Fifth Avenue Forum

I don't think you bring Marino back without getting rid of Reirden first. It was pretty obvious that he took a step back year 2 because he went from having Jacques Martin coach defense to Reirden.

If you can get any positive asset for Graves, you do it.

it's obviously not a serious proposal, but I'd do it in a heartbeat. In fact, they - or any other team - can have Graves for free.

That said, **** Reirden. Fire the sun into him.

Positive asset? Free? I'd be happy if they paid to move him

That said, **** Reirden. Fire the sun into him.

If only

Losing after leading is, of course, the more pertinent stat:

https://morehockeystats.com/teams/strikebacks

I'm actually surprised it's only been 6 times leading by 2+

13 times leading by 1... that's just because they can't score and open the lead up (PP, lack of depth scoring)

Pierre-Luc Létourneau-Leblond syndrome.

Plays with a couple of Pens prospects at Wisconsin...here is my report from 2020 on De St. Phalle...I haven't really tracked him since, to be fair...I doubt much has changed considering he's taking a two-year AHL deal.

Mathieu De St. Phalle (RW) – A brilliant finale to a long USHL career for Mathieu De St. Phalle: he was
the lone 60 point-getter in the league and was named a Second-Team All-Star. The veteran of 169 USHL
games finishes his junior career with 138 points – including 107 in his last 100 contests. He broke out the
previous season as an 18 year old after being traded from Omaha to Chicago – his third USHL team. He
also took a different mental approach to the game with the help some professionals in the field of sport
science that paid dividends.

De St. Phalle’s skill level and poise with the puck have certainly improved this season. He is holding on to
the puck and making some really creative plays with it. The quality of his passes is very good usually,
he’s finding some pretty advanced seams but it’s the timing of the passes that is really remarkable. The
game looks to have really slowed down for him and the clock in his head is really in-sync with how the
game is being played around him. Another really nice playmaking feature for the Wisconsin commit is
the disguising of his passes. So many of them look like they’re going to originate as shots, and it freezes
goalie and defenseman alike allowing him to put it right on the tape of a forward across the net-line. He
was responsible for plenty of “finishing passes” this season, referring to lateral passes made from within
the mid- or lowest-layer of the offensive zone that cross the net-line for a scoring chance. Naturally, the
player who finished 2 nd in the league in goals can also shoot pretty well, but he certainly looks like a
better playmaker than a finisher. His shot isn’t overpowering and he needs to be in tight to score most
of his goals. We have seen him hit a moving puck, particularly on the power play, with some degree of
success. The amount of finishing moves he owns has grown, but there are so many weapons on this
Chicago team that it takes some of the focus off of him and it allows opportunities that may well be
tougher to come by as he moves up. De St. Phalle has a quick, fairly short stride with good foot churn,
but his skating only really grades out to average overall, maybe a tick above. He just doesn’t have that
next gear to get loose. His edgework is decent, but at 5’9”, 160 pounds he doesn’t have enough oomph
to be able to dig in and lean on players or drive the net to completion. He’ll sometimes try to initiate
contact, especially for opponents in or coming out of board battles and he does well for himself
considering his vitals, but they also feel like hits where the recipient has little ability or expectation to
brace for impact. His defensive and penalty kill games are not something that we would consider
consistently positive. He typically back tracks with some effort, but he lacks the details that we’d like
from an experienced player like this. His stick positioning and positional discipline wavered throughout
the year. Sometimes he impressively covered all the way back to his net and tied up the right stick.
Other times, he was more vulnerable to plays being made through him and in lanes adjacent to him. To
our eye, he played better defense when paired up with Brendan Brisson than with 2021 eligible Mackie
Samoskevich.

The skill level, production, and even the technical improvement are undeniable. He’s not
too far below a 7 in terms of skill. However, it’s much tougher for a smaller player who isn’t overly
dynamic on his feet to grab an NHL roster spot than it is for a double-passover to dominate on a
historically good junior team.

IQ: 6 Work: 6 Skill: 6 Skate: 5 Phys: 4

Yeah, I'm really over April Fool's Day. It's actually 2-3 days on social media because of time zones.

Mathieu De St. Phallus, if you translate it from French.

Grandson of Niki.

Those are math guy(s) too...

maybe we'd release him, another team would pick him up and he'd play 83 total games this season

The Pens are said to be among a handful of teams in on college standout Collin Graf. Any notes on him, @mikey?

He's not very good. He's not athletic. He can't score against relevant teams at the college level...I don't see him being an NHLer.

why the hype then?

That's how it goes with NCAA free agents...people don't watch it, they see a stat line or the fact that he was a champion or whatever the hook is...so they get all excited about the "free asset! free asset!" but how many of them ever work out? Is Drew O'Connor the best one in the 5, 6, 7 years?

This Graf kid is getting the same hype as Taro Hirose and the result, I think, will be slightly worse...

Pionk has turned out pretty solid. Not sure how long ago that was.

Sheary was productive as well.

Edit - ERod still plays in the NHL.