No. 2 Pick Could Be Key for Penguins

The Pittsburgh Penguins have traded away a lot of first-round draft choices over the past few decades, but that doesn’t mean they fail to realize how those picks – especially the very early ones – can help to chart the course of a franchise.

After all, the Penguins have won five Stanley Cups and the guy who received the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in each of their title runs was claimed with either the first or second overall pick in his draft year.

They are Mario Lemieux, taken with the top pick in 1984, who got the Smythe in 1991 and 1992, Evgeni Malkin, the No. 2 choice in 2004, who earned his Smythe in 2009 and Sidney Crosby, the first overall selection in 2005 and recipient of the Smythe in 2016 and 2017.

Had any of those three entered the NHL with another club, there might be a lot more empty space in the rafters at PPG Paints Arena.

Still, even otherworldly talents like Lemieux, Crosby and Malkin cannot singlehandedly transform a team from comical to contender. The most compelling evidence of that is Lemieux did not make his first appearance in the Stanley Cup playoffs until the spring of 1989, at the end of his fifth season in the league.

That’s why having productive drafts is so important.

Sure, there are other ways, like trades and free agency, to man a competitive NHL roster, but drafting and developing good young talent is the most cost-effective.

So while hitting on first-rounders is critical, converting prospects taken in the rounds that follow is imperative for any club hoping to maintain a steady flow of contributors through its organizational pipeline.

Kyle Dubas has made a point of collecting draft choices during his two years as president of hockey operations and general manager and, at least for the moment, they own 30 picks in the next three drafts.

That total includes three third-rounders next month, which precedent suggests could be beneficial in continuing to restock their prospects pool, because the Penguins have made some shrewd selections then.

Predicting how any teenaged player – let alone one chosen after several dozen others have been taken – will develop is challenging, but the Penguins have added the likes of Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust and Matt Murray (remember, he won Stanley Cups in his first two NHL seasons before his game slipped out of synch) in Round 3.

They have just one second-round choice this year – they traded their own to Montreal in the Erik Karlsson deal, but got one from Washington for Anthony Beauvillier – which is unfortunate for them, given their success picking then in recent years.

Beginning with defenseman Scott Harrington in 2011, they’ve consistently invested second-rounders in players who have either had lengthy NHL careers – guys like Teddy Blueger, Filip Gustavsson, Tristan Jarry and Daniel Sprong – or who have shown legitimate potential to have an impact at this level.

Put defensesman Harrison Brunicke and forwards Tanner Howe, Filip Hallander and Tristan Broz and goalie Joel Blomqvist on the latter list.

Having productive second rounds was not always the norm for the Penguins, however. In fact, quite the opposite was true for most of their time in the league.

The Penguins secured the rights to 30 players in the second round between 1977, when they picked up winger Jim Hamilton, and 2009, when their selection was defenseman Philip Samuelsson.

Of that group, only five appeared in more than 100 NHL games. They were forward Dave Capuano (1986, 104 games), goalie Rick Tabaracci (1987, 287), defenseman Paul Laus (1989, 530), forward Richard Park (1994, 738) and defenseman Alex Goligoski (2004, 1,078).

Conversely, no fewer than eight never made it to the league. Those flameouts were defensemen Marc Hussey (1992), Brian Gaffney (1997), Jeremy Van Hoof (1999), Ondrej Nemec (2002) and Michael Gergen (2005) and forwards Alexander Zevakhin (1998), Johannes Salmonsson (2004) and Keven Veilleux (2007).