Tuesday, August 7, 2018

31 Teams in 31 Days - Pittsburgh Penguins

Pittsburgh is another one of those teams that seems to pay less attention to the OHL. They've drafted only 2 players out of the OHL in the last six years (Jaden Lindo and Connor Hall) and elected to release both before offering them a contract. However, they do have one prospect that they signed as a UDFA.

1. Sam Miletic - Niagara IceDogs
Great overage season for Miletic that saw him build off of his breakout campaign with London last year. Just love the energy level that he plays with. Really efficient player in traffic. Has very quick feet, darting in and out, giving him that elusiveness that makes him effective. I think he's a very effective player without the puck too. His hockey sense is great and I think his play with the puck really improved this season. Saw him make some creative plays that I didn't think he was capable of previously. And with Niagara, he really developed chemistry with Akil Thomas and the playmaking side of his game was brought to another level. It can be difficult to really project players who have big overage seasons in the OHL, but I actually liken Miletic's game a lot to Kevin Labanc's and he's done well at the pro level after performing well in his overage OHL season. Miletic right now probably projects as a scoring line player or tweener, as I'm not sure his game is well suited for a checking line role. That's not to say that he couldn't transform himself at the next level if required. Very curious to see how his game translates next year in the AHL. I think that Miletic is an underrated prospect and I see him having some success, even if the Pens' AHL line-up seems pretty stacked. I think he could have a nice season, around the 15/20 mark, with a chance to improve even more the year after.

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