It'd be a great time for Penguins to learn more about Sam Poulin, but doing so comes with complications

Sam Poulin — Photo via GETTY

At least publicly, the Penguins continue to state their intentions of righting the ship and making the postseason.

That ain’t gonna happen.

This is the first time since Sidney Crosby’s rookie season that the Penguins are playing meaningless regular-season games. The extent of how meaningless their final 18 games become is up to Kyle Dubas and Mike Sullivan. Those games don’t have to be entirely meaningless.

This season was a massive dud. The short- and long-term future is pretty bleak. Yet every indication from Dubas has been that the Penguins are, once again, going to try and be competitive next season. If that’s the case, it’s not too early for them to start doing some homework for the 2024-25 campaign (wow, that feels weird to even type out).

Sam Poulin, the Penguins’ first-round pick (No. 21 overall) in the 2019 NHL Draft, turned 23 last month and will soon reach the point where he’s no longer considered a prospect.

It’s high time for the Penguins to start figuring out what they’ve got in the 6-foot-1, 208-pound forward at the NHL level.

Poulin’s had an interesting development path to this point. His production in the QMJHL took quite the leap in his draft +1 season, but promptly fell on his draft +2.

The following season (2021-22), Poulin made the jump to pro hockey and played 72 games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the AHL, recording 16 goals and 21 assists. Not terrible by any stretch. Still, the Penguins were hoping to see a bit more out of the first-rounder.

In 2022-23, Poulin had a wretched, unproductive start in the AHL. He did, however, make his NHL debut, playing three games and logging an assist with the Penguins. Shortly after being re-assigned to the AHL, he left the team to return home for the remainder of the season due to personal reasons. His final AHL stat line: 15 games, four goals, no assists.

While he’s hardly been any sort of dominant force in the AHL this season, he’s taken a big and necessary developmental step forward despite dealing with a pair of injuries that forced him to miss time. Through 30 games, he’s potted 12 goals to go along with 12 assists.

The ship has sailed on Poulin becoming a top-of-the-lineup player in the NHL, but the door remains cracked for him to become a third-liner who brings some strength and provides some skill with the puck.

This kind of skill with the puck:

Will that translate to the NHL consistently enough for Poulin to make a solid impact as a role player? I’m not sure.

What I am sure of is that the Penguins’ current offensive ineptitude can’t get much worse. They’ve scored just two goals across their last four games and six goals across their last six games.