Scott Wilson scored a goal.
In and of itself, naturally, that was no big deal. Even if it was his first in the NHL. Even if it was the eventual winner in the Penguins' more-important-than-it-felt 6-3 romp over the Red Wings on this Thursday night at Consol Energy Center.
It was still, at its root, just another goal. Nice pass out of the corner by Conor Sheary. Characteristically ambivalent defense by Detroit defenseman Mike Green. Crisp finish by Wilson through the wickets of Petr Mrazek.
Yep. That was it. Nothing more.
Except, maybe, if one steps back for a broader perspective. Which is to say, take a good, hard look at this:
See any particularly powerful pattern up there?
No, not the two third-rounders, the fourth-rounder, the seventh-rounder and the undrafted guy currently constituting the third and fourth lines. I'm talking about what isn't on there. You know, first-rounders and second-rounders. Truly elite prospects. The type of youngsters who make the future endlessly bright.
Ray Shero took care of that, of course. In his eight drafts as GM, 2006-13, he selected 50 total players, and only six became NHL regulars: Jordan Staal, Robert Bortuzzo, Jake Muzzin (but only after Shero cut him early in his career and he blossomed with the Kings), Simon Despres, Beau Bennett (pending the occasional medical miracle), and Olli Maatta. He further stuck it to his successor, Jim Rutherford, by trading away pick after pick or, worse, viewing picks as trading chips even before they were made.
Now, Rutherford didn't help the prospect cause by trading a first-rounder for David Perron and a second-rounder for Daniel Winnik, not to mention trading first-rounders Despres and Kasperi Kapanen, regardless of how one feels about those returns. The cupboard was made that much barer.
Bottom line: The Penguins' system bottomed out.
Except in one regard.
"The development people that this organization has are just unbelievable," Wilson was telling me after this game. "I go back to my draft year and, in all honesty, I didn't think I'd get drafted at all. When I did, my agent called me and told me it was Pittsburgh, I asked him if that was good. He told me I couldn't be going to a better place, that they had some of the best development people in the business."
Some names have changed. Tom Fitzgerald, who followed Shero to the Devils last summer, held the lead role in development until then, but Bill Guerin and Mark Recchi invested countless hours in Wilkes-Barre and across the globe, wherever prospects were playing. John Hynes, the previous Wilkes-Barre coach, and Mike Sullivan also receive thick praise inside the organization, even though Sullivan's stay in Northeastern Pennsylvania was brief.
The central theme is that the philosophies for instruction have held throughout.
"We're proud of what we've done," Guerin was saying on the topic. "We've never focused on the draft. We've always focused on what we do, and that's to take the players we get and make the most of them."
Now go back up and look at that list of the five AHL forwards.
Then listen to Lovejoy after this game: "They're not Wilkes guys. They’re Penguins now. They’re Pittsburgh Penguins. They've brought a lot to our team."
That's what I'm talking about.
None of these players is a budding star, but all have exceeded expectations. Wilson has blossomed from being picked 209th overall to what management genuinely sees as top-six potential. Sheary was point-per-game in his first season-plus in the AHL, and he took Evgeni Malkin's spot on the power play Thursday. Rust still plays with blinders, but he's also got blinding speed and might be establishing himself more than any of these five. Kuhnhackl isn't scoring, but his relentless battling along the boards has been a big part of the Penguins suddenly being hard to play against, to borrow the Canadian vernacular. And Oskar Sundqvist, though he could still use offensive seasoning and needs to fill out, has drawn maybe the most effusive praise from the veterans. Sidney Crosby has singled out Sundqvist for praise when speaking of his poise and positioning.
Ask Rutherford about the AHL guys, and the first thing he'll do, like Lovejoy, is bristle at that common description.
“Well, let’s call them first-year pros," the GM said after the game. "I’m pleased. I’m very, very pleased. The development of those players has been impressive. Sully got a chance to work with them for a while in Wilkes-Barre. I think Rex and Billy have done such a good job developing all of these guys. You could see it because, when they got to the NHL, they were ready to play immediately. They’ve been a great help to us, and when they chip in goals like this, it makes such a huge difference.”
