Penguins Pre-Draft Talk

By Andy Rummel

When the Penguins pick with the 30th and final pick of the first round, the pressure will still be on to find a very good future player for the big squad. But even though it’s in the first round, there are no guarantees. As a matter of fact, the chances are against this player even becoming a fringe NHL player. Under a system devised by Scott Cullen of tsn.ca, he rated all of the first round draft choices over the last 30 years on a scale of 1-10, 10 being a generational player like Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretztky, and a 1 being no NHL games ever. A ranking of 4 is a ‘Fringe NHLer’, and a 3 is a ‘Very Good Minor Leaguer’. The 30th pick averages out to be a 3.20. Not very inspiring, is it?

The Penguins have a lot of defensemen and bottom 6 wingers. The organizational needs pretty much focus on getting potential high-end talent, especially goal scorers more so than playmakers. The common refrain is ‘wingers for Crosby and Malkin’.

Mr. Shero even stated that he was not going to trade away draft picks near the trading deadline last year since he felt the need to continue building the farm system. He’s made a great start in doing so, and I might even argue that he brought the Pens from the very bottom of the league to the middle. I hope that his picks in the upcoming draft continue that trend upwards.

Listed below are the picks that prognosticators on other websites have made. One can see that there’s no clear consensus for the Pens. There’s just so much that could happen with picks 1-29. My guess is that they Penguins might trade up for either Zach Budish or Landon Ferraro, or remain where they are for Carl Klingberg from Sweden. Mr. Shero has been playing this draft very tight to the vest, pretty much the way he handles all situations.

Zach Budish

Ht/Wt:6.02/230 lbs

Position:C/RW

Drafted From:Edina HS (Minn.)



Landon Ferraro

Ht/Wt:5.11/165 lbs

Position:RW

Drafted From:Red Deer (WHL)



Carl Klingberg

Ht/Wt:6.02/191 lbs

Position:LW

Drafted From:V. Frolunda Jr

Here’s the list of what other people see happening….

• Adam Kimelman (NHL.com) - Carl Klingberg
• Brad Holland (NHL.com) - Kyle Palmieri
• Shane Malloy (TSN) - Peter Holland
• Ryan Kennedy (THN)- Stefan Elliott, D, Saskatoon, WHL
• Gare Joyce (ESPN)- Calvin De Haan
• HF staff writers- Jeremy Morin
• HF moderators- Tomas Tatar
• myNHLdraft.com - Tim Erixon
• NHLdraftsite.com - Louis Leblanc
• CSB Final NA - #30 Chris Brown (doesnt take into affect the Europeans)
• THN #30 - Marcus Johansson
• ISS #30 - Richard Panik
• McKeen's #30 - Tim Erixon
• Bob MacKenzie's #30 - Drew Shore

Posted in: 2009 draft,Penguins