Confirmed with Link: Penguins acquire Erik Karlsson for Granlund, 1st rounder in 2024, Rutta, Petry, DeSmith (more in first post)

[Ogrezilla]

I have no idea if this is a smart move long term, but it sure makes me more interested in watching the team this coming season.

 

[Turin]

If you send down Pitlick, replace him with Hinostroza or Nylander and send down Smith and carry 6 D you have 1.8 in space with Guentzel back.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Also also wanted to give @Turin an @ for holding the line this whole time haha

 

[Peat]

I’m seeing some people mention that they wished we got more retention on EK and while that’s obviously very fair, I think it’s misplaced. The projected cap rise over the next few seasons means it is really this year and next (which is also our remaining window) that matters - and we moved out so much more cap in this trade than I could ever have hoped. Outside of Carter, we have no bad deals on this team, and only our starting goalie, top-6 forwards, and top-4 defensemen are making any serious cash - exactly how it should be.

I give Dubas 11/10 for what he’s done so far. Those of you who incessantly complain about Jarry can buzz off - he was by far the best goalie available for this team, and is among the league leaders in SP over the past few seasons. He just needs to start also making those saves at the end of the year.

Basically my complaint there would be is we could have hopefully bullshitted our way out of the guys who got moved to allow us to improve, but there's no way we can bullshit our way into Karlsson getting even cheaper to give us more room.

Given how little we paid, I'm not bothered though.

That's because he put up 64 5v5 points and negated the goals against. How many is he gonna put up this year?
He averages 12 EVG's and 19 EVA's per 82 games. 31 even-strength points total.

So if he goes back to his norm it's gonna be difficult to mask his deficiencies. He's gonna need a lot of help from Petts/Graves, Jarry/Ned and the Forwards defensively.

I dunno how far back you're counting his average, but he's been on some shockingly bad teams. His norm is very misleading.

If you send down Pitlick, replace him with Hinostroza or Nylander and send down Smith and carry 6 D you have 1.7 in space with Guentzel back.

Put Ty Smith on waivers and you should expect him to be claimed. Trade or keep on the roster.

 

[yzerman]

And I thought the premier game Pittsburgh-Chicago was very interesting before the Karlsson trade now i feel like a little kid again waiting for something.

 

[Turin]

Also also wanted to give @Turin an @ for holding the line this whole time haha

I’m just waiting for the Sharks fans to @ me who thought they were getting two firsts, Smith and Poulin.

Basically my complaint there would be is we could have hopefully bullshitted our way out of the guys who got moved to allow us to improve, but there's no way we can bullshit our way into Karlsson getting even cheaper to give us more room.

Given how little we paid, I'm not bothered though.



I dunno how far back you're counting his average, but he's been on some shockingly bad teams. His norm is very misleading.



Put Ty Smith on waivers and you should expect him to be claimed. Trade or keep on the roster.

Oh I forgot he’s waived eligible. Nvm.

 

[OnMyOwn]

I have no idea if this is a smart move long term, but it sure makes me more interested in watching the team this coming season.

That’s the biggest thing for me. I love Sid and G and I’m glad we are throwing more high end guys at the team to try while they’re still here, regardless of what our actual chances are. I may even fork over some $ for an EK jersey.

 

[bathroomSTAAL]

Couple hours later and I still can't believe Erik f***ing Karlsson is a Pittsburgh Penguin. This is so cool

 

[Empoleon8771]

I think the defense should be set in stone with POJ-Ruhwedel as the 3rd pair and Smith as the extra. Smith will get plenty of minutes as a top-4 replacement for Letang and Karlsson, since both are fairly injury prone at this point.

If you're changing the D at all, I'd want to add a more physical replacement for Rutta and push Ruhwedel off the team. They're going to have to run with a 22 man roster and the extra D will be Smith, so they don't have a spot for Ruhwedel if he's not the 3rd pair RD.

 

[Genetic]

The thought of sully not putting EK on the top powerplay will haunt my dreams until the season starts.

 

[Ryder71]

If you send down Pitlick, replace him with Hinostroza or Nylander and send down Smith and carry 6 D you have 1.8 in space with Guentzel back.

So we could pick up a guy like Tatar. Even so carrying only six D seems kinda risky.

 

[Turin]

I think the defense should be set in stone with POJ-Ruhwedel as the 3rd pair and Smith as the extra. Smith will get plenty of minutes as a top-4 replacement for Letang and Karlsson, since both are fairly injury prone at this point.

If you're changing the D at all, I'd want to add a more physical replacement for Rutta and push Ruhwedel off the team. They're going to have to run with a 22 man roster and the extra D will be Smith, so they don't have a spot for Ruhwedel if he's not the 3rd pair RD.

We’ll see about goaltending but for me the holes are bottom six wing and 3rd pair RD. Which obviously isn’t major and both can be addressed fairly straightforwardly.

So we could pick up a guy like Tatar. Even so carrying only six D seems kinda risky.

Yea Peat pointed out that Smith is waiver eligible now so that’s not an option. But theoretically they could make another minor trade to open up the possibility of signing another cheap deal.

 

[Freeptop]

If you send down Pitlick, replace him with Hinostroza or Nylander and send down Smith and carry 6 D you have 1.8 in space with Guentzel back.

Even without sending down Smith (since he wouldn't clear waivers), doing something like this to start the season is actually kind of likely, to keep from needing to use LTIR space.
That way they can take advantage of pro-rated contract space - the longer you can keep a few players down, the smaller their cap hit becomes when they get called up.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

I dunno how far back you're counting his average, but he's been on some shockingly bad teams. His norm is very misleading.

Whole career. 318 EVPs in 920 games.
Being on bad teams can also provide more opportunity for scoring sometimes though. When the coach is heavily relying on you for scoring, you'll get deployed in a way where you get favorable matchups. He had 64.7% O-zone starts last year when his norm is 56.3%.
Some bad teams have good power plays too, like the Sens at 8th or Buffalo at 9th last year.
I'll be curious to see what kinda usage Sullivan gives him. He generally likes to rely on his 2nd pair defensively as much as the 1st pair these days.
Plus won't his 5v5 minutes take a hit on a better team?

My expectation is 65-70 points if he plays 80+ games. I think he'll play like 60-65 games though, and a chunk of points will be lost.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I know going off of highlight packages isn't exactly good science but EK still sure looks like an elite skater to me, BTW. Dude's edgework looks as good as it ever has IMO. He and Sid out on the same sheet of ice exhibiting their brand of skating ability seems like it's gonna be cause for tons of opposing players getting whiplash.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

And replaced him with Ruh full time in the line up

I like to stupidly think Sullivan is somewhat borderline intelligent enough to play Friedman over him but we all know that's a fools hope.

Dubas will see it and get someone is the hope.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Matt Cooke showing up to an alumni cup event and seeing Karlsson all like...

 

[The Great Mighty Poo]

Absolutely inexcusable for the power play to be a caldron of bubbling smashed assholes this season again, you just got this generation's best offensive defenseman and power play quarterback.

 

[Nakawick]

I have no idea if this is a smart move long term, but it sure makes me more interested in watching the team this coming season.

We ain’t in it for the long term!

 

[Headshot77]

Also now the Penguins are "hurting their rebuild" evidently. Because that's why Geno/Letang took a combined 4-5M dollar break to come back... to start dat rebuild. I know it's HF but what a loser's mentality. And additionally I'm sure all these opposing fans are actually super concerned about the Penguins rebuild.

Oof ouch owie my rebuild.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Absolutely inexcusable for the power play to be a caldron of bubbling smashed assholes this season again, you just got this generation's best offensive defenseman and power play quarterback.

I'm confident of very little in recent years with this team but provided EK is handed the keys and is healthy I just don't see how they couldn't improve drastically, there. With how EK seems to approach the powerplay this team will be FORCED to move their feet.

Oof ouch owie my rebuild.

Oh noes we might not be able to draft the next generation's Colby Armstrong!

 

[Nakawick]

But who is PKing? Letang/Graves and then,…

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

We ain’t in it for the long term!

We're here for a good time... not a long time.

Imma make that the credo for the next two years haha

 

[Peat]

Whole career. 318 EVPs in 920 games.
Being on bad teams can also provide more opportunity for scoring sometimes though. When the coach is heavily relying on you for scoring, you'll get deployed in a way where you get favorable matchups. He had 64.7% O-zone starts last year when his norm is 56.3%.
Some bad teams have good power plays too, like the Sens at 8th or Buffalo at 9th last year.
I'll be curious to see what kinda usage Sullivan gives him. He generally likes to rely on his 2nd pair defensively as much as the 1st pair these days.

My expectation is 65-70 points if he plays 80+ games. I think he'll play like 60-65 games though, and a chunk of points will be lost.

I would say an offensive 1D is always going to be hurt more by being on a bad team than aided. He's getting those minutes more or less anywhere he goes. He's not necessarily getting good team mates. Good team mates are worth a lot more than

I wouldn't regard the Sens or Buffalo last year as bad teams. Kind of mediocre. Certainly not shockingly bad. They're not trading their 2nd highest pacing scorer at the deadline with no forwards over 70 points.

Karlsson being at 65-70 points would make him identical to Kris Letang in '22, a season where we only had half a season of Malkin. Karlsson is very clearly a better offensive player than Letang and he is going to get Letang's usage, close enough. He should be higher. If he's not around ppg, there's a good chance something has gone wrong.

 

[Extra Texture]

Here is a thought exercise: we were over the moon in the spring, bc Hextall managed to clear the cap of Kapanen and McGinn, before he promptly shat the bed with Granlund.

Imagine if someone came top you before the EK saga had legs and said "Irrespective of the cap, you can get Karlsson for a protected 1st, 2nd and a prospect not named Yager or Pickering." I would've been all over the god damn deal, just on its face.

But it happened. And on the same day, we shed 3 of the players we were all most desperate to see go.

Couple hours later and I still can't believe Erik f***ing Karlsson is a Pittsburgh Penguin. This is so cool

Exactly my feeling. It feels a little unreal. I actually feel so good about how this has worked out, I almost feel a little bad, like in a "pride comes before a fall" way.

I'll be disappointed if this team doesn't make a little noise, but even if this doesnt work out to the fullest extent, its a thrill to know this ownership and management wasnt going to waste the sunset years of 3 franchise legends. That they were not going to accept mediocrity when there was a difference maker out there.

Now, when the other penny drops, and they finally realize they have a mediocre coach, then we can REALLY see what this group of players.