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"The Departed" series on Empty Netters is a set of "eulogies" for former Penguins who have passed away... to other teams. Essentially, we look back on their time as a Penguin, examine their contributions to the franchise and as real eulogies occasionally do, exaggerate a bit. Today's eulogy is dedicated to Alex Goligoski.

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The Penguins have had a pretty awful history with second-round picks, especially during the bulk of the Craig Patrick's time as the team's general manager. Never mind that players like Shane Endicott, Rusty Fitzpatrick, Matt Murley, Richard Park, Domenic Pittis, Ryan Stone and Noah Welch were mostly ineffective during their brief cups of coffee with the Penguins at the NHL level. The simple fact they were able to reach the NHL, even for a short while, made them among the best second-rounders by the team since the late 1980s.

At the very least, it gave them a distinct advantage over the likes of Brian Gaffney, Marc Hussey, Ondrej Nemec, Jeremy Van Hoof and Alexander Zevakhin who never played in the NHL.

Even before Patrick took over the Penguins, you would have to go all the way back to 1976 to find a second-rounder who contributed anything significant for the Penguins in forward Greg Malone.

While the 2004 draft will always be remembered by Penguins fans as the one their team was able to select Evgeni Malkin, a superstar who helped reverse the fortunes of a floundering franchise, it also reversed a trend of drafting mostly stiffs in the second round.

The Penguins actually had two second-rounders in that draft. With the 31st overall pick, they took a forward named Johannes Salmonsson who has never even sniffed the NHL. With the 61st, a pick they acquired from the Vancouver Canucks in a trade for fan favorite Johan Hedberg, the team took Alex Goligoski, a defenseman from the Sioux Falls Stampede of the USHL.

A native of Minnesota, Goligoski would spend the next three seasons with the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers, a traditional college hockey power, along side the likes of fellow futures NHLers such as Phil Kessel, Kyle Okposo and Blake Wheeler.

After the 2006-07 season, Goligoski opted to turn pro and signed an entry-level contract with the Penguins. He spent most of 2007-08 learning the professional game under an assistant coach named Dan Byslma and playing with other future NHL Penguins such as Dustin Jeffrey, Deryk Engelland, Mark Letestu and Ben Lovejoy. Goligoski led all defensemen on the AHL Penguins in scoring with 38 points in 70 games. His most impressive accomplishment in his first professional season was leading the team in playoff scoring with 28 points while helping the team make a run to the Calder Cup final.

Goligoski did get a brief call-up to the NHL that season. Wearing No. 67 (It was often joked that No. 66 and 68 weren't available.), Goligoski managed to produce two assists in just three NHL games.

The future was very bright for this second-rounder. But it was assumed he would spend another season in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to further his development. Following their run to the 2008 Stanley Cup final, the Penguins were stacked with defensemen. Mark Eaton, Hal Gill, Sergei Gonchar, Kris Letang, Brooks Orpik, Rob Scuderi, Darryl Sydor and Ryan Whitney were all under contract. Many suggested the Penguins had too many defensemen.

But in the summer, that perceived strength took a hit when it was revealed Whitney would be sidelined several months due to foot surgery. Then in the preseason, the blue line suffered a major loss when Gonchar suffered a separated shoulder which would sideline him until February. All of a sudden, the Penguins' top two offensive defensemen were out of the lineup.

Goligoski's offensive abilities were pressed into service. Along with second-year player Kris Letang, he manned the point on the team's power play. Success was almost immediate. In his first game of the season, a 3-1 loss to the Senators in Sweden, he scored the team's only goal on a power play.

He had several moments of brilliance that showed Penguins fans he was more than capable of contributing. He scored what proved to be the winning goal in a 5-4 shootout win against the rival Flyers, Nov. 13:

His best effort of the season was a two-goal, one-assist game in a dramatic 4-3 overtime win at Buffalo Dec. 22. Goligoski's second goal forced the game to overtime.

Over the course of that season, Goligoski displayed an ability to handle an NHL workload as he managed to score 20 points in 45 games.

Whitney had returned the lineup in December and Gonchar was back by February. And with every other defenseman on the roster healthy, that forced the Penguins to send Goligoski back to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton simply because he still had a two-way contract. He ended up with 18 points in 26 AHL regular season games in 2008-09.

Gonchar suffered another serious injury in the playoffs when he was dropped by Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin in Game 4 of an Eastern Conference semifinal series. That prompted the return of Goligoski. He appeared in two postseason games and recorded one point. He didn't play beyond that semifinal series but was on the ice with the rest of the organization June 12, 2009 lifting the Stanley Cup when the franchise claimed it for the third time. Goligoski's service in the regular season merited the honor of having his name engraved on the Cup.

During the 2009 offseason, the Penguins signed Goligoski to a three-year contract extension with a salary capt hit of $1.8 million. It was pretty clear that with loss of Gill and Scuderi to free agency and the retirement of fellow defenseman Philippe Boucher, Goligoski was expected to become a full-time NHLer.

Teamed with veteran signing Jay McKee, Goligoski started 2009-10 on fire picking up 11 points in his first 14 games. He even managed to compile a seven-game point-scoring streak in October. Part of that streak was a dramatic game-tying goal with just over two minutes left in a comeback 4-3 shootout win at Columbus Oct. 30:

But eventually, Goligoski hit a wall in his first full NHL season. A leg injury which cost him six games in November seemed to be the genesis of his declined play. After getting five goals in October, Goligoski could only muster three the rest of the season. And while no one was ever going to confuse Goligoski with Scuderi in terms of defense, that part of his game lagged as well. The low point for Goligoski may have been a 6-3 home loss to the Capitals April 6 when he simply fell down while defending speedy Washington forward Alexander Semin:

The postseason seemed to spark Goligoski's production as he recorded nine point in 13 games, but the Penguins were eliminated by the Canadiens in an Eastern Conference semifinal series.

With Gonchar leaving in the 2010 offseason, the onus was on Goligoski and Letang to pick up the slack offensively on the blue line. And both were up to the task immediately. As Letang turned into a legit Norris Trophy candidate, "Goose" started the season on a seven-game point-scoring streak. Part of that streak was a game-winning power-play goal in a 3-2 overtime win against the Islanders, the first home victory for the Penguins in brand new Consol Energy Center:

Goligoski finally appeared to have matured into being a legit top four defenseman the Penguins had hoped for. But despite having 31 points in 60 games, including four game-winning goals, a franchise record for defensemen, and a team-leading plus-20, Goligoski really wasn't a top-four defenseman on this team.

 He was kind of relegated to the bottom-two pairing with the likes of Engelland or Lovejoy. The Penguins' top pairing of Letang and Brooks Orpik ate up big minutes while the duo of offseason free agent signings Paul Martin and Zbynek Michalek seemed to get every tough defensive match up. And with prospects such as Simon Despres, Robert Bortuzzo and Brian Strait in the system, the club was heavy in defensemen throughout the entire organization.

Additionally the club had a long-standing need to add depth on the wings, a problem which was made worse by the injuries to Malkin and Sidney Crosby. The writing was on the wall for Goligoski.

On Feb. 21, general manager Ray Shero traded the talented young defenseman to the Dallas Stars in exchange for James Neal, a power forward with 20-goal potential and defenseman Matt Niskanen, another young blue-liner from Minnesota.

Ultimately, Goligoski only was able to show flashes of his true potential in Pittsburgh. There was always someone in front of him. He seemed to finally break through this season but by that time, having him was a luxury. And in the age of a salary cap, there isn't much room for luxury on the roster.

In 177 career regular season games with the Penguins, Goligoski scored 90 points, 94th-most in franchise history. In 15 career postseason games, he contributed 10 points.

(Photos: First-Justin K. Aller/Getty Images; Second-Jerry S. Mendoza/Associated Press; Third-University of Minnesota; Fourth-Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

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