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Pittsburgh Penguins: Final Cuts Completed – Lineup Predictions

By Mike Necciai

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Pittsburgh Penguins General Manager Jim Rutherford met with the media earlier today and announced five more cuts from the Pens’ NHL roster. Also, he announced the group that we’ll see on opening night.

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There aren’t many surprises on the final roster and the Pittsburgh Penguins faithful got their wish with Daniel Sprong earning at least nine games at this level. Whether or not he sticks around past that will depend on multiple things, his performance obviously being at the top of that list.

Other notable moves included Derrick Pouliot being sent to the AHL and Sergei Gonchar getting released from his PTO. The team would like to keep Gonchar around in a different capacity, most likely to assist with Sergei Plotnikov and the young defensive corps but it’s up to him to decide if he wants to accept or look for a roster spot elsewhere. Also, Eric Fehr and Tom Kuhnhackl will begin the season on long-term injury-reserve.

Pittsburgh Penguins Opening Night Lineup

According to Josh Yohe of DKonPittsburghSports.Com, Rutherford was very transparent in saying that Daniel Sprong will be in the lineup in Dallas. So, like Yohe alludes to, that likely means that Bobby Farnham, who also made the opening night roster, will be the healthy scratch.

The question now becomes how the lineup looks in Dallas on Thursday. Decisions still loom on where each of these guys fit, not to mention how much more convoluted it gets once Eric Fehr returns. I imagine it will shake out something like this…

Chris Kunitz – Sidney Crosby – Phil Kessel
Sergei Plotnikov – Evgeni Malkin – Patric Hornqvist
David Perron – Nick Bonino – Pascal Dupuis
Daniel Sprong – Matt Cullen – Beau Bennett

Olli Maatta – Kris Letang
Brian Dumoulin – Ian Cole
Adam Clendening – Ben Lovejoy
Rob Scuderi and Tim Erixon in the press box

Of course, I’d expect shuffling between Perron and Plotnikov until things are completely figured out. Preseason is the starting point for evaluations but it continues into November. Mike Johnston would like to have his lineup set and consistent as soon as possible, as he doesn’t particularly like to change things up often. Look for a lot of shuffling early in the season and for things to settle down by December. Interestingly enough, this is very similar to the roster I predicted very recently, with a surprise jump by Plotnikov thanks to a great second half of camp.

Apr 1, 2015; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman

Rob Scuderi

(4) at the face-off circle against the Philadelphia Flyers during the first period at the CONSOL Energy Center. The Flyers won 4-1. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Jim Rutherford stated that Rob Scuderi has earned his way into their top-six defensemen. But, to be blunt, I don’t believe him.

Scuderi picked up where he left off last season with his performance and that isn’t a good thing. He looked slow, constantly behind the play and caught out of position. He was on the ice for what seemed like every goal-against in the games he dressed and it’s clear that father time has caught up to him in a big way. So, why the vote of confidence?

You can’t publicly bash a defenseman by saying “we only kept him because we have to”. If Rutherford is indeed trying to move him at some point, they need to help his value in any way they can. That will likely mean time in and out of the lineup but I can’t imagine they actually see him fitting in the top-six every night.

Sprong’s ‘Tryout’ Isn’t Over

First, congratulations to Daniel Sprong on making this roster. He walked into a locker room with arguably more NHL-caliber offensive depth than any other organization in the league and stood out in a big way. You may remember that I wrote a piece discussing Matt Cullen and implied that signing veterans doesn’t mean youth can’t make it, but simply means they have to earn it. While that piece was directed more at Oskar Sundqvist and Cullen, Sprong did exactly that. He earned it.

However, that doesn’t mean Sprong is here for the long haul. Eric Fehr returning in November means that a roster spot will have to open up for him. Sprong can be sent to juniors with no concern about waivers and it will also mean preserving a year of his entry-level contract.

It will be interesting to watch how this plays out and to be honest, even if Sprong is sent to juniors after his nine games, the Penguins have to be ecstatic about the player that fell to them at 46th overall in this summer’s NHL Entry Draft. The Pittsburgh Penguins are a team that went from a depleted group of wingers to multiple legit top-six forwards and a prospect that looks poised to be a top-tier scorer in this league.

The five players cut this afternoon are as follows…

Derrick Pouliot
Jean-Sebastien Dea
Bryan Rust
David Warsofsky
Kevin Porter

Next: Cautious Optimism the Theme for 2015-16

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