Penguins 2013 Draft Review

[Penguin]

Pittsburgh didn't have many picks in this 2013 Entry Draft as usual. Bernier the trade whore has the reputation to trade his picks like a 5 year old trades his pokemon cards.. He decided to revamp the team for next season to improve his chances to make it back-to-back Stanley Cups. Many were shocked with the Michalek trade to Columbus, but the team still looks great, if not better according to fans on message boards and talk shows. Only pick Pittsburgh had in the first 5 rounds was CGY's 2nd round pick acquired from Boston for promising young goalie Anthony Stolarz. That pick was changed into PHX's 1st round pick, swapping picks with Columbus being part of the blockbuster deal. Bernier added another early 2nd round pick (#42), sacrificing the much loved enforcer David Clarkson here in Pittsburgh. The idea behind that trade was to get rid of Liles' contract and replacing him with Olesz' for a year less, with many renewals coming up next year. When draft day came, Bernier had one guy very high on his list and he was available longer than he thought. Vancouver made #24 available and the draft was at #23. Few beers deep, Bernier decided to risk it and trade the 2nd round pick acquired for Clarkson and PHX's 1st (#28) to Vancouver, assuming Carolina at #23 wouldn't take him. Obviously, the worst happened, Carolina took Jonathan-Ismael Diaby. Bernier who had fired all the scouts when he took over the team, did not know who to take other than a few guys he had watched Youtube videos of. So, he took a 6'7 defenseman that can hit hard, you can never go wrong with that. Samuel Morin from the Oceanic de Rimouski was selected at #24. Morin is talked to be a very consistent physical D that can make that nice breakout pass. He was caught out of place a few times in the defensive zone, but that can be worked on. Bernier was very pleased with his pick after all. So pleased that he decided to trade him to Vancouver 30min later... You can never predict what this doofus GM has in mind. Morin wasn't the guy Vancouver had an eye on in the 1st round (Marcus Hogberg), but they liked him regardless. Vancouver sent Danish sensation Nicklas Jensen to Pittsburgh in a deal involving Morin, multiple other players and, a bizarre full set of 2015 picks sent to Vancouver. For the 6th and 7th round picks, Bernier had the time to watch more Youtube videos during the earlier rounds while everyone else was selecting. In the 6th round, he selected black french kid Anthony Duclair. He's black and he's french so he must have some potential to shine. Duclair was highly praised by Quebec Remparts, Patrick Roy. He will report to Wilkes-Barre if he doesn't exceed expectations at training camp. With the last pick of the draft in the 7th round, Bernier took Red Deer Rebels' goalie Patrik Bartosak. Bartosak is an expert at poke checking and is great in shootouts, so he will also be assigned to Wilkes-Barre if things go as planned.


1st round, 24th - Samuel Morin

6th round, 180th - Anthony Duclair

7th round, 210th - Patrik Bartosak