Penguins A to Z: Sam Poulin emerges as the Penguins' top prospect
While the NHL is on hold due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Tribune-Review will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 54 individuals under NHL contract with the organization, from mid-level prospect Niclas Almari to high-profile trade acquisition Jason Zucker.
Player: Sam Poulin
Position: Right winger
Shoots: Left
Age: 19
Height: 6-foot-2
Weight: 216 pounds
2019-20 QMJHL statistics: 46 games, 77 points (32 goals, 45 assists)
Contract: Three-year entry-level contract with a salary cap hit of $925,000. Because Poulin spent the season in the junior ranks, his contract can slide, or begin, in 2020-21 at the earliest.
Acquired: Draft, first round (No. 21 overall), June 21, 2019
This season: Jim Rutherford got plenty of calls in February about Sam Poulin. But he didn’t give them any serious consideration.
Few general managers in the NHL are as willing as Rutherford to deal away top-end draft picks or prospects. In the six drafts he has overseen for the Penguins, Rutherford has dealt away four of his first-round picks.
One of them, forward Kasperi Kapanen, was shuffled to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2015 blockbuster trade that netted all-star forward Phil Kessel.
Rutherford was solicited quite a bit by his fellow general managers at in the weeks leading to this season’s trade deadline with potential deals involving Poulin. But none of them intrigued Rutherford sufficiently to deal away the talented and physical power forward.
Rutherford’s motivation for retaining Poulin is simple.
“I think Poulin will take a good run at making the team next (season),” he said in February.
His play this season with the Sherbrooke Phoenix of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League illustrated what Poulin can do.
Despite an early season knee injury, Poulin, the Phoenix’s captain, was able finish 14th in the QMJHL in scoring before that league halted play in mid-March.
The high point of his season was an eight-point effort (two goals, six assists) in a 9-4 defeat of the Shawingan Cataractes on Oct. 20. He was the first player to reach that mark in a QMJHL game in nearly a decade.
The future: With the Penguins facing a possible salary cap crunch as soon as next season because of the economic strain created by the NHL’s hiatus, Poulin’s chances to make the NHL roster could be amplified, even if he is given only a nine-game “tryout” at the NHL level before the first year of his entry-level contract activates.
The son of former NHL forward Patrick Poulin, he uses his sturdy body and a tenacious drive to create matchup problems for smaller defensemen, particularly in high-traffic areas. While his skating always will be an area he needs to refine, he has, by many accounts, taken sufficient steps with that attribute.
Additionally, he has a good shot and he knows it as evidenced by the 208 shots he took in 2019-20.
The only teammate to put more pucks on net was linemate Alex-Olivier Voyer, and he had the benefit of playing 17 more games than Poulin.
Because of the Penguins’ willingness to deal away other high-end future assets and his development, Poulin has emerged as the organization’s top prospect.
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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