Andrey Pedan could not have been more excited to join the Penguins organization.
The 24-year-old Russian defenseman was acquired from the Canucks in October in the trade that saw former first-round pick Derrick Pouliot shipped off to Vancouver.
Pedan was the last player on Vancouver's roster to be cut, and he was put on waivers the day before the trade. He got a call from his agent the next day to let him know that he cleared waivers and would be sent to Utica of the American Hockey League.
Ten minutes later, he got another call telling him that he had been traded.
"I thought it would be good to change it up, get a fresh start," he told me this week. "Plus, an organization like Pittsburgh, like I was surprised because I (was traded to) Pittsburgh? I was like, 'You know what? That's the best organization right now in hockey.' Whether I am going to go to Pittsburgh or I am going to Wilkes-Barre, I'm sure that the mentality is the same."
Pedan immediately got multiple calls from different members of the Penguins' front office, including Bill Guerin, who told him that they first wanted Pedan to spend time in the AHL to learn the Penguins' style of play. Since Pedan had cleared waivers, he was assigned directly to Wilkes-Barre.
Pedan didn't take long to get acclimated.
"The main difference (between Pittsburgh's system and Vancouver's system) is d-zone coverage for me," he said. "The rest of the stuff is about the same. But I'm used to it already, so I know every little aspect of the game within our coaching staff."
In sixteen games with Wilkes-Barre, Pedan has mostly been on the top defensive pairing with Lukas Bengtsson. He's tallied one goal and six assists, is a plus-7 overall and has picked up 25 penalty minutes.
Pedan especially likes the speed that teams play with throughout the Penguin system. One might not expect Pedan, a 6-foot-5 defensive defenseman, to be the greatest or fastest skater, but skating is one of his strengths, and he's shown that in the times that he's been able to join the rush in Wilkes-Barre.
"It's always nice to play on a team that has a lot of speed because it's tough to play against," Pedan said of the new system. "And that's how Pittsburgh plays. I feel like I'd fit right in. I need to work on my little parts of the game, so when I get that opportunity I'll make the best of it."
The "little parts" of his game that he wants to improve this season are things like gap control and making sure that when he finishes his checks he can pick up the puck and make a play with it.
Canucks head coach and former Utica head coach Travis Green talked about the areas where Pedan needed to improve over the offseason.
“I thought he had an up-and-down year,” Green said. “I just found that he had some really dominating games and some that weren’t great. In his good games, he was really good. He was hard to play against and moved the puck well, and that’s what he has to strive for — consistency in every game."
“He’s such a good skater that he can skate himself into trouble," Green continued. "Sometimes the aggressiveness gets him into trouble. He’ll dump the puck and he keeps going when he doesn’t have to. He gets himself up into areas that he doesn’t need to be. And sometimes that’s just a product of feeling good."
Like Jarred Tinordi, Pedan is a big, physical defenseman, but he's also skilled. The physicality in his game is something that is somewhat lacking on Pittsburgh's blue line, and he thinks that can work to his advantage.
"I'm not just looking to crush guys, I'm looking to be hard to play against," he said of his game. "And when there's a time and place, of course I can hit the guys. I mean, I don't want the guys to be happy when I'm on the ice. I want them to not to want to come to the net when I'm out there. That's the way I play. I feel like in Pittsburgh they don't really have that, so that I think I can bring to the table."
One of his big strengths is his powerful shot, something he showed off on his first goal of the season:
Pedan came to Wilkes-Barre with 13 games of NHL experience under his belt with Vancouver in the 2015-16 season. He wasn't exactly satisfied with his time there.
"I didn't really get a chance to play as much as I thought I would to show my abilities," he said. "I played four games as a forward there, my first NHL game was as a forward ... I was in Vancouver total maybe, like, six months but I only played, like, 15 games. Most of the time I was in the gym just working out 'cause I wasn't too happy that I'm not playing."
While Pedan didn't get a lot of playing time, he still feels like he learned from his experiences there.
"I picked up that it's a way cleaner league," he said. "It's way sharper, guys are always in their position. In some ways it's easier to play, in some ways it's harder. The guys have more skill there but also everybody has better position. I'd say it's easier to make plays. It's hard to get to the NHL and it's even harder to stay there."
He initially wasn't happy about having to play as a forward for some of his time there, but he said that he just tried to make the best of his situation and now he appreciates having seen the game from a different perspective.
Pedan grew up in Russia, but the NHL was always his dream. He grew up watching highlights of Igor Larionov and Pavel Datsyuk, and even got to see the Stanley Cup when he was younger.
"When I was a kid, Oleg Tverdovsky brought the Stanley Cup to our rink where I start playing hockey," he said. "They told us that if you touch it, then you will never win it. You have to win it, then you can touch it. So I was, like, the furthest away from it."
Pedan is enjoying his time in Wilkes-Barre for the time being. Like some of his teammates have done, he raved about the environment and culture the Penguins created.
"The team is great here too ... It's fun to be a part of a team that's winning, and you're excited to come to the rink. It's fun, even if we lost. Everybody has positive vibes going around the room. Nobody is picking on each other."
SPRONG SCRATCHED
It's no secret that the Penguins are taking their time with Daniel Sprong and working with him to improve his defensive game before he makes it to Pittsburgh.
Sprong was a healthy scratch for the first time on Friday, something coach Clark Donatelli said was just "part of the process of being a pro here." They wanted Sprong to be able to see the game from a different angle, in addition to the film work they've been doing with him.
Sprong scored this goal from a hard angle in Hershey on Sunday:
MORE FROM WILKES-BARRE
• Nov. 22: vs. Lehigh Valley, 4-2 win
• Nov. 24: at Syracuse, 5-2 loss
• Nov. 25: vs. Syracuse, 4-3 loss
• Dec. 1: vs. Milwaukee, 5-4 overtime win
• Dec. 2: vs. Rochester, 5-2 loss
• Dec. 3: at Hershey, 4-3 overtime loss
• The Penguins signed goaltender Anthony Peters to a professional tryout contract with Casey DeSmith recalled to Pittsburgh and Sean Maguire out of the lineup with an illness. Peters had a .929 save percentage and a 2.26 goals against average in 12 games with the ECHL's Cincinnati Cyclones.
• Ryan Haggerty got Wilkes-Barre off to another early start on Nov. 22, scoring 31 seconds into the game. Lehigh Valley took the lead with two goals in the first period, but Wilkes-Barre answered with goals from Jean-Sebastien Dea, Colin Smith, and an empty netter from Haggerty to secure the win. Zach-Aston Reese assisted on three goals. DeSmith made 31 saves on 33 shots to earn the win.
• DeSmith allowed three goals in the first period on Nov. 24. Colin Smith and Dominik Simon scored to bring the Penguins within one, but two empty netters from Syracuse in the final two minutes put the game out of reach. Wilkes-Barre only scored one power play goal on seven opportunities.
• Wilkes-Barre's struggles against Syracuse continued the following night, resulting in their first back-to-back losses of the season. Freddie Tiffels scored his first AHL goal, and Teddy Blueger and Christian Thomas tallied goals of their own, but DeSmith's four goals allowed on 25 shots gave Syracuse the win.
• Garrett Wilson returned to the lineup on Friday. He'd taken a leave from the team after losing his mother to breast cancer. The script couldn't have been written any better, as he scored a hat trick in the first 13:05 of the game. Josh Archibald also scored for Wilkes-Barre on a shorthanded breakaway while on his conditioning assignment. Goaltender Colin Stevens made 29 saves on 33 shots for the win in his first AHL start.
• Blueger scored the Penguins' only two goals on Saturday. Peters took the loss in his first start for Wilkes-Barre, allowing four goals on 36 shots.
• With Maguire still out with an illness, Peters made back-to-back starts over the weekend. He was perfect through the first 33 minutes of the game, and Gage Quinney and Sprong tallied goals. Hershey scored three goals of their own to take the lead. Tom Sestito scored a goal late in the third to force overtime, but Hershey took the win in overtime on a power play goal after Wilson shot the puck over the glass.
• Lines and defense pairings from Sunday:
Zach Aston-Reese - Jean-Sebastien Dea - Josh Archibald
Tom Sestito - Colin Smith - Christian Thomas
Garrett Wilson - Gage Quinney - Daniel Sprong
Jarrett Burton - Teddy Blueger - Thomas Di Pauli
Andrey Pedan - Lukas Bengtsson
Kevin Czuczman - Zach Trotman
Jarred Tinordi - Frank Corrado
• After Sunday's game, the Penguins lead their division and are second in the Eastern Conference with a 13-5-1-1 record and .700 point percentage.
GOALS OF THE WEEK(S)
Garrett Wilson's hat trick after losing his mother to breast cancer earns the nod this week:
Josh Archibald scored a shorthanded breakaway goal on Friday while on a conditioning assignment in Wilkes-Barre:
Noted offensive weapon Tom Sestito forced a turnover and scored to send Sunday's game into overtime:
SAVE OF THE WEEK(S)
Anthony Peters made back-to-back saves in the first period on Sunday to protect a two-goal lead:
TOP PICK TRACKER
• Defenseman Zachary Lauzon (second round, 2017) is back out of the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (QMJHL) lineup with a neck injury. He sustained the injury after his third game of the season, and sat out for over a month. He returned to the lineup for eight games but sat out the Huskies' last road trip because of lingering problems. He has two assists, 25 penalty minutes, and is a minus-one in 11 games.
• Forward Kasper Bjorkqvist (second round, 2016) tallied one goal in Providence College's four games over the past two weeks. This goal was his sixth of the season:
WATCH: Björkqvist goes coast-to-coast for his sixth goal of the season. pic.twitter.com/0lo6K4unO1
— PC Men's Hockey (@FriarsHockey) December 2, 2017
• Goaltender Filip Gustavsson (second round, 2016) spent time training in Sweden with Pittsburgh's goaltender development coach Brendan Sullivan. Sullivan told Swedish outlets that "Filip's style gives him an opportunity to actually play in the NHL in the future, but there's a lot of time on the ice before it becomes reality." Sullivan said that they don't want Gustavsson to make any changes to his style of play and that he just needs to work on some "small details."
• Defenseman Connor Hall (third round, 2016) is out of the Kitchener Rangers' lineup with a shoulder injury:
Rangers coach Jay McKee on Connor Hall, who left tonight's win with an apparent shoulder injury: "He was near tears in the room when we went back there."
— Josh Brown (@BrownRecord) November 30, 2017
It isn't known which shoulder is injured, but Hall has previously had surgery on both of his shoulders.
WHEELING WATCH
This week takes a look at forward Nick Sorkin, the Nailers' first-line center and former captain.
PROSPECT FUN THING
Pedan was the victim of a prank this week when someone stole the door off of his locker:
Some of the Penguins answered Thanksgiving trivia questions:
JUST THE STATS
I'll be taking over today's Miller Lite Live Qs at 5, so make sure to submit all your questions then on Penguins prospects or whatever else is on your mind!