Pittsburgh Penguins: Years Of Bad Drafting Has Led To Current Predicament

The Pittsburgh Penguins have struggled at both ends in 2015-16. Has subpar drafting and a lack of recognition of the strengths and deficiencies of the roster doomed the Crosby-Malkin era?

When you think of the Pittsburgh Penguins, one thing you most certainly do not think about is depth. There is little on the blueline, and while the forward position feels like a logjam at right wing, there hasn’t been much to write home about in 2015-16 from any forward not named Evgeni Malkin.

That’s not their only problem, but it’s certainly one of the bigger ones.

In a video blog for Puck Daddy, Greg Wyshynski discussed what he believes are five essential truths about the Pittsburgh Penguins. While he certainly seems to delight in the Pens misery, some of his points ring true.

"The Penguins screwed up their coaching situation."

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I don’t think anyone disagrees with this. Mike Johnston certainly doesn’t.

The growing sentiment on my Twitter feed and otherwise over the past few weeks has been a bit of retconning about how eager everyone was to be rid of Dan Bylsma.

From the way the Penguins allowed Bylsma to awkardly linger in limbo, to the subsequent hiring of Mike Johnston – a Western Hockey League junior hockey coach – to coach a team mostly devoid of young, moldable talent, one could certainly say Jim Rutherford and the Pens ownership might have gotten in over their heads.

With that said, though Mike Sullivan is the fourth option I do not find him to be a bad one. His in-your-face style may be precisely what this team has needed for some time.

The concern isn’t whether or not Mike Sullivan was the fourth (or only option), but whether he’ll be given the time, support, and most importantly the proper personnel that Mike Johnston was not.

If not then we’ll continue to see this team struggle.

"From 2007 to 2013 the Pittsburgh Penguins selected twenty two forwards in the draft. Their draft record in that time frame is atrocious."

Wyshynski notes that only two of those twenty two forwards have played more than 100 games in the NHL. Dustin Jeffrey (who now plays for the Arizona Coyotes AHL club in Springfield) and Beau Bennett.

This point can be extended even further to cover the assets lost in attempting to cash in on the Crosby-Malkin window. With the issues currently facing the defense under Mike Sullivan, it’s important to note that the Penguins have traded young defensive talent like Simon Despres, Scott Harrington, and Philip Samuelsson. Thanks to moves like those, among others, they have a blueline corps that probably keeps Marc-Andre Fleury up at night.

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There’s little doubt that Pens management were gifted Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby and have largely flubbed a large portion of their dealings and picks since.

"The Pittsburgh Penguins don’t know their own roster."

While this drumbeat has receded to some degree with the hiring of Sullivan and the beginning of the implementation of his system, it was painfully evident during the Johnston tenure that Rutherford built the roster for a coach other than the one he had behind the bench.

Greg Wyshynski posits that is very strange that Mike Johnston’s system called for a puck moving defenseman, but his cries were not heeded until just hours after he was shown the door. Then, during the first game of Sullivan’s tenure, Rob Scuderi took a plane ride to Chicago for Trevor Daley.

Next: What Does Head Coach Mike Sullivan Have To Work With?

Is that not the definition of bad management? Aren’t all of these points data points on a board telling us what we already knew?

From the back nine of the Ray Shero era to the empty calories of the Jim Rutherford tenure, Penguins fans have seen a team with two generational talents be reduced to an also-ran due to a lack of depth and development coupled ill-advised coaching moves.

It’s possible that the question Pens fans should have been asking all along was not, “Why isn’t Mike Johnston fired yet?”

Instead it should have been have been a louder chorus of “why was Jim Rutherford hired in the first place?”, coupled with a sprinkling of “and why is he still here?”