Pittsburgh Penguins: What's The Deal With Derrick Pouliot?
As a part of the trade that sent Jordan Staal to the Carolina Hurricanes, the Pittsburgh Penguins got the eighth overall pick of the 2012 NHL, in which they used on defenseman Derrick Pouliot.
One of the most explosive skaters in Canadian Junior Hockey, Pouliot scored over 200 points during his time as a member of the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League.
Since going pro, however, things have run far from smoothly, with Pouliot struggling to find his way in becoming an NHL regular. Between some questioning his conditioning and work ethic, straight down to his horrid play in his own end, Pouliot’s time to establish himself in the NHL is running out.
What is also running out, is the time that he can pass back and forth between the NHL and AHL without being exposed to waivers. As in this is his last year before he will have to be offered up the rest of the league before he can go to the AHL.
Big deal right? He’s on the NHL roster now, and it doesn’t look like the Penguins have any plans of having him play any other role than that of a seventh defenseman.
But 1-6 the Penguins are pretty well set on the blue line, and the only conceivable way that Pouliot gets into the lineup is if someone gets hurt.
Other than that, it is nothing but the press box for a former top ten pick, who is really still young for a defenseman.
Which really doesn’t make a bit of sense.
The Penguins can send him to the minors without putting him through waivers, why not do it? Let him get some playing time. Let him work out the kinks in his game the only place it can be worked out, on the ice.
Have him pull a Simon Despres, and tell him to completely focus on the defensive of his game. The Penguins could have very well had David Warsofsky be their seventh defenseman, who played well in his time in Pittsburgh last year. He fits the role more than someone with the upside that Pouliot has.
Mike Sullivan and Jim Rutherford hasn’t done much wrong in their time in Pittsburgh, and they probably have a final plan in place when it comes to Pouliot, but at this current time, it doesn’t make much sense for him to do nothing but set in the press box.
That is, unless the team has already made their final decision on him, and this is what the Penguins really feel his value is at now. But for a player with that offensive potential, who was misutilized (played mostly with Ben Lovejoy last season, had the second lowest ZS%), I have a hard time believing that.
