Down in the AHL, Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Teddy Blueger is having a career year and might be ready for the NHL.
It appears that time is about to run out on the Derick Brassard experiment for the Pittsburgh Penguins. General Manager Jim Rutherford is actively shopping Brassard and is in the market for a third-line center. The expectation is that the new third-line center will be acquired via trade. But down on the farm, the Penguins have an in-house option in Teddy Blueger.
The 24-year-old is having a career year for the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins. Simply put, the Penguins are dealing from a position of strength down the middle. Blueger has been buried behind Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Nick Bonino, Matt Cullen, and Riley Sheahan since being selected in the second round of the 2012 NHL Draft. Nearly seven years since being drafted, he has developed into a very good AHL forward. Let’s take a look at his 2018-19 season.
Through 44 games, Blueger’s 20 goals are the third-highest total amongst all AHL skaters. 13 of those 20 goals have been scored at even-strength. Blueger sits 14th in the highly anticipated AHL scoring race, with 38 points.
The largest reason for this uptick in production is the fact that Blueger is seeing significantly more ice-time. On average, Blueger is seeing nearly three additional minutes of ice-time during even-strength play than he did in the 2017-18 campaign.
Courtesy of Prospect Stats player comparison tool, here is a look at Blueger’s last two seasons in Wilkes-Barre. As you can see below, Blueger’s goals per game, secondary assists per game, points per game, and shots per game all have increased.
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Blueger’s assist numbers have taken a step back from where they were in the 2017-18 campaign. Considering that the Penguins do not currently have an elite sniper at the AHL level, I would not read too much into that. Ultimately, Blueger’s increase in ice-time has led to increased production. With Blueger’s current pace of 0.86 points per game, he is likely capable of contributing in Pittsburgh’s bottom-six right now.
With Sheahan as a free agent at season’s end and Cullen likely to (finally) retire, Blueger’s development, work-ethic, and patience will likely pay-off in Pittsburgh at some point in 2019.
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