So much for the hype.
Today, Janne Pesonen was sent to the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins, representing Pittsburgh's final cut. He will stay with the team while in Sweden and report to the Baby Penguins upon the team's return to native soil.
I was pretty excited about the Pesonen signing when it was first announed. I thought there was a chance he could stick and make an impact. He may make an impact, but it's not likely to be with the big club.
In truth, if Michel Therein and Ray Shero don't feel Pesonen is going to play on the top 2 lines, he's probably better off in Wilkes-Barre where he can play top minutes. Still, people are kidding themselves if they think Pens' brass brought Pesonen over to add depth to their team. They were hoping to find an unsigned gem they could bring in at a reasonable salary. Kudos to them for trying. It just didn't work out this time.
Let's face it. If Pesonen isn't ready for top line duty in the NHL now, I find it hard to believe he will be able to work that into his game in the AHL all of a sudden.
Sending Pesonen down means that both Paul Bissonette and Fox Chapel kid Bill Thomas are going to stick with the team personnally. Since it looks as if Petr Sykora is going to sit out the season opener because of this lingering groin problem he's dealing with, expect one or both to be in the lineup. Thomas may even get a shot playing on the second line with Geno and Jordan.
Either way, I'm excited to see the two of them in uniform ... and disappointed that the Pesonen experiment doesn't seem like it's going to work out.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment