The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are the AHL affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Pittsburgh does take care of its minor league affiliate, but the primary focus has always rightly been the enhancement of the Pittsburgh Penguins, not the AHL Penguins.
This usually means that players in Wilkes-Barre on NHL contracts, get traded away.
Sometimes the return is for another NHL contract playing in the AHL and sometimes it isn’t.
Phil Tomasino, Danton Heinen, Sam Poulin and Valtteri Puustinen were all with the AHL Penguins and traded away so far this season in separate transactions.
Sam Poulin was flipped with Tristan Jarry in a trade to Vancouver for Stuart Skinner.
Danton Heinen was traded to Columbus for Egor Chinakov. Chinakov has done well with the Penguins.
Phil Tomasino was traded to Philadelphia for Igor Zamula. Zamula was assigned to Wilkes-Barre, never reported and had his contract terminated freeing up an NHL contract for the Penguins.
Valtteri Puustinen was traded to Colorado for Ilya Solovyov. Now Solovyov hasn’t had enough of a look in Pittsburgh to make a call on whether it was a “good” trade or not.
But do you sense a pattern here? The Penguins shed the Jarry contact, get a diamond in the rough player in Chinakov and shed an NHL contract with the termination of Zamula. This is a huge benefit for Pittsburgh but comes at the expense of Wilkes-Barre because all four players traded are still in the top 12 in scoring for the AHL team.
It sucks if you are a regular fan in Wilkes-Barre, but in reality, those four had no real future in Pittsburgh and their NHL careers have met a “dead end” in Pittsburgh, so they were expendable.
Now, let’s take a look at the current construct of NHL contacted players on Coal Street and examine what the likelihood of a trade could be. All mentions of player contact statuses is from Puckpedia.com
No Chance in Hell
G Sergei Murashov – He’s their future in goal and something special. He’s not going anywhere.
D Harrison Brunicke – Looked rough in the AHL as they were trying to decide to keep him in the NHL or not, but they rightly sent him back to juniors. He’s not going anywhere either.
F Rutger McGroarty – I want to add a forward in this group and so McGroarty gets the “safe” tag. They seem to like him, he fits in well but makes too many dumb mistakes in the NHL from time to time so since he is waiver exempt, he is in Wilkes-Barre. He’s also getting $950K a year at the NHL level.
Blockbusters Brewing
F Tristan Broz – I can see it, in a package with a lot of other players in exchange for a lot of other players. I picked Broz over McGroarty here based off of the NHL work they both have this season. Broz debuted this season but it was one game and right back to the minors. He’s vulnerable, but it would need to be a blockbuster deal. He’s also 23 and McGroarty is 21.
D Owen Pickering – I don’t think he is developing the way they want him to. He’s been passed over for defensive recalls and when he’s been up hasn’t lit the world on fire. He’s going to be the next Derrick Pouliot if he isn’t careful. Again, he could be that “prospect in the wrong system” that gets thrown in with a bunch of other players.
G Joel Blomqvist – I think he’s an NHL goaltender, but clearly he’s been passed by Sergei Murashov. Still though, I don’t think he’s given away for nothing. It would take a block buster.
For the Right Price
F Avery Hayes – Hasn’t played in the NHL yet but that won’t stop a scout with clout to convince an NHL GM somewhere to make a sweet deal to GM Kyle Dubas and take Hayes off their hands for the right price.
Throw Ins
F’s Ville Koivunen, Boko Imama, Joona Koppanen, Rafaël Harvey-Pinard; D Alex Alexyev – These guys are all on expiring contracts, Koivunen and Alexyev are restricted free agents. Not that Kyle Dubas would, but he could.
Sorry, Not Interested!
F Tanner Howe – he’s been practicing with Wilkes-Barre and should begin his pro career very soon. Unless they have scouts at practice, there’s no interest in him.
D’s Daniel Laatsch, Chase Pietila, Finn Harding, Emil Pieniniemi, Phil Kemp – Laatch (23) is currently hurt, Pietila is 21, Harding and Pieniniemi are 20. Kemp is 26 and the captain of the AHL team. They are still “prospects” but for Kemp. I like Harding’s trajectory the most and haven’t seen any of Pieniniemi’s work yet because he’s been in Wheeling. I don’t think any of these guys are commanding any interest at all from other NHL teams, but you could easily “throw in” a few of them if you were looking to move on, I just don’t see it.
Paying Out the String
G Filip Larsson – he’s 27 and can’t crack the AHL lineup and in purgatory because he hasn’t been assigned to Wheeling. No one is taking on $775,000 for a guy like this. He’s UFA at the end of the season.
Please for the Love of God Get Rid of This Guy
D Matt Dumba – Waived to the AHL and costing them $2.6M a year, there’s no NHL GM in his right mind that would take on this contract unless they want to get fired or play an April Fools joke. The Penguins would love to get rid of the guy but can’t because of that albatross of a contract. He’s also a UFA at the end of the season.
The rest of them not mentioned (draft picks mainly) could be considered “throw ins” or “for the right price” players but haven’t had any kind of impact in Wilkes-Barre so it would just be seen as business from the NHL team with no affect on the AHL franchise.
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