News Article: Lemieux, Burkle exploring possible sale of Penguins

[Jacob]

As others have mentioned when your top 6, starting goalie, and #1 d-man is in their prime and locked up for a while and you have other cost-controlled young players (Pouliot, Maatta) you don't really need to rebuild immediately. The Penguins can rebuild their system over the next 2-4 years without needing to sell off any of their top players.

Colligan was just looking for retweets.

 

[Gallatin]

While TTEOT is nothing but dark and scarry these days, and annoying. Our top pair D have a very very uncertain future due to chronic serious injury concerns.

One of the things I keep seeing here is the reference to Maatta as a future star. I am the optimistic type myself, however I can't help but be extremely concerned about the kid after 2 major shoulder surgeries AND having to take hormone supps for the rest of his career. Lots of people struggle greatly with the thyroid meds. And he did not look good on those meds before blowing out the shoulder again.

And Letang's career appears to be on the edge with chronic cuncussions.

I like the next 5 years, but only if we don't have to find new top pairing defenders. And that my friends is very much in doubt at this point IMO.

 

[Penguinator]

Meh, pair Maatta with Letang & the kid should be ok. Your worries may become real which would lead him not being able to anchor the 2nd pair which would then lead to a greater need for a top 4 D if other guys can't adequately hold on the 2nd pair.

I'd stick him with Letang.

 

[plaidchuck]

I share those concerns. Letang needs to learn not to get hit or the team needs to put someone in a stretcher when the rinaldo or doan hits happen, or both.

I think maattas ceiling has been cur short with these illnesses but he may still.be a good second pairing guy.

 

[Valarukar]

I think Crosby will be good till he's almost 40 if he has no more concussion problems. Also the trick to rebuilding, get all the picks. It's a numbers game more than anything.

 

[Penguinator]

I think Crosby will be good till he's almost 40 if he has no more concussion problems. Also the trick to rebuilding, get all the picks. It's a numbers game more than anything.

I don't think he'll last that long, not because of another possible concussion career ending cheap shot but rather based on the physical nature of his game. I hope he proves me wrong though.

 

[plaidchuck]

I think he'll last because he has changed his game a good bit since the concussions.

 

[Jacob]

I don't think he'll be one of the top forwards in the game in his late 30s. Although even Sakic had a 100 point season at like 38.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Keep Sid away from snow blowers.

 

[Penguinator]

I think he'll last because he has changed his game a good bit since the concussions.

I'm not sure it changed that much but his speed might stretch his career though.

 

[Fordy]

i think sid can change his style again if need be. the smarts won't go away, he'll carve out a niche and be successful as long as he wants to keep playing

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

I think Sid could play late into his 30s, but it will likely be more of the perimeter version we've seen quite a bit of after the concussion/jaw injury than the beast who scored 51 goals playing with old man Guerin and the one on pace for a huge year before Steckel.

I could see Sid being a 20 goal, 70 point guy well into his mid to late 30s. I just don't think we'll see the 30+ goal, 100+ point Sid for much longer.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I don't think he'll be one of the top forwards in the game in his late 30s. Although even Sakic had a 100 point season at like 38.

I think with Sid's conditioning and adjusting his game after his neck/head injury, he'll probably play into around 38ish and still be a 80+ pt player.

 

[Til the End of Time]

i feel like crosby plays the game at such a high speed and with such a grinder mentality that that won’t translate particularly well once his physical skills start to fade. his game has adjusted post-concussion but he's definitely less effective playing this style. i think a guy like malkin might remain more productive in the twilight of his career.

 

[Speaking Moistly]

Talking about points in the future always depends on what the league does. Will they keep killing offense or will they let it thrive? And, you know, surviving this team relatively intact.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

i feel like crosby plays the game at such a high speed and with such a grinder mentality that that won’t translate particularly well once his physical skills start to fade. his game has adjusted post-concussion but he's definitely less effective playing this style. i think a guy like malkin might remain more productive in the twilight of his career.

Geno's got to show he can once again play more than 70 games in a season. If anything, Geno plays more of a reckless style than Sid. He seems to put himself in more vulnerable situations. For all the talk about Sid and his concussions, Geno's the one that's missed huge chunks of games the past handful of seasons.

 

[AjaxTelamon]

The point everyone in the room seems to ignore is the rising cap. With all our big guns all locked up long term, their share of the salary cap decreases every year, allowing us to bring in better supporting players over time. You're seeing it now, we've added Kessel and Perron without sacrificing forward depth. Our need to get production out of ELC players decreases every year.

We still need some production out of young cheap players in the near term, but we're poised to get just that out of Maatta, Dumo, DP and one or two of Plotnikov, BB, and OS.

 

[Wes C Addle]

The point everyone in the room seems to ignore is the rising cap. With all our big guns all locked up long term, their share of the salary cap decreases every year, allowing us to bring in better supporting players over time. You're seeing it now, we've added Kessel and Perron without sacrificing forward depth. Our need to get production out of ELC players decreases every year.

We still need some production out of young cheap players in the near term, but we're poised to get just that out of Maatta, Dumo, DP and one or two of Plotnikov, BB, and OS.

The rising cap will definitely help. Another big help will depend on whether this Management team can make decisions to "move on" from players and get value for them like they did with Sutter. You don't have to trade every pending UFA, but I hope we see more smart, calculated trades like that moving forward.

 

[Beauner]

All I know is that I will be severely disappointed if, at the end of it all, Sid and Geno are not side by side watching their numbers go up to the rafters. Hopefully after another few cups.

What a moment that will be.

 

[billybudd]

The point everyone in the room seems to ignore is the rising cap. With all our big guns all locked up long term, their share of the salary cap decreases every year, allowing us to bring in better supporting players over time. You're seeing it now, we've added Kessel and Perron without sacrificing forward depth. Our need to get production out of ELC players decreases every year.

We still need some production out of young cheap players in the near term, but we're poised to get just that out of Maatta, Dumo, DP and one or two of Plotnikov, BB, and OS.

The salary cap isn't going to be the undoing of this club, when it's undone (I say around 5 years from now). What's going to kill us is that

1. all our important players are roughly the same age, most have a lot of wear and tear on them and they're likely to wash up in bunches
2. odds are long that we'll be able to replace any one of them internally, let alone all of them

Ideally you want the age ranges of quality players staggered, not "every forward who's shown he's worth a damn is between 27 and 30, other than the two 35 year olds with health problems." That way, Cleary, Tatar, Helm, Kronwall, Howard, Eriksson and Nyquist don't wash up in the same year. Only Cleary does.

We're not built to internally replace much of anything when that needs doing (and at least one important player will need replaced within 5 years). 3C position. Maybe.

 

[mpp9]

The salary cap isn't going to be the undoing of this club, when it's undone (I say around 5 years from now). What's going to kill us is that

1. all our important players are roughly the same age, most have a lot of wear and tear on them and they're likely to wash up in bunches
2. odds are long that we'll be able to replace any one of them internally, let alone all of them

Ideally you want the age ranges of quality players staggered, not "every forward who's shown he's worth a damn is between 27 and 30, other than the two 35 year olds with health problems." That way, Cleary, Tatar, Helm, Kronwall, Howard, Eriksson and Nyquist don't wash up in the same year. Only Cleary does.

We're not built to internally replace much of anything when that needs doing (and at least one important player will need replaced within 5 years). 3C position. Maybe.

But again, Colligan isn't talking about 5 years from now, he's talking about in the very near future, and that's just a dumb statement to make.

In 5 years, the team doesn't deserve to be any good if they can't come up with a few quality players. They really have no need to be dealing high picks every deadline anymore. Hold onto those and scour for talent in all leagues and sell young players on coming to what is hopefully a winning organization with star players.

 

[Til the End of Time]

its no guarantee that this club will continue to spend to the cap.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I look at the Wings as a sort of example of how to stay competitive with aging stars.

Zetterberg and Datsyuk are 34+yrs old and when healthy, they're still at or near ppg players. But surrounding them are some damn solid youngsters like Tatar, Nyquist, DeKeyser, Mrazek, Jurco, and Sheahan. Let's not forget up and coming kids like Bertuzzi, Larkin, Turgeon, and their other solid prospects.

They also kept guys like Shanahan and Yzerman around for a long time and even Lidstrom until they just aged out and left (Shanny) or retired.

The Pens have a solid group right now with the new addition of players. They now need to start drafting a lot better now that they won't be wasting picks and youth to get rentals. The team is very deep and on Defense the team is going to go with youth that will be around for 5+ years.

 

[Ogrezilla]

i feel like crosby plays the game at such a high speed and with such a grinder mentality that that won’t translate particularly well once his physical skills start to fade. his game has adjusted post-concussion but he's definitely less effective playing this style. i think a guy like malkin might remain more productive in the twilight of his career.

Crosby probably has the best hockey sense in the world. He has shown an ability to transform his game time and time again. I 100% disagree with you on this.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Crosby probably has the best hockey sense in the world. He has shown an ability to transform his game time and time again. I 100% disagree with you on this.

Everyone 100% disagrees with him.

Oh on that too.