2017 NHL Draft Grades: Metropolitan Division – Pittsburgh Penguins

Shortly after 1:00pm CST, on Saturday, June 24, 2017, the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins selected William Reilly, a defenseman from RPI as the 217^th player selected, bringing the 2017 Entry Draft to an end. With a few days of hindsight between me and the bowels of the United Center, the urge to spew out hot takes flushed away, it is time to analyze the strategies and selections employed by the league’s 31 teams.

The analysis will focus on the first five rounds, as it is clear to most long-time observers that the final two rounds are often taken up with long-shots, favours to regional scouts, among other reasons. I will, of course, call out some astute late picks, but will not judge a team for the names called in the final hour. The apocryphal story of Pekka Rinne, drafted as an eighth round after-thought in 2004 based mostly on his play in game warm-ups. Few other scouts would have seen him at all, and he has had a very good career, which is not yet over. For the most part, though, those picks have little statistical likelihood of having NHL careers and teams should not be judged there.

Each draft class will be graded using the 20-80 scale that we use in our player specific scouting reports throughout the site. In this context, a 50 is essentially an average grade in light of the picks the team had on draft day. A 20 would mean the draft is an unmitigated disaster while an 80 would be the best draft class of all time. As those things can only be truly seen in retrospect, most classes will trend towards 50 at this point, so pay attention to those we see as outliers.

Finally, all grades are incomplete. Actual winners and losers in this draft class will not be known until 2023 at the earliest, after those who will have “made it” will have played out their entry-level contracts. What I am looking at here is whether, knowing what we know now, the drafting team got good value.

Pittsburgh Penguins – Draft Grade: 35

From their thought process at the end of the first round, through pretty much the end of Day Two, I did not understand the machinations of the Pittsburgh Penguins. The most amazing thing happened on day one, with some intriguing talent, including Klim Kostin, still on the board, the Penguins dealt the #31 pick, along with decent AHL prospect Oskar Sundqvist, to St. Louis for a second rounder and Ryan Reaves, a fourth line pugilist and one of the last remaining designated fighters in the NHL. There is a reasonable argument to be made that Sundqvist has more present value than Reaves and the 31^st pick is definitely more valuable than pick 31. This is a huge opportunity list that will only hit the Penguins in three or four years.

When the Penguins finally made picks, they mostly underwhelmed. Second rounder Zachary Lauzon is mostly seen as a viable pick in the range of the fifth or sixth rounds. He is a decent skater and plays hard, but is bland on the puck. Third rounder Clayton Phillips has a similar profile, trading some jam for some puck moving brio. Even if I include Ryan Reaves in my calculus, it is very possible that the Penguins not only will not see any future impact players acquired at the 2017 draft but have the unique distinction of actually having made their team worse.

Best value: Linus Olund, C, Brynas (5/155): A double overager, Olund spent most of this season in the SHL with Brynas and began to show that he belonged. He is above average on his feet, with a good shot and burgeoning hockey IQ. When he is ready to leave Sweden, he could be a dark horse.

Biggest head-scratcher: Zachary Lauzon, D, Rouyn-Noranda (2/48): Older brother Jeremy is a pretty good prospect in Boston’s pipeline and was zachary’s teammate with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. Zachary is not as good as his brother. He is OK at a few things, but has no standout skills.