The Penguins inability to draft and develop players is a big worry

The Penguins inability to draft and develop players is a big worry

The Pittsburgh Penguins have been incredibly lucky with some of their draft picks in their history picking up once in a lifetime players twice in 1984 with Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby in 2005. They also benefited from picking Evgeni Malkin in 2004. All these picks were top picks so they are really slam dunks. I mean, you'd have to be mad not to select Crosby, Lemieux and Malkin when called up to the clock if available. The problem for the Pens is who they drafted outside of those players. There were a few players who have excelled, namely Jordan Staal, Kris Letang and Marc-Andre Fleury. But other than those top players there isn't a lot there.

When you look back at the previous Stanley Cup Winners there is a frequent recurrence which comes to the boil. They all have players on their team who they have drafted and developed and they have been able to rely on to make the difference throughout their seasons. In the last final between the New York Rangers and Los Angeles Kings last year there were 17 players playing for the team they were drafted by (11 for Los Angeles and 6 for New York Rangers). There was also one player, Brian Boyle, playing for New York after being drafted by Los Angeles. Below is a chart for the last 9 Stanley Cup Winners, going back to the Lockout and the number of players they had on their team drafted by themselves.

One thing we can immediately see is that the Anaheim Ducks got by with only 4 drafted players on their team and although that is an outlier we can see that there is a trend towards teams relying more on drafted players. This is in part due to them being cheaper if they're younger due to them potentially being on ELC's or due to them being players that have excelled with their development and are now either key players or important team players. Another thing we can take from the above graph is that the Detroit Red Wings have benefited greatly from their drafting and their scouts should take some series plaudits. They had 14 of the 25 players that were credited with a Stanley Cup. That's 56% which is a big number taken up by drafted players. 

So, what is the problem? Well, currently the Penguins have 9 players on their roster who have been drafted by the Penguins. They are Crosby, Malkin, Letang, Fleury, Scuderi, Lovejoy, Pouliot, Bennett and when healthy, Maatta. Of those the first two where slam dunk picks and Fleury was a 1st round overall. Outside of those Lovejoy has recently been acquired in the trade with Despres, Scuderi recently rejoined in 2013. 

Toffoli showing how drafting can work well

How do the Penguins fix this?

Well, I think they need to look at other models around the league. Some teams have a stockpile of good prospects such as Buffalo and Arizona but that is through them being poor teams which results in them being at the top of the table. To me the top five teams in the league, in no particular order at drafting and developing, are the Detroit Red Wings, Tampa Bay Lightning, Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings and the New York Islanders. That is an impressive list and I have already mentioned above how the  Los Angeles Kings were stocked with drafted players in their Stanley Cup winning teams. The question is, How they do it?

Well, unlike the Penguins they have patience and give players time to develop. They also draft the right players from the right leagues. Under the era of Ray Shero the Penguins drafted a fair number of Collegiate players from the NCAA or other leagues. Whilst they may have been promising prospects the big problem was that they often wouldn't be able to enter the system and link between the Penguins and Wilkes-Barre Penguins until they're around the age of 22. This means that you're waiting longer for players to be committed to the AHL or NHL teams compared to junior players who can be available to move to the AHL at the age of 20, as in the case of Matt Murray this season.

Matt Murray is a bright prospect excelling this year in Wilkes-Barre

An example to follow I believe would be that of the Tampa Bay Lightning. This season their best line is without a doubt the line of Palat-Johnson-Kucherov. Palat and Kucherov were drafted by the Lightning in 2011 (208th and 58th overall). Johnson was undrafted but was picked up by the Lightning and whilst there were originally questions about his small size (5ft 9) they gave him two season in the AHL with the Norfolk Admirals and the Syracuse Crunch to give him time to develop and adapt before giving him time in the NHL which he has taken with both hands and is now in a chasing pack for the Art Ross this season.

Compare that to how the Penguins handled Simon Despres. They drafted him in 2009 and he had no consistency as to where he was playing as he was constantly up and down which I have belief affected his development. I believe this because the AHL and NHL are two different being completely. The AHL is all about preparing the players for the NHL and giving the competition to improve to get to that level whilst the NHL is the pinnacle and about being able to handle the best that the game can throw at you. If you're going from one to the other without any clue of where you'll be next week it will affect you.

Beau Bennett in his Denver days

I think that the best thing the Penguins can do is expand their scouting network specifically in Europe. They have started drafting more Europeans recently with Kasperi Kapanen, Theodor Bleuger and Oskar Sundqvist in the past few years. I think the Penguins have missed out in the past by focusing their efforts on the NCAA prospects which hasn't really yielded a return that warrant it's pursuit. The only player I can think of who has done well and made it to the  NHL is Beau Bennett but even then he has been beset by injuries and right now is being mis-managed and misused by the Penguins coaching team. I hope that the Penguins can fix this problem in the coming years because when they exit their cup window it is going to be a lot harder if they don't. If they fix it they might, just might be able to keep it open that bit longer and have a prolonged run in the play-offs like Detroit has enjoyed over the past 20+ years.