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Pittsburgh Penguins: Preparing a Draft Day Eve Wishlist

By Matthew Rodrigopulle |
Jun 27, 2014; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Kasperi Kapanen poses for a photo with team officials after being selected as the number twenty-two overall pick to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the 2014 NHL Draft at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 27, 2014; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Kasperi Kapanen poses for a photo with team officials after being selected as the number twenty-two overall pick to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the 2014 NHL Draft at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

It’s the night before the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, and the Pittsburgh Penguins should have a lot on their minds.

Coming hot off of another Stanley Cup winning season, the Pittsburgh Penguins will be looking to continue building through the draft while moving assets that will keep them contending next season.

Pittsburgh Penguins
Pittsburgh Penguins /

Pittsburgh Penguins

How will they do this? Well after the expansion draft, the Penguins will really have to be careful with their assets and picks. Choosing the right prospects and making the right trades can surely help. So with draft day tomorrow, here’s what I want the Penguins to target.

Defensive Prospects

Simply put, our defensive prospect pool is looking a bit bare. There’s promise with Derrick Pouliot and Lukas Bengtsson, but other than that we can use a defensive boost.

It would be nice to see a few defenceman picked in this year’s draft. You can never have too many, and if anything we can trade them down the line.

At Least One Goalie Prospect

With the loss of Marc-Andre Fleury comes the addition of Tristan Jerry. Jerry will most likely become the newest backup goaltender for Matt Murray. This means one more prospect has been promoted to the show, so we need to restock.

Keeping the goaltending cupboard is important. It’s hard to tell how a goaltender develops, so it’s safer to draft one goaltender in this draft. If we can come away with one with promise, I’ll be happy.

Small Trades Only

Honestly, the Penguins aren’t in that bad of a position going forward. We have a lot of players to resign this year, so that should be our main focus. We have a great team in front of us, and we shouldn’t make any unnecessary trades.

If we are going to make trades, especially involving draft picks, they should involve prospects, other picks, or some arrangement of a trade that ends up with us having more cap space. We need to be wise here, and not fall to the trading frenzy that is bound to happen.

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