Pittsburgh Penguins Talk: Grading the Penguins 2017 NHL Draft

The 2017 NHL Entry Draft has come and gone and the Pittsburgh Penguins have made their mark.

Trading away the 31st pick was one thing, but the Pittsburgh Penguins had other plans in mind when it came to drafting. The Penguins drafted six players, four of whom were defenceman, and were ready to set the path for the next generation of Penguins stars.

Pittsburgh Penguins

In the end, the Penguins laid the foundation for their future and selected some players. We don’t know how well they will pan out, but we can guess based on what we know. This week on Penguins Talk, we will be judging and grading how the Penguins did at the draft.

Melissa Nelson

GRADE: B

The team’s main goal with the 2017 entry draft was to beef up defensive depth—four of the Pens’ six picks were blueliners. This was a smart move by GM Jim Rutherford. The Penguins have suffered a lot of injuries on the blue line—most notably, losing Kris Letang for the entire 2017 playoffs. The depth guys—guys like Cameron Gaunce, Chad Ruhwedel, and David Warsofsky—have done a great job of stepping up. The Pens also took four defensemen in the 2016 draft.

Also similar to last year, the Pens did not have a pick in the first round. This year, the Penguins traded their first round pick (31st overall) and center Oskar Sundqvist to the St. Louis blues in exchange for a second round pick (51st overall) and winger Ryan Reaves. Reaves is a bruiser—in 80 games played last year, he accrued 7 goals, 13 points, and 104 PIM. In the 2017 playoffs, where the Blues were eliminated by the Nashville Predators in the second round, Reaves had no points and 8 PIM in 11 games.

The fact that players like Reaves still have a job in the NHL is disappointing. The game has been moving towards speed and skill, not pugnacity—as it should be. But the Penguins need a player like Reaves to help protect players like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in today’s league.

Don’t expect to see any of the 2017 picks on the NHL roster anytime soon. These guys are pure depth, and have a few years to go before working their way up to the show. But the Pens have proved time and time again that defensive depth is crucial to winning cups, and Rutherford hasn’t steered the team wrong yet.

Shane Lunnen

Grade:  C

The biggest talking point from the Pittsburgh Penguins draft this year was the trade that sent Oscar Sundqvist and their first round 31^st pick to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for Ryan Reaves and their second round 51^st overall pick.   Many in the Penguin fan base expressed their displeasure with this move, but we should let this play out first.  Reaves is a fourth line winger who plays physical and is coming off his best season points wise.  Trading away the last pick in the first round of a relatively weak draft to drop 20 spots is not as big of a deal as some fans made it out to be.

The Penguins used their second round pick to draft defenseman Zachary Lauzon from the QMJHL.  From what I’ve read about him, he’s a good skater and can move the puck.  Their third round pick was defensemen Clayton Phillips.  He was one of the youngest players in this year’s draft and has not even played at the college level yet.  He’ll be attending the University of Minnesota in another year after junior hockey.  He is incredibly green but has a lot of time for development.

The late rounds were spent on a winger, a center and two defensemen.  Pretty standard drafting for the Penguins and for most of these guys, a roster spot in Wilkes-Barre is the ceiling.  Overall with the 2017 draft class being on the weaker end, it was a middle of the road draft for the Penguins.  It wasn’t flashy, but there wasn’t a draft killing move either.