of a high draft choice in him, I'm surprised he didn't get a better opportunity. I'm not a "why didn't they just give him a chance" type of guy, I believe guys have to earn it. But when you're getting beat out for ice time by Alex Hicks and Sean Pronger, you start to wonder about our prospect development from that time...look at some of the wingers we let pass through our fingers from 1994-2004...I don't want to explain too too deeply because there are some undrafted players involved, but I'm not sure I blame our scouting staff so much as I blame our development ability to keep this team competitive in spite of our money woes towards the end of the DPE...

In Morozov's 4th full season in the NHL he averaged 8:35 per game in ES time...that's a joke. What was he supposed to do? Or maybe the better question, what did he do to deserve that?

I mean, the Russians liked him...he played in the World Championships at 19 or 20, he was selected to play for the silver medalists in the first ever best-on-best Olympics at age 20...I'm surprised he didn't just bolt after the 2001 season...that probably would have cemented his place in Russian history even further...

[Rylan]

Mikey is making the arguments with numbers whereas I only would have had my eyeball test. But he is making the same case I would have.

And I tried to draft Schinkel because I didn't check to see if he had been picked