2024-2025 Season Random Penguins Fodder

[FLPensFan]

One thing of note watching these playoffs:

--The Stars "smallest" d-man is 6'2, 200lbs. They have 2 d-men 6'5 (Petrovic) or over (Bischel)
--The Oilers...6'1, 328 lbs is their smallest d-man. They have 3 guys that are 6'2, a 6'3, 6'4, and 6'5 d-man as well.
--The Panthers have 6'6 Mikkola, 6'4 Ekblad and Jones, and a few 6'1 and 6 foot d-men
--The Leafs have a 6'5, 6'4, 6'3, 6'2, and 2 6'1 d-men
--The Capitals have Rasmus Sandin at 5'11, two 6'3 and one 6'4 d-men.
--The Jets have a 6'7 and two 6'4 d-men
--Vegas has 6'6, pair of 6'4, pair of 6'3 d-men
--Hurricanes have the smallest d-corp remaining in the playoffs...a 6'5, 6'3, and 6'1, plus 3 d-men at 5'11

The Penguins dressed 13 d-men this year:
--6'7 Desharnais is gone
--6'5 Graves has been trash
--6'5 Petterson is gone
--6'4 Pickering only played a little
--6'4 St. Ivany struggled and went to AHL
--6'3 Timmins is new; should be retained
--6'2 Clurman isn't a good go forward option
--6'2 POJ was not good and should not be brought back
--6'2 Kolyachonok was good early then banished by Sullivan; should be retained

Karlsson is 6 foot, Letang is 6 foot, Shea is 6'1, Grzelcyk was 5'10"

The Penguins desperately need to add some skilled d-men with some size. The guys that we did have, with Pettersson the exception, weren't very good.

[Daniel]

One thing of note watching these playoffs:

--The Stars "smallest" d-man is 6'2, 200lbs. They have 2 d-men 6'5 (Petrovic) or over (Bischel)
--The Oilers...6'1, 328 lbs is their smallest d-man. They have 3 guys that are 6'2, a 6'3, 6'4, and 6'5 d-man as well.
--The Panthers have 6'6 Mikkola, 6'4 Ekblad and Jones, and a few 6'1 and 6 foot d-men
--The Leafs have a 6'5, 6'4, 6'3, 6'2, and 2 6'1 d-men
--The Capitals have Rasmus Sandin at 5'11, two 6'3 and one 6'4 d-men.
--The Jets have a 6'7 and two 6'4 d-men
--Vegas has 6'6, pair of 6'4, pair of 6'3 d-men
--Hurricanes have the smallest d-corp remaining in the playoffs...a 6'5, 6'3, and 6'1, plus 3 d-men at 5'11

The Penguins dressed 13 d-men this year:
--6'7 Desharnais is gone
--6'5 Graves has been trash
--6'5 Petterson is gone
--6'4 Pickering only played a little
--6'4 St. Ivany struggled and went to AHL
--6'3 Timmins is new; should be retained
--6'2 Clurman isn't a good go forward option
--6'2 POJ was not good and should not be brought back
--6'2 Kolyachonok was good early then banished by Sullivan; should be retained

Karlsson is 6 foot, Letang is 6 foot, Shea is 6'1, Grzelcyk was 5'10"

The Penguins desperately need to add some skilled d-men with some size. The guys that we did have, with Pettersson the exception, weren't very good.

Pickering 6'4
Brunicke 6'3
Radim Mrtka 6'6
Jackson Smith 6'3

You want youth and size? There you go. Very realistic top 4 in 2027-28

[FLPensFan]

One thing of note watching these playoffs:

--The Stars "smallest" d-man is 6'2, 200lbs. They have 2 d-men 6'5 (Petrovic) or over (Bischel)
--The Oilers...6'1, 328 lbs is their smallest d-man. They have 3 guys that are 6'2, a 6'3, 6'4, and 6'5 d-man as well.
--The Panthers have 6'6 Mikkola, 6'4 Ekblad and Jones, and a few 6'1 and 6 foot d-men
--The Leafs have a 6'5, 6'4, 6'3, 6'2, and 2 6'1 d-men
--The Capitals have Rasmus Sandin at 5'11, two 6'3 and one 6'4 d-men.
--The Jets have a 6'7 and two 6'4 d-men
--Vegas has 6'6, pair of 6'4, pair of 6'3 d-men
--Hurricanes have the smallest d-corp remaining in the playoffs...a 6'5, 6'3, and 6'1, plus 3 d-men at 5'11

The Penguins dressed 13 d-men this year:
--6'7 Desharnais is gone
--6'5 Graves has been trash
--6'5 Petterson is gone
--6'4 Pickering only played a little
--6'4 St. Ivany struggled and went to AHL
--6'3 Timmins is new; should be retained
--6'2 Clurman isn't a good go forward option
--6'2 POJ was not good and should not be brought back
--6'2 Kolyachonok was good early then banished by Sullivan; should be retained

Karlsson is 6 foot, Letang is 6 foot, Shea is 6'1, Grzelcyk was 5'10"

The Penguins desperately need to add some skilled d-men with some size. The guys that we did have, with Pettersson the exception, weren't very good.

Pickering 6'4
Brunicke 6'3
Radim Mrtka 6'6
Jackson Smith 6'3

You want youth and size? There you go. Very realistic top 4 in 2027-28

I don't see anybody in that group as a top pairing guy. Also, size is one thing. Using it to your advantage is another. I've never really seen Pickering as a "punishing" type of defender, and one of the knocks on Mrtka is he doesn't use his size enough to his advantage.

We need a big bodied defenseman that can skate, put up modest numbers, and uses the body. A good example of this would be MacKenzie Weegar. While he is only 6 foot even, he was 3rd in hits by a defensemen while putting up 8 goals and 47 points in the regular season.