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Oh yeah, there’s a Draft coming up…..

by Tony on 06/17/09 at 10:53 AM ET
Comments (7)

Time sure flies when your team is busy winning a Cup.

Don’t look now, Penguins fans, but now that the Cup has been hoisted and the parade is done, it’s time to start focusing in on the NHL Draft and the start of free agency.  I’ll take a look at the UFA’s in the coming days.

Much like the Steelers have gotten used to in recent years, it’ll be a little bit of a wait in the first round for the Pens, picking 30th.

Look at it this way, at least the Pens have a 1st round pick this year, since last year’s was part of the trade package the Pens gave to Atlanta in the Marian Hossa trade at the deadline last season.

Here are the seven picks for the Penguins as it stands right now:

Round 1, #30
Round 2, #61
Round 3, #63 (acquired from Tampa Bay in the Ryan Malone/Gary Roberts rights deal.  Malone’s signing with Tampa was the condition of the Pens getting this pick)
Round 4, #120
Round 5, #122 (acquired from Tampa Bay in the trade that sent Michal Sersen to the Lightning)
Round 6, #180
Round 7, #210

The Penguins also traded two of their picks away, they are:

Round 3, #91 (to New York Islanders in the Bill Guerin trade.  The Penguins making the playoffs, then advancing past the first round of the playoffs and Guerin playing more than 50 percent of the games was the condition changing this pick from a 5th to 4th to a 3rd round pick.)
Round 5, #150 (to the New York Rangers via Toronto in the Hal Gill trade.  Pick originally went to Toronto, the Leafs then sent this pick to the Rangers in the Ryan Hollweg deal.)

Observations:

- I’m not going to speculate at all in terms of individual players.  Instead, I’m going to defer to my colleague at the Faceoff Factor, Jesse Marshall.  Jesse is without a doubt the best evaluator of prospects among Penguins bloggers.  Jesse has already posted some possible Penguins’ draft picks here. He plans on updating that list soon, as well.

- If you’re Ray Shero with that #1 pick, do you go for a winger ??  A defensive defenseman ??  I’ve seen several mock drafts, and they run the gammit in terms of positions.  I’ve even seen one where they predicted the Penguins would select goalie Mike Lee in the first round.  Wow.

- I like the fact that the Pens not only have the #61 in the second, but another at a high third rounder at #63.  Most likely will still be good prospects at that point of the draft.  That also goes, to a lesser extent of the #120 and #122 picks in the 4th and 5th picks, as well.

- Naturally, all of this is very tentative, pending any trades.  Who knows if Shero will roll the dice and try to move up in the first round.

Filed in: Pittsburgh Penguins | The Confluence | Permalink
 Tags: NHL-Hockey, Pittsburgh+Penguins,

Comments

In my mind, Shero should take best player among wingers and defencemen available. Not to mention centers capable of transitioning to wing with little effort. I would give a slight preference to wingers, because most of the quality winger(s) for Crosby and Malkin will probably have to come from within the system (beyond more or less imaginative trade scenarios). Therefore we need as many winger prospects in the system as possible without neglecting other positions completely.

The forthcoming period of the draft and free agency will be very interesting to watch.

Posted by Moq from Denmark on 06/17/09 at 10:09 AM ET

Tony, do you honestly believe the fans of Pittsburgh care about the draft since you’ve stopped getting your annual Top 5 pick?

***running away in serpintine pattern.

It’s just sour grapes...you’ll be getting them all year.  ‘Tis all in good fun, right?

Posted by Animal Drew from A Nightmare on Helm Street on 06/17/09 at 10:11 AM ET

LOL… Just watch the day after the draft, there will still be plenty of people that will be complaining about the picks....

Posted by Tony F from Virginia Beach, VA on 06/17/09 at 10:14 AM ET

AH wise guy Eh Drew!!!!  LOL!!!

Posted by Evilpens on 06/17/09 at 10:43 AM ET

Time sure flies when your team is busy winning a Cup

Tell us about it.

The good thing is, after four in twelve, you adjust.

Posted by Red Winger from Sault Ste. Marie on 06/17/09 at 11:56 AM ET

Just glad the Pens prevented it being 5 in 12, Winger…

Posted by Tony F from Virginia Beach, VA on 06/17/09 at 12:34 PM ET

AH wise guy Eh Drew!!!!  LOL!!!
Posted by Evilpens on 06/17/09 at 11:43 AM ET

I think you’ll find me to be the witty, smart allecky, little troll.  But I try and do it with a little respect...as little as possible.  Didn’t do it much to you guys all season because I’m not one for gloating, but for sh!t talking?  Now that’s a horse of a different color.

Oh and easy on the caps and exclamation points...they frighten me.

Posted by Animal Drew from A Nightmare on Helm Street on 06/17/09 at 02:20 PM ET

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Welcome to The Confluence, a Pittsburgh Penguins blog since 2006.  Originally at Blogspot, then at MVN, The Confluence has over 1000 articles reporting Penguins news as well as jumping on my soapbox to opine constructive Penguins criticism.  My posts are regularly linked by hockey websites such as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Empty Netters and Yahoo!’s Puck Daddy, and I’ve done guest blogger spots on such websites as the New York Times.  I invite you to spend a little time and peruse the archives at all of the sites for some of my better work.  I am a retired U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer, but don’t confuse me with my fellow Chief at A2Y.

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