Confirmed with Link: Bunting to Nashville

[PensandCaps]

What the hell is dubas' kink with underachieving Nashville players?

Jesus dubas' version of roster building.... It's like a kid who can't walk past a dairy queen without spending 1.99 on a kids cup of vanilla soft serve.

Honestly i don't get the love for Novak. Hes a soft, pass first, center with average foot speed who "can" play wing but doesn't seem to produce much from the wing.

He's basically Jan effing hrdina 2.0

So what, are we going to shift Geno to wing full time and run Geno/novak/Tomasino second line?

It's the only way adding Novak makes sense. He's not an ideal 3rd line center, since he's not physical enough or defensively minded to lead a shut down 3rd line and he's not talented enough to be the man on a more offensive 3rd line. (Not that we have any talent to build an offensive 3rd line)

And he doesn't have the foot speed or the shot to be an effective top six winger...

so yeah he's basically Jan hrdina out there slow playing the puck before passing to past his prime Geno.

Anyone know what kip Miller is up to these days?

Novak's 5v5 goals per 60 is 1.2 this year, and 1.1 the year before.

Calling him pass first is wrong.

Along with his 2.0 points per 60 for his career, I see why people like him. Play him top 6 minutes and he's going to produce well.

 

[Empoleon8771]

IMO another major appeal with bringing in Novak is that it allows you to slide Malkin to LW and not worry about who is playing 2C. If they’d give trade Rakell and don’t bring back anyone to replace him, I think you slide Malkin to L1 and make it Malkin-Crosby-Rust and put Novak as the 2C. If Koivunen and McGroarty progress fast enough, you could have this top-6 going forward:

Malkin-Crosby-Rust
McGroarty-Novak-Koivunen

Novak is obviously not a solution for their rebuild, but he at least gives them a 2C to play the role and produce once Malkin is no longer the 2C (whether it be by retirement or being moved to LW). His contract runs through the end of Crosby’s deal, so you at least have your top-6 centers figured out for the next 3 years. At least in theory, we’ll have to see how Novak plays here.

 

[Pens1566]

Dis mfer from Toronto shows up to answer this lol

Be nice, they don't have any Stanley Cup highlight videos to watch.

 

[Ulf5]

Novak's 5v5 goals per 60 is 1.2 this year, and 1.1 the year before.

Calling him pass first is wrong.

Along with his 2.0 points per 60 for his career, I see why people like him. Play him top 6 minutes and he's going to produce well.

Still not convinced he's staying. Evans was taken off the market. St. Louis might or might not trade Schenn. Supposedly 8 teams are looking at Laughton. A lot of teams are after Cs.

 

[Duffy13]

Still not convinced he's staying. Evans was taken off the market. St. Louis might or might not trade Schenn. Supposedly 8 teams are looking at Laughton. A lot of teams are after Cs.

I think they actually plan to keep Novak and Schenn, they don't want to bring too many up from WBS right now, and supposedly will be trying to trade guys like Beau, Rakell, Acciari, Grz, and whoever else. So will need some NHL experienced players to fill the lineup without disrupting WBS too much from them having a successful season.

And next year the trade list would include Hayes, Schenn, possibly Novak hard to guess on that too much depending on how the summer goes.

Going to be an enormous amount of moving parts from now until trade deadline next season that's for sure.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Still not convinced he's staying. Evans was taken off the market. St. Louis might or might not trade Schenn. Supposedly 8 teams are looking at Laughton. A lot of teams are after Cs.

Not sure why they wouldn't keep him. They have no one that can fill the 2C role once Malkin retires or is moved to the wing. He'd likely have higher value in the future by playing a full season as a 2C rather than where he's at right now.

 

[Lust for Life]

Don't mind this deal at all, Novak is younger, cheaper and probably(?) better than Bunting, Schenn is whatever, can probably flip some point in the future.

And I mean they can flip Novak too...

 

[JTG]

Novak is a good player who I think would mesh well with Malkin.

Don't mind this deal at all, Novak is younger, cheaper and probably(?) better than Bunting, Schenn is whatever, can probably flip some point in the future.

And I mean they can flip Novak too...

He's signed at a good number for a couple more years too. I could see him getting flipped even next year. Maybe he can catch fire here

 

[pistolpete11]

Don't really get these moves. Don't think it makes the team better and doesn't do anything for the rebuild. I'm not raging out or anything, but what's the point? Guess we'll see what else Dubas has up his sleeve.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Don't really get these moves. Don't think it makes the team better and doesn't do anything for the rebuild. I'm not raging out or anything, but what's the point? Guess we'll see what else Dubas has up his sleeve.

Pretty much. But I also think it’s pretty funny that we always seem to ask for picks like 3 years out.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Don't really get these moves. Don't think it makes the team better and doesn't do anything for the rebuild. I'm not raging out or anything, but what's the point? Guess we'll see what else Dubas has up his sleeve.

The Penguins improved at both forward and defense with this move.

I don't think people realize how terrible Bunting has been at 5v5 this year.

At least so far, Dubas has done a good job at purging some of the downright shit 5v5 producers the Penguins have had this year. Bunting and O'Connor gone, Nieto waived and stashed in the AHL and Acciari rumored to be a trade candidate.

 

[Ragamuffin Gunner]

Dubi better flip Schenn

 

[Ulf5]

Not sure why they wouldn't keep him. They have no one that can fill the 2C role once Malkin retires or is moved to the wing. He'd likely have higher value in the future by playing a full season as a 2C rather than where he's at right now.

So we're anointing a soon to be 28 yo who has averaged under 14:00/game as future 2C? Interesting.

 

[Empoleon8771]

So we're anointing a soon to be 28 yo who has averaged under 14:00/game as future 2C? Interesting.

That soon to be 28 year old had 45 points in 71 games last year and 43 points in 51 games the year before. That's clearly 2C production, especially at the ice time Novak is getting.

Nashville being stupid with him doesn't mean the Penguins have to be stupid with him.

 

[Coastal Kev]

Novak's 5v5 goals per 60 is 1.2 this year, and 1.1 the year before.

Calling him pass first is wrong.

Along with his 2.0 points per 60 for his career, I see why people like him. Play him top 6 minutes and he's going to produce well.

What in the hell is 5v5 per 60 x'x's 1.2 ?????????????????????????? This sounds like made up gibberish.

Let me watch him a couple of times this weekend and I'll tell you exactly what Novak is.


(note) i understand your saying he's good scoring at 5 v 5.... I still hate the way players are analyzed these days. But then again, I also see the current state of the sport as a bastardized version of the sport that I grew up playing and loved. I give everyone involved, from the players, the coaches... especially the coaches, to the front office a giant middle finger.

 

[Empoleon8771]

From watching some clips here, he has a very good wrist shot and backhand and has some very slick hands. Pretty much looks like the definition of a skill guy. He's absolutely allergic to contact though, so you'll have to get physical/big wingers for him to play with that can win puck battles and get him the puck.

He seems like the closest thing to Kessel that this team has had since Kessel. Which makes me really interested for how Sullivan will think of him. I'm also seeing a lot of Tomasino and Novak teaming up for goals too, especially on the powerplay. I think that pair should be really nice on the 2nd PP unit.

Good 15 minute interview with him here:

 

[Ragamuffin Gunner]

The Matt Murray trade. The Alex Barabanov trade. The Mason Marchment trade. The Nazem Kadri trade.

TOR fans reading the Pens boars are f***ing losers.

 

[HandshakeLine]

The Penguins improved at both forward and defense with this move.

I don't think people realize how terrible Bunting has been at 5v5 this year.

View attachment 987688

At least so far, Dubas has done a good job at purging some of the downright shit 5v5 producers the Penguins have had this year. Bunting and O'Connor gone, Nieto waived and stashed in the AHL and Acciari rumored to be a trade candidate.

Good thing we specifically targeted him in the Guentzel trade.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Good thing we specifically targeted him in the Guentzel trade.

I'd care significantly more about that if the Penguins didn't have Koivunen and Brunicke looking like top prospects.

Bunting was a dud, Lucius looks pretty middling and I've been disappointed with what I've seen from Ponomarev, but Koivunen and Brunicke are looking great so I'm still not seeing any reason to be mad about the Guentzel deal.