Former Penguins speak

The Penguins held their annual alumni charity golf outing today at Valley Brook Country Club. We’ll have a story in the Wednesday Post-Gazette after talking to a handful of the former players about this offseason of change for the club.

In the meantime, we thought we’d bring you some comments beyond those that will be in the story.

Former goaltender Denis Herron on current goalie Marc-Andre Fleury: I watch his career. It’s interesting sometimes. I think with Marc-Andre his little problem is between his ears sometimes because his confidence goes down. That’s why you have a coach to talk to them and tell them it’s just one game.

Herron on Jim Rutherford, his Penguins teammate in 1972 and now the team GM: He’s been doing this for so long. He was a GM in Carolina for a long time. I think it’s a good fit for Pittsburgh. Usually, you have lots of general managers who have never been an NHL player. I think he’s going to do pretty well.

Former defenseman Peter Taglianetti on prospects perhaps getting a chance to play this season: You’ve got to make sure that a lot of these young players, they’re ready to play. They try to overachieve. People don’t know much about how they will perform in the NHL, [including] the [new] management and coaches. They have to step up their game and not have that deer-in-the-headlight look. It’s hard. But it’s professional sports. You play and you do well, or you don’t do well and you’re not going to be here.

Taglianetti, on how hard it is to try to build a dynasty: The tough part is that the Penguins in the ‘90s and then when [Sidney] Crosby and [Evgeni] Malkin and everybody showed up, there’s a giant bulls-eye on them. You get the best out of everybody every night. The core is there. Now that core has to be the leaders. They’ve been here for five, six, seven, eight years. It’s not a learning process for them. Now they have to achieve and play well. In the ‘90s, once the playoffs started, you saw that cream go up one or two levels. That brings everybody up another one or two levels. I think they have to all be on that same level.

Taglianetti on how the salary cap has affected teams: The one thing that’s different now than it was back then – all teams – if you look at the bottom half of the roster, there are a lot of players that are exactly the same players. They’re fast and they’re gritty. Now those guys have to take that up another level. I’ve told my kids – you’ve got to do something that makes you stand out. If you’re a skater, skate; if you’re a hitter, hit. The whole nine yards. You can’t do everything so-so. You’ve got to do one thing really, really well. If they do that, they’ll stand out and they’ll get a chance to play. Once you get comfortable playing, you relax and the whole thing starts coming around.

Former winger Troy Loney on whether widespread offseason changes snap players to attention: It does, but the ‘snap’ only lasts so long. You’ve got about half the players are different, so it will be a change for everybody. But I think for the guys who were here before, the core players, they realize that change has to happen.

Former defenseman Randy Hillier on trying to build a dynasty: I think it’s difficult now to have a dynasty. The numbers at the top end of your lineup are high in terms of salary. To fill out your bottom six [forwards] or your bottom [defensive] pairing, it’s difficult. As you see in the playoffs, you’d better be deep. LA’s done a good job. I think Chicago got beat this year because they’re not deep enough. The bottom end of their lineup cost them a little. They didn’t get enough from them. That happens. We’re no different.

Hillier, on several defensive prospects knocking on the door: I think the strength of this organization is the young prospects at the back end. As a former defenseman, I’m excited to see these kids develop, get an opportunity to play up here, play meaningful minutes and see where they are in December.