Quoting: pharrow
These guys practically don't exist in summer free agency. The college guys are almost all signed or committed for the fall, and anyone let go by a team who's young enough to still have "time to develop" isn't going to outperform a known entity. You're left with overseas coinflips (which are a nice gamble but not something you build a team around) and garbage guys like the ones who fill out development rosters. If you want to argue for different veterans that's fine, but you're arguing against having guys who fill the veteran role entirely and that's asinine.
I don't really think you are getting the argument. I know they aren't going to find 3 of these guys at once. But like I said, if you bring 1 in a year, you don't have that problem. And they don't do that. It's not like there are not players to be signed. From the NCAA Jimmy Schuldt, Bobby Nardella, Brady Keeper, Grant Hutton, Cooper Zech, were all signed.
Mattias Goransson is from the NCAA he's still not signed. He played good minutes for UMass-Lowell.
Derek Daschke is at UO miami, unsigned, but probably returning to school but still unsigned.
Nick Wolff is unsigned....which is a prime candidate of someone that could sign. He was a solid player for Minnesota-Duluth.
Colton Poolman of North Dakota.
Collin Saccoman is a decent prospect.
Connor Mackey might be a guy who at 22 could be interested in jumping over for a chance.
I mean that's just out the NCAA. There are at least 3 guys there who I think could put up minutes in the AHL. Especially Wolff who has really good size and speed.
So lets not pretend they can't find guys. There are players out there. They need a chance. You will never know though if you constantly only keep signing 28-29 year old players.
The truth is a lot of those players are coming from schools with solid programs that play good competition. It's not a huge jump to the AHL level.
SIgn one a year and then add your picks, and over 4 years or so you will fill out a defense core. But if they continue to sign 28 year olds who will never make that jump, they will never have a prospect pool that looks like anything.
Just look at what they have done with the forward group. 8 of the 14 are 23 and younger. The oldest is 27, There are only 3 guys there older than 26, most of which probably won't be back after this year. Clearly, they want the younger players there to develop and build a prospect pool. It should be no different for the defense. Believe me, the younger players know they have a job to do there too. It can't be all about the forwards.
There are older players in europe as well that are 23-24 who have the skill level to help at the AHL level and possibly advance. Riikola wasn't an anomaly in a bubble. They are there. You have to be willing to bring them in. Instead they sign 28 year old guys to 2 year contracts. So now out of your 6 open spots you got 2 guys there with no potential to develop.
And if they keep signing guys like that it will stay that way. At some point you have to make the commitment to say, hey we want to bring in 1-2 young guys a year. They haven't made that commitment and it shows. Because if they did, their D core would be under 26 years old and cycling those who can't make it out after they are hitting their prime to bring in someone else who can have a shot. Let some other team horde old players.[/quote]
Let me be clear. I have zero problem with Pittsburgh signing young guys out of college or overseas in the hope that maybe they turn into something. In fact Pittsburgh has been one of the better teams at doing that the past few years, finding Conor Sheary and nabbing two Hobey Baker finalists in Ethan Prow and Zach Aston-Reese. Pittsburgh scouts and signs these guys all the time, and in the last two years they heavily recruited top free agents that went elsewhere like Brickley and Butcher.
You've conflated the fact that Pittsburgh hasn't signed these guys with the idea that they have no desire to, and further muddied things by suggesting that younger UFA's and overseas signings occupy the same space on a roster as veterans. If the Pens has signed a guy or two out of college this past spring, they'd still sign guys like Czuczman or Trotman to fill out the roster because the AHL team needs talent to win and veterans to lead, and without a consistent flow of drafted players who can turn into those veterans over the years there's no other substitute. The Penguins have had two or three UFA defensemen every year since the drafting pipeline on D dried up because you cannot routinely find and recruit guys that are skilled enough to replace established AHL players.
Pittsburgh is out there every year looking for young talent, and almost every year they bring someone in. They can still sign a free agent vet
and bring in a guy from europe or the KHL. They won't find anyyone from college because college guys really don't turn pro in the summer, but they'll be scouting every potential guy who wants to turn next spring and they'll probabky sign somebody good. All that is great and a sign of a strong organization, but your suggestion that the Penguins should rarely or never sign veterans is wrong. You'll never recruit and hit on enough undrafted UFA's to ice a competent roster, and the without the consistent talent of draft picks you can't run a youthful defense.
Let's say the Penguins had managed to sign Joe Duszak a few months ago and he was a lock for the AHL. The defense with him and without vets would look like:
Almari-Duszak
Abt-Birks
Lizotte-Erkamps
That defense is going to get caved in, every night, all season, and that's before Pittsburgh takes a guy or two. You can even add another guy like Jimmy Schuldt, but the team won't be deep enough or talented enough to work. Now the only ways to improve that unit and give the forwards a working defense are:
1.) Hop in your time machine and get Jim Rutherford to keep his picks and draft better, or
2.) Sign some free agents
I would absolutely love to see another youth movement on defense in Wilkes-Barre. 2011-2015 were some of the most fun teams to watch defensively, and they were lights out for incredible stretches. But you're not going to get that through free agency, the numbers aren't there and the talent isnt there.