If you’re wondering why Daniel Sprong’s not here, take a look at the Penguins’ young core of Bryan Rust, Brian Dumoulin, Conor Sheary, Jake Guentzel and Tom Kuhnhackl.
You could also toss Scott Wilson – flipped for Riley Sheahan – into that mix.
The commonality here, general manager Jim Rutherford said, was that the Penguins didn’t jump them to the NHL, and into prominent roles, before they were ready.
The Penguins waited for the player to finish developing, build some confidence, and then they made a move – perhaps waiting even longer than necessary in some cases.
“The important thing is, when you put a young player into this league, is he is as prepared as he can be for all aspects of the game,” Rutherford said. “If he’s not, you risk setting the player way back.
“That’s one thing we’ve always been really careful of: What’s the right time to bring guys in?
“That group of five, those guys were ready before they got called up, but but we made sure it was at a time where they had their confidence and they could deal with setbacks.”
That’s where the Penguins are at with Sprong, who has nine goals in 18 games but was a healthy scratch for Friday’s game and has so far not received a promotion to the NHL.
The biggest thing for Sprong remains his play away from the puck, Rutherford said. The Penguins would like to see Sprong improve not only his defense but also awareness and stick/wall play, among other subtle things.
None of that is revelatory, mind you. It’s the same stuff a lot of young players have to work on. The point is just that scoring isn’t enough, especially when five of Sprong’s nine goals have come on the power-play, and that job isn’t available in Pittsburgh.
“Billy [Guerin] has been working with him along with the coaching staff there,” Rutherford said. “They’ve had some good communication with him, pointing out when he gets recalled, here some of the things you have to be ready for and be prepared for. That’s what they’re working on.
“It’s all part of the process.”
Too much pitching?
Rutherford and Mike Sullivan are big baseball guys and talk a lot about the Boston Red Sox. They could soon encounter a problem pretty much any baseball team would love to have: too much starting pitching.
Only here it’s goaltending, and it’s definitely early. Tristan Jarry has made just six NHL starts, five this season.
But he’s also 4-0-2 with a 1.99 goals-against average and a .937 save percentage and looks anything but overwhelmed at this level.
“He has the ability to do what he’s been doing,” Rutherford said.
“I’ve said that all along. I said that when we sent him down. I said that when he was recalled. We wanted to make sure he was getting enough games. That’s the one thing that we don’t have to ask ourselves these days. ‘Is he going to get enough playing time?’ He’s played well. It’s not a surprise because he has the ability to do that.”
Matt Murray will still miss a couple weeks with a lower-body injury. Rutherford said on his radio show Wednesday “Two to three weeks,” which would put Murray’s return-to-play date between Dec. 11-18.
It’s conceivable, if not likely, that Jarry will play the next four games, all of them at home, against the Rangers, Islanders, Maple Leads and Avalanche.
None are back-to-back. If Jarry continues to play well, perhaps Sullivan won’t want to mess with a good thing.
That, though, leads to an interesting question: What happens when Murray comes back?
Obviously, he’s going to be the go-to guy provided he’s healthy and playing up to his capabilities come playoff time, the result of winning back-to-back Stanley Cups by age 23.
But how the Penguins get there is another story.
Rutherford maintained over the summer that one of the reasons Murray has been so good during the past two postseason runs is that he’s been rested. Marc-Andre Fleury, too, as he came off the bench to win the first two rounds in 2017.
Jarry could give the Penguins something similar, spelling Murray more than your average backup, but it’s definitely too early for any of that talk.
“We’d be getting ahead of ourselves,” Rutherford said. “Things change. If that’s an issue, that’s the kind of issue teams like to have.”
Sort of like having too much starting pitching.
“That’s a good comparison,” Rutherford said. “I don’t see that as being a problem at any time. It’s a problem when you have goalies who can’t stop the puck.”
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: December 3, 2017, 9:44 p.m.
