[belsarius]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

And who were the players used on that Pens fourth line? Not Crosby, Malkin, or Kessel. But it was an excellent fourth line and a huge part of their cup wins:

Matt Cullen, who was the anchor. A do-it all two-way center. Not a face puncher or a big hitter.

The wingers he saw the most playoff ice time with were:

Tom Kuhnhackl who had more points last year in 57 games than Tanner Glass had in 134 with the Rangers. Scoring logs show only one of his points was assisted by Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin

Scott Wilson, a guy who had 26 even strength points last year with only six of those being a direct result of Crosby or Malkin. That's a fourth liner with one less 5v5 point than Frolik had last year. Getting 2nd liner type even strength production out of your fourth line... that's not going to happen if Tanner Glass type players are on that line as they don't contribute anything offensively.

Chris Kunitz, who even in his washed up old age would probably be an upgrade on all five wingers who made our fourth line ahead of Mark Jankowski. A grinder, yes, but a skilled grinder not just a plug.

Carl Hagelin, who is basically the Penguins' version of Frolik

Sorry, but your premise - that having great players makes you a poor model for success is flawed. There was more that went into the success of that team than having the two best players. That team has had high-expectation seasons end unsuccessfully when not built around its current model. They are very much THE model franchise because of how quickly and efficiently they retooled their peripheral roster in around December 2015 into a two-time cup winner after being out-of-the-playoffs-at-the-time. And a big part of that was no longer "overcooking" prospects like Sheary, Rust, Kuhnhackl (and eventually Guentzal, who started last year as an AHL rookie just like Jankowski)

It's a good model and it's funny because someone like Stajan fits right into the mold of the type of fourth line player. You look at his mins/point at even strength and Stajan performs at the same level as Versteeg and Ferland on the Flames and as well as Kunitz and Bonino on last year's Pens. Cullen had more offense but also better wingers.

So yeah they don't overcook their rookies but they also value the Vets who bring value and overachieve their position. Cullen had a great year and that line performed almost at second line time proficiency but Stajan is sitting on a fourth line performing like a 3rd liner. You are right on the money that there are wingers that need to be moved out of the way for Jankowski, but the posters who think that Stajan needs to be waived to make room arn't seeing the value he actually brings.