The Ravens saw David Blackburn get promoted into their director of college scouting position recently. According to Ravens staff writer Ryan Mink, Blackburn was not alone in his promotion. This week, Baltimore announced promotions for Mark Azevedo, Houegnon Attenoukon, Patrick McDonough, and Derrick Yam, as well.
Azevedo was promoted to assistant director of player personnel in his 18th year with the team, assisting the Ravens’ two directors of player personnel, Joe Hortiz and George Kokinis. Attenoukon, known in the clubhouse as “Q,” is entering his sixth year with the team and was promoted to a full-time role as an area scout. The area he will cover has not yet been determined. McDonough is becoming the team’s northeast area scout. Yam was promoted from his role of quantitative analyst into the position of manager of data and decision science. Yam conducts data-based player evaluations for both college and professional players. He builds statistical models from a variety of data sources designed to assess player value, performance, and development.
Here are a few other notes concerning staff moves in the AFC North, starting with the reigning division champions:
- ESPN’s Ben Baby reports that Bengals scout Trey Brown has been promoted to senior personnel executive. Brown drew lots of hiring interest in the most recent job cycle, including an interview for the Raiders’ open general manager position, so the promotion is likely a preventative maneuver to keep him in-house.
- The Steelers recently lost pro scouting coordinator Brandon Hunt to the Eagles, and, according to Mark Kaboly of The Athletic, the team will also be without college scouting coordinator Rick Reiprish in the upcoming season. Ed Bouchette, also of The Athletic, added that long-time scout Bruce McNorton will no longer be with the Steelers either. McNorton had been a part of the Pittsburgh franchise for 22 years. The mass exodus is not a huge surprise as Omar Khan replaces Kevin Colbert as general manager. Khan recently hired Sheldon White to replace Hunt, so he’ll likely be looking for candidates to fill in the vacancies left by Reiprish and McNorton, as well.
I still don’t see the point in keeping Letang.
So much better off signing 2 defensive defenders for the price of Letang.
Matheson can play on the powerplay. Marino also a capable puck mover.
what they lack is a Trouba type defender to bring the pain. Have lacked it since Orpik left.
Everything about this post is wrong…including what site it’s posted on.
No Letang and they finish in the lottery next year.
it’ll just be a Duncan Keith mistake if he’s brought back.
Penguins issue is they are soft, and it all starts with Letang.
I’m pretty sure the powerplay will be just fine without his shots 5 feet off target …
infact when u look at his career offensive stats in the playoffs, you’ll rarely find some less effective given his TOI
If you think they can lose Letang and give his minutes to Matheson and Marino and get LESS soft…not sure what to tell you.
Keith had an almost decade long slide to oblivion. Letang literally just had his best season ever.
he wasn’t that good he just had a ton of assists from racking up a ton of TOI
look at his powerplay numbers where he’s actually supposed to produce as a playmaker … they don’t exist.
and no I don’t want to give his minutes to Matheson…
I want enough cap room to boast 3 defensive pairings who actually play defense and not have a completely pathetic 3rd pairing.
bring in 2 hard hitters for the price of one Letang.
“He wasn’t that good”.
He was one of the 5 best D men in the league last year…
That’s pretty good.
Also, just to point out the way certain fans love to exist in a vaccuum of fog and theory…
Name the 2 hard hitters you want to acquire in place of Letang that will improve the team. Who are they?
There are like 8 defensemen left that still hit and Letang is one of them.
Nikita zadarov, conor Murphy, Justin Braun, Robert Hagg, Ben chariot
the issue is with Letang is the price tag.. obviously he’s pretty effective, but the argument is, is he effective enough to outweigh the benefits of 2 defenders for the price of 1?
and do the pens have the defensive playmakers to replace him?
Matheson seems very capable of stepping in on the powerplay, and Marino worthy depth incase of an injury.
as far as money, I’d definitely prefer 2 or even 3 on that list over Letang making 7.5 and likely more
Those guys are all scrubs. Chariot is average, maybe.
You want to jettison an elite defenseman coming off his best season for out and out scrubs. Braun and Hagg might not even play in the NHL next year.
What type of Moneypuck has done this to you?
we’re not getting Letangs production over the next 3-5 years
nor was Arizona getting Kessels production.
it’s not like we’re getting Letang on a 1 or 2-year deal..
can sign 2 of those defenders on shorter term and bring back Rakell etc
…or can sign an aging Letang
Rangers brought in barclay Goodrow and Ryan Reaves and look like a completely different team than last year because they got guys doing the dirty work, freeing up their star players
You want to sign a nice, but replaceable second line RW over the ONLY top pair D man in the ENTIRE organization with no available replacement.
And what, we should trade ANOTHER first round pick for Ryan Reaves…?
No thank you.
I want that cap space split up into 3 or 4 pieces that bring toughness and defense on short term
rather than being stuck with a declining asset the next 5 years
So, you don’t want an elite player to decline and become less than elite, so instead spend the money on players that are already mediocre.
No thank you.
Your formula would result in us having a second pair as our top pair, a third pair as our second pair and then another third pair.
You want to obliterate the top pairing to shore up the third pairing, when that makes no sense and when there other ways to do that anyway.
No thank you.
I don’t think signing a 35 year old defender long term shores up anything except not having cap space for prime talent down the road
Down the road, we’ll be in a full rebuild. Rebuilds need bad contracts. If that bad contract is the homegrown elite D man we keep in the mean time, all the better.
Name the D pair that starts behind Sid’s line in your scenario and the reason it’s a bad idea becomes obvious.
I disagree.
you add prime talent around your veteran centers and you’ll always have a chance to contend.
can’t do that if you spend your cap space on an aging defender
A- None of the available free agents extend Sid’s window to compete (except keeping 58 and 71 maybe). Adding even the two best in Trocheck and Klingberg would not result in a contender but put them in Minnesota Wild like mediocrity instead of the needed forthcoming rebuild.
B- Fixating solely on his age instead of his talent, value and level of play is painfully myopic.
C- You didn’t name the D pair that would form our top pairing under your idea and have to defend McDavid and Matthews and Barkov and McKinnnon, etc.
Who starts the game behind Sid’s line?
I said down the road…
ie Letang making 7+ blocks bigtime free agents in 24, 25 etc.
I already told u I would supplement the current roster with some grit and a veteran gk like MAF.. all on short tern
moving on from Letang frees up that possibility
Who starts the game at left D? Who starts the game at right D?
Your idea results in the worst top pair in the NHL.
And one of, if not, the worst overall D corps in the league this side of Ottawa.
No thank you.
you live in the past
letangs not worth a long term deal at his age
He just had his best season ever and is a fitness freak.
It’s clear you cannot read the play on the ice, but can read a birth certificate and want to pretend that one is the other.
Name the top pair your idea would produce.
That you won’t name this top pair means that you do now realize that your idea is bad but want to keep arguing for the sake of it.
Who starts the game behind Sid’s line?
Matheson and dumoulin
OK…so…
A) That would be, by far, the worst top pair in the NHL. Can’t even think of another candidate compared to that.
B) Dumoulin just had his worst season and coaches are worried his game might not come back. He’s no longer a top pair D man. He might not even be a second pair guy.
C) Both Matheson and Dumoulin are left side D men. Both can play the off side, but they are much weaker there. So you want to take a very good second pair left side D man and make him into a mediocre right side D man on the worst top pair in the NHL.
No thank you.
PS- “You live in the past, Justin Braun and Robert Hagg are the future!” is an amusing argument.
PPS- While you are wrong, I do appreciate a good hockey debate on a football site.
hagg and Braun would cost like 1.5 on a 1-year deal.
tell me what you think Letang is going to settle for?
Less than Geno’s current cap hit.
And Geno will be less than Letang’s current cap hit.
So, again, dumping elite players WHO WE CAN AFFORD to sign scrubs who have to “settle” because they are scrubs and waste the rest of Sid’s career…not a good plan.
No thank you.
PS- Petterson is worse than Dumoulin. He was a healthy scratch repeatedly. You want a fourth pair D on our top pair.
PPS- Name the team with a worse top pair than the one you want the Pens to ice…I can’t even begin to find one.
Even Arizona, a team that is actively tanking, would have Chychrun and a rejuvenated Gostisbehere and be better than us.
so you’re inadvertently proving my point that we need more depth on defense
also petts wasn’t bad at all last year .. 72 games +8
he’s also a decade younger than Letang
So, you use age and…plus/minus to evaluate players? K.
The. Coaches. Scratched. Him. Regularly.
Are they wrong about him and you are right because he was +8?
That we need more depth was not the contention.
It’s whether we should jettison the ONLY top pair D man coming off his best year that we have NO ability to replace as the means with which to acquire that defensive depth when there are myriad other ways to shore up a defenses depth.
Attach a pick to Pettersson, dump him on a rebuilding team and use his money to get some depth.
AND keep your #1 D man that you can’t replace.
For example.
Also, which team has a worse top pair than your proposed Pens D corps?
obviously he wasn’t regularly scratched if he played 72 games + all post season games
you live in Narnia with that point
also you keep thinking Letang will play for cheaper,
I highly doubt that’s the case
Fun fact…$9.5 million is more than $7.25 million. So, not sure why you think that’s cheaper.
So, you think a guy the coaches decided wasn’t one of our 6 best options should be on the top pair?
Which team has a worse top pair than your idea?
so you keep focusing on the other defender who would Plat next to Letang in any case
completely different topic , but you can’t seem to stay focused on the idea of giving Letang a 3+ year deal
You now appear to be just intentionally confusing what I say as a form of argument.
Which team has a worse top pair than the one you propose?
that’s your vague question.
I don’t know. I don’t care.
bottom line is they need to get younger and more physical on the blue line
if they need defensive depth as you suggest, then maybe you actually agree with me, but are stuck on the unrealistic idea that you can bring back Letang and still have cap space for other defenders to be added
“”I don’t know” if my idea would result in the world D corps in hockey and “I don’t care.””
K.
And since you don’t get it, I will walk you through it.
Geno makes $9.5 M against the cap now. Letang makes $7.25 M against the cap now.
Geno’s salary will be around $7 million and Letang’s will be around $9 million and it won’t take a dime in cap space they aren’t already spending.
You don’t get rid of top line players for bottom line scrubs.
It’s akin to selling your car’s engine because you need new tires.
so the defense which we want to improve stays the same?
You move out mediocre mid tier players like Pettersson or McGinn or Kapanen to create cap room for depth. And then you replace them.
Not top players you can’t replace.
you can’t replace -3 with 3 assists in the playoffs?
It’s comments like that that utterly expose your inability to read the on ice play. FYI.
I guess Pettersson is better than Letang, huh?
No thank you.
Letang is one of the biggest reasons we give up breakaways and odd man rush in the playoffs.
yes I’d prefer to see stay at home defenders who do their job and aren’t always tempted to pinch.
would like to see more grit and checking on the blue line like the Rangers did to us
and I don’t think that would be by far the worst..
infact I think you’d see Mathesons #s come in similar to letangs
and I just threw Doumi in there as a defaulto… could be Mathy & Petts
@ Goku / No player is doing more dirty work than Ryan Lindgren. No matter how many times opponents try to sideline him, he keeps coming back for more pain. Gotta love a player like that.