Salary Cap: 24-25 Salary Thread Crosbicles Volume MXVI: Sad Penguins, no Ploffs, got tariffed instead

McGroarty, Koivunen, Novak, Tomasino, Ponomarev, Hallander, Dewar. Six or Seven new forwards.

Provorov (or Gavrikov), Hague, Timmins, Pickering. Four new D.

Blom, Murashov or Larsson with the big club.
Unless we get very lucky with some of the prospects, it's largely the same in terms of players that make a real difference. It would still have top 2 centers on the wrong side of 38 and top 2 D-men on the wrong side of 35. And last but not least, a coach who couldn't do shit with a lot better rosters between 2018 and 2023 and seems to be getting worse with each passing year.
 
Guys , Tampa fan offered 2028 1st round pick for Rust


Just verbally accept so it’s done deal
 
Provorov can f*** off. He also sucks.
Yeah I watch a decent amount of Jackets games and he looks like a player that should be good but isn’t. Gives up a ton of goals when he’s on the ice. I think the reason they couldn’t trade him was because no one wanted him.
 
OK I'll bite.

I'm sorry, but that's a wild card team.
I don't think it is unless the goaltending can get figured out. They probably aren't going with Murashov right out of camp unless he just blows the doors off. Blom didn't look ready this year so I dunno why he would be suddenly starter quality next year. TJ and Ned suck and TJ's recent surge is going to be a forgotten memory by the time the games matter again and he goes back to being a turd.

There's just no feasible way I can see the Pens being a playoff team next year short of figuring out the goaltending and I don't see any reason why it will get figured out.
 
I think if Karlsson and Letang are both back next year it will just be more of the same no matter what other moves are made. One of them has to go (most likely Karlsson). If they both do both come back, I think it will be quite telling that Dubas is NOT trying to win/make the playoffs next year.
Especially if Sullivan is still here lol
 
I don't think it is unless the goaltending can get figured out. They probably aren't going with Murashov right out of camp unless he just blows the doors off. Blom didn't look ready this year so I dunno why he would be suddenly starter quality next year. TJ and Ned suck and TJ's recent surge is going to be a forgotten memory by the time the games matter again and he goes back to being a turd.

There's just no feasible way I can see the Pens being a playoff team next year short of figuring out the goaltending and I don't see any reason why it will get figured out.

Regarding Blomqvist, his developmental trajectory is not too dissimilar to Dustin Wolf's, to be honest. Perhaps not at the AHL level, where Wolf was more dominant, but both struggled badly at the NHL level...until this season, when suddenly Wolf did not anymore.

The point is obviously moot if we don't change coaches, but I am not writing off Blomqvist.

Heck, I would not write off any talented Penguins player until we see what could be with a coaching change.
 
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I'd pay 8m for him. Time to rebaseline our perceptions of what players are worth in this rising cap environment.

Or: Trade Karlsson, Re-sign Gryzelcyk, and go after someone like Ekblad.

Ekblad is toast.

There is no reason in hell this team should be giving anyone an 8 year deal unless it's a top 5-10 player in the league.
 
Ekblad is toast.

There is no reason in hell this team should be giving anyone an 8 year deal unless it's a top 5-10 player in the league.
I don't think there's a single defenseman available in UFA I'd be excited to sign. With the limited supply and increasing cap those D are going to get waaaay too much money and waaaay too many years.
 
If this organization pays BIG money to another defenseman this off-season, and keeps the coaching staff intact, then they have clearly not learned a damn thing and deserve everything they (don't) get out of the player.
They're actively damaging the team now by bringing the kids up here. Management is actively trying to win games that hurt them this summer. Makes no sense. They were demoralized after the Buffalo game. We should have just left everything alone. If you're not gonna win this season, at least put yourself in the best position possible to get a difference maker in the draft. Absolutely ridiculous.
 
Guys , Tampa fan offered 2028 1st round pick for Rust


Just verbally accept so it’s done deal
@Gurglesons Tampa fan made the best offer on the thread I think.

Kindly reply to him when you get the chance
 
I'd pay 8m for him. Time to rebaseline our perceptions of what players are worth in this rising cap environment.

Or: Trade Karlsson, Re-sign Gryzelcyk, and go after someone like Ekblad.
I want nothing to do with Ekblad after he got popped for a banned substance for the second time. Plus he appears to be very close to having his game fall off a cliff.
 
Toronto has a pretty big chance of an early first round win this year - and they have the added benefit of Boston not being around to dump them.

Therefore, the euphoria of a first round victory likely means Marner is signing 8 x 14.25 in Toronto. 10% of media will rightfully call that insanity for team building - the other 90% will drown them out talking about how hard it is to find good players and use bad contracts as poor examples as to why 14.25 makes sense for a 100 point player.

That said, if he moves on - I just don't see how he doesn't choose San Jose or Chicago. I'd love to have him on the Pens for a few years of point boosting Sid/Geno but it really doesn't make a lot of sense from his perspective unless he's really, really good buddies with Sid and doesn't care about playoff hockey all that much.
 
Feel like end of season games can kinda be a mirage but:

Koivunen looks pretty encouraging. His skating is kinda brutal but he gets around ok. Will be interesting to see if he can get faster/stronger. I think he can really increase his chances of being a long term top 6 player in the league if he does. Skill, precision, IQ are there to play with leagues best.

McGroarty is like the opposite. Besides changing direction suddenly (he literally gets stuck) his skating has been solid and overall athleticism holds up. Strength is already there and he’ll only get stronger from here. But the precision part is really lacking. He’s gotta clean up his hands and be more precise in his touches/passes. It’s interesting because he was kinda considered a deadly finisher coming out in the draft.

Both look solid and should be NHLers but both have flaws that could hold them back from reaching their ultimate upside if they don’t improve.
 
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IMO both Koivunen and McGroarty look middle-6 caliber right now, no worse than what someone like Sheary was while playing with Crosby. I have zero concerns about penciling them into the top-6 for next year from what they’ve shown to end the year.

They still should get some Beauvillier type insurance to play on L3 just in case, I’ve been throwing out Iafallo as that guy, but beyond that I don’t see much of a need to change their forwards much. Any changes they need to make have to come from guys retiring (Malkin) or being shipped out (Acciari, Hayes, Heinen) and replaced with younger guys.
 
I don't think there's a single defenseman available in UFA I'd be excited to sign. With the limited supply and increasing cap those D are going to get waaaay too much money and waaaay too many years.

Yeah I was going to comment the same thing, I think you can extend that to forwards outside of Marner as well.

The only guy I'd want to sign this off-season to a multi-year deal is Marner. Anyone else I just don't see as appealing.
 
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Yeah I was going to comment the same thing, I think you can extend that to forwards outside of Marner as well.

The only guy I'd want to sign this off-season to a multi-year deal is Marner. Anyone else I just don't see as appealing.
Ehlers could maybe be interesting, but yeah outside of Marner I would much prefer to give guys really really big 1 year deals than get them on lower AAV for term.
 
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Ehlers could maybe be interesting, but yeah outside of Marner I would much prefer to give guys really really big 1 year deals than get them on lower AAV for term.

Ehlers would be interesting from a "trade Rakell for assets and immediately replace him" POV, but it seems like a pretty lateral move.

That said, Ehlers is a lefty LW so it removes any concerns people may have about wanting Koivunen to stay on RW. But Ehlers is likely costing $9 million in free agency and I'm not sure I see a point in trading Rakell at $5 million just to sign Ehlers at $9 million.
 

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