Kovacevic: No more mortgaging, please

Brief and to the Point ...

Ray Shero deserves every bit of the biting criticism he generally hears for the black hole that is the Penguins' pool of youth. He drafted terribly, and he dealt away the few prospects he actually procured as if they were playing cards.

Jim Rutherford might well win General Manager of the Millennium for the Rob Scuderi/Trevor Daley trade alone, but he's been equally guilty in this regard. In his far briefer tenure, he's already wasted a first-round pick on David Perron, a second-rounder on Daniel Winnik, and he included top prospect Kasperi Kapanen and a conditional 2016 first-rounder in the Phil Kessel trade.

At some point, it's got to stop. And that point should be now.



It's not just about the obvious, that being that the Penguins need to replenish at the youngest levels to sustain a salary-cap fit that's founded on a core of stars. Or that they visibly benefit from younger legs, as we've witnessed this year more than any other since 2008. From the business and hockey standpoints, the younger the roster the better.

But this winter, it's about more than that. It's about relative need.

Rutherford told our Josh Yohe yesterday that he isn't as gung-ho about adding a defenseman as he'd been before Daley and Derrick Pouliot infused speed and efficiency on the back end. Maybe he's right. Maybe he's overestimating Pouliot in a small sample. Heck, maybe he's bluffing and would rather add depth at left wing.

Either way, the relative need for a No. 5 or 6 defenseman isn't dire. Neither is the wing.

What's most needed, at least from this perspective, is the one commodity the Penguins have lacked more than any other over the past decade: Patience.

Think about it: Daniel Sprong will be in the fold next season. Imagine a more mature Sprong in the Mike Sullivan structure. The young AHL forwards will be a year more experienced but no more expensive. Pouliot might -- that's might -- finally get it together. Matt Murray could offer a legit goaltending tandem. And there's no telling what an honest-to-Robert-Dome first-round pick might bring right off the bat, should the Penguins wind up with one

On so many levels, 2016-17 looks so much more promising than this one, even with the recent upturn under Sullivan.

So why forfeit that now for mere depth?

And don't kid yourself: The price for mere depth is really high. The Maple Leafs just got a second-rounder for Nick Spaling, for crying out loud. Or look into the Jets' asking price for captain Andrew Ladd, and you're hearing about a top prospect and a first-rounder for a two-month rental. Ladd's been a terrific performer and citizen in Winnipeg, and I've long admired who and what he is. But my goodness, that's not a price worth paying. Certainly not for the Penguins. Not now.

But maybe next year.

• Full credit to Jeff Zatkoff. It's my understanding that he'd known since the beginning of this month that Murray would be recalled and bump him from the backup role. But it was Zatkoff's outstanding 42-save effort Feb. 6 in the 3-2 overtime win at Florida that fended off that recall for another couple of weeks. And all throughout, he showed up for work with a smile.

• Sidney Crosby and Phil Kessel had a few encouraging shifts last week. My priority would still be to connect Kessel and Carl Hagelin on the second line once Evgeni Malkin returns. Kessel's unusual in that he doesn't bring much to the party other than points. Most of the time, anyway. When he's out there with Hagelin, those two burst through the neutral zone with so much combined speed that they can wear out defensemen just by forcing them to backpedal and/or chase.

That trait benefits both Crosby and Malkin in different ways as the game deepens.

• Don't understand the Sullivan system yet?

Maybe that's because you're seeking Xs and Os rather than a philosophy. Watch this sequence, from the Sunday game in Buffalo:



Ian Cole pinches into the Sabres' zone, but Hagelin pursues back and doggedly steals the puck. He doesn't keep control, but Pouliot is there on the support to nudge it up, and Matt Cullen carries it right back into the Sabres' zone and registers a shot on goal.

That's a mentality. A pack mentality.

• Don't look now, but the NHL's worst team is ... yeah, Edmonton.

OK, enough is enough. When you win the lottery and pick No. 1 overall year after year, at some point, your team's got to be disqualified from the draw. As I wrote from lovely Alberta just about a year ago, let someone else have a shot at all that talent.

• Andrew McCutchen playing good soldier is exactly who he is. Even when a huge percentage of his fellow Pirates have been upset about something related to the front office, he's always shrugged it off.

A.J. Burnett, Neil Walker and Travis Snider had a commanding presence in that clubhouse and unflinchingly spoke their minds. Those guys won't be around this summer.

We'll see.

• I was hosting a radio show on 105.9 the X the other day, and a guy called in questioning the legitimacy of the Penguins' selout streak, now at 407 games. It's a tired topic, mostly contrived by people who don't understand that the word "sellouts" is derived from the word "sell," which points to selling tickets. If all tickets are sold, it's a sellout.

Anyway, I asked the guy if he was a baseball fan. Because in my experience, only the local baseball fans have tried to diminish the Penguins' streak and even the Steelers' streak that dates all the way back to 1972.

He didn't really acknowledge the question, so I further mentioned that the Pirates failed to sell out PNC Park for the final 18 games of the 2015 regular season, even though they were on the way to a 98-win season and were in a pulsating pennant race, with the Cardinals in town for one-third of those 18 games.

No response.

He was a baseball fan.

• The Pirates' best player in April will be ... Jordy Mercer?

Well, maybe he won't be, but trust me that there will be no one in that clubhouse more motivated to start well. He's had two terrible starts in as many seasons and, on each occasion, nearly lost his job over it. Can't happen again.

• Thoughts and prayers go out to Tony Beasley, the Pirates' former first base coach -- now with the Rangers -- who's about to battle cancer. Just a good, good man.

• It's just plain uncomfortable to talk about replacing Heath Miller. Probably unfair, too, at least in the context of Jesse James.

The kid out of Penn State and Glassport had a sharp rookie season. He appeared in eight games, started two, and all of those were in the second half, so it's reasonable to accept when the Steelers were praising his improvement in practice as the season went along. At the same time, he caught eight passes for 56 yards and that one memorable touchdown against the Raiders, that on his very first NFL reception:



Well, let's not allow the drama to outweigh the reality. His career production was less than the average game for Miller, and all kinds of questions linger, not least of which relate to his blocking. Because if anyone thinks Mike Tomlin will tolerate a tight end who can't block, they obviously haven't been paying attention.

Keep Matt Spaeth. Keep looking for more help. And cut the 21-year-old some slack.

• This just in to our news desk: Vontaze Burfict is an idiot.

• The single most embarrassing thing that could happen to James Franklin wouldn't be a Penn State loss to Pitt, though that would sting more than anyone with the Nittany Lions would admit.

No, it'll be Christian Hackenberg getting drafted by -- who else? -- Bill O'Brien and the Texans, then suddenly lighting up the NFL once J.J. Watt and the Houston defense make sure he gets plenty of snaps. Oh, and also once Hack is playing behind an offensive line that doesn't matador its way to 39 sacks in 13 games.

The question is whether O'Brien can wait beyond the first round to get his wish. Risky call.

• I don't know how Penn State will fare against Pitt -- ask me again after James Conner makes a healthy recovery, which I'm betting he will -- but I'll bet there's more of the Nittany Lions' faithful inside Heinz Field that day. And that's not a jab. It's a simple matter of precedent and math. Oh, and that I've heard from someone who would know that Penn State fans are snapping up Pitt season tickets left and right, even if they only intend to attend that one game.

• Bold prediction for Pitt's two huge games this week at the Pete: If the Panthers were to somehow beat both No. 11 Louisville and No. 15 Duke, not one of Jamie Dixon's detractors would descend from his back. I've never felt the negative sentiment toward the head coach locked in quite like this.

• The last time Pitt and Louisville met, down in Kentucky in mid-January, the Panthers got 18 points from Mike Young and 23 from the rest of the roster in a 59-41 loss. The man could use some help, it's safe to say, in the bigger games. Jamel Artis is averaging 15.1 points per game for the season. In the Panthers' five meetings with ranked teams -- they're 0-5, you know -- that average is 9.2.

• I've been tough at times on Micah Mason, but Duquesne's senior point guard is sticking it to everyone these days: He's put up 20-plus points in six straight games -- average of 24.8 -- for the longest such streak at the school. Derrick Alston did likewise in 1992-93. As always with Micah, he feasts beyond the arc, where he's shot 52.7 percent.

Good for him. If the Dukes shock the basketball world and do anything in the Atlantic 10 tournament, it'll be on his shoulders.

• Pittsburgh isn't a minor-league town. Never has been. So watching a player get promoted from Pittsburgh to the bigs would figure to be an awkward, uncomfortable experience.

Funny, but it doesn't feel that way with Rob Vincent.

Even the most casual observer at Highmark Stadium wouldn't take long to single out No. 2 for the Riverhounds, with his booming long-range strikes, precise feel for passing and passionate runs. He was the most prolific professional soccer player our city had ever seen, probably the best at any position. He flat-out didn't belong in the second-tier USL, and all of us watching him knew it, including those who didn't want to admit it.

Now, of course, he's been picked up by D.C. United of MLS. And it won't surprise anyone in this part of the world when he not only starts but also excels. He's got that kind of skill, that kind of drive. And after how he showed up United by being the very best player on the pitch in that U.S. Open Cup match here last summer, it shouldn't surprise anyone in the nation's capital, either.

Check out this farewell video put together by the Riverhounds. It says more than I could.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01FBlyBfOdU

Best of luck to an exemplary 25-year-old with the world still in front of him.