Salary Cap: Pens '24-'25 Salary Thread: The Crosbicles Volume XIX

[Big Friggin Dummy]

I don't think FSG even thought they had a chance at Dubas when they extended Sullivan. The extension certainly has nothing to do with Dubas' power to fire Sullivan if he wishes. I'm sure FSG doesn't want to pay out all that money. But they have to be smart enough to put in his contract that it's void if he's hired elsewhere. At least you would think.
And as we've seen, people in the hockey world are enamored with Sullivan.

I don't think money's the issue. Sullivan's owed like $17M or something isn't he? That's something like 0.001% of FSG's collective net worth.

The real problem is they don't know shit about hockey, don't care about the team beyond having something else in their portfolio, and figured they were getting a hockey prodigy in Dubas who would handle everything for them when in reality he's just a dipshit.

 

[Pancakes]

Speaking of Dubas DK claims that KD was in Montreal watching Habs vs Blues last night.

Lebrun did say earlier this week that Montreal was looking to add to their roster.

 

[Darren McCord]

Speaking of Dubas DK claims that KD was in Montreal watching Habs vs Blues last night.

Lebrun did say earlier this week that Montreal was looking to add to their roster.

Only player of value we hasn’t they might want is probably eller

 

[Sideline]

Speaking of Dubas DK claims that KD was in Montreal watching Habs vs Blues last night.

Lebrun did say earlier this week that Montreal was looking to add to their roster.

Dubas is on Canada's 4 Nations staff. He was probably scouting Binnington.

 

[Gurglesons]

Speaking of Dubas DK claims that KD was in Montreal watching Habs vs Blues last night.

Lebrun did say earlier this week that Montreal was looking to add to their roster.

If they are going to keep Sullivan, which seems like fact since he wasn't fired today.. they better start selling off players before they get injured ala Jake last year / Rust already..

Plus as we are seeing with Bunting. The longer you let the Sullivan stink get on a player the lower their value will go.

View attachment 922461

I mean all of this was reported. Dubas got fired because he couldn't manage up, wanted full control and kept going behind Shanahan's back and asking for it. Then he had a presser where he came across as dimwit and had the audacity to go back to Shanahan and say he needed more money to stay in Toronto.

Honestly, Dubas' handling of his contract negotiations in Toronto was pretty much exactly how he's handled every other professional situation with his two GM jobs. Completely contradicting narratives and very little foresight.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Just for shits and giggles, keeping up with this team's performance through 20 games this season versus the previous two.

2022-23: 10-7-3, 72 GF, 65 GA
2023-24: 10-10-0, 61 GF, 52 GA
2024-25: 3-6-1, 30 GF, 43 GA thus far

 

[DearDiary]

Speaking of Dubas DK claims that KD was in Montreal watching Habs vs Blues last night.

Lebrun did say earlier this week that Montreal was looking to add to their roster.

Dubas also skipped the Pens/Habs game and flew over to watch the Sens/Kings

 

[BusinessGoose]

Just for shits and giggles, keeping up with this team's performance through 20 games this season versus the previous two.

2022-23: 10-7-3, 72 GF, 65 GA
2023-24: 10-10-0, 61 GF, 52 GA
2024-25: 3-6-1, 30 GF, 43 GA thus far

Obvious reaction #1:

Just for shits and giggles, keeping up with this team's performance through 20 games this season versus the previous two.

2022-23: 10-7-3, 72 GF, 65 GA
2023-24: 10-10-0, 61 GF, 52 GA
2024-25: 3-6-1, 30 GF, 43 GA thus far

Obvious reaction #2:

Dubas also skipped the Pens/Habs game and flew over to watch the Sens/Kings

I mean, would YOU watch a pens game?

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Just for shits and giggles, keeping up with this team's performance through 20 games this season versus the previous two.

2022-23: 10-7-3, 72 GF, 65 GA
2023-24: 10-10-0, 61 GF, 52 GA
2024-25: 3-6-1, 30 GF, 43 GA thus far

The fact the offense is just as shitty as last year's (pace) but the defense has gotten much, much worse is hilarious to me.

Yep, but coaching isn't the issue. Nope.

 

[Andy99]

It’s a sad day when Stefan Noesen has more goals than Geno and Sid combined lol…

 

[Darren McCord]

It’s a sad day when Stefan Noesen has more goals than Geno and Sid combined lol…

ZAR has more goals than crosby

 

[BusinessGoose]

ZAR has more goals than crosby

I have more goals than Crosby

 

[Empoleon8771]

I never want to see Crosby play for another team, but I'm honestly almost sad that they re-signed him simply because they won't nuke the team like it should be nuked as long as he's here. There's still this idea of owing it to Crosby to keep the team competitive when they should just firmly burn it down and trade anyone of value they can.

This team doesn't have many valuable players right now, because so many guys on this team just have ugly deals. I'd love for them to trade Rust and Rakell for picks, but are many teams taking on a 31/32 year old player with 3.5 years left? I'm unsure of that. I think Rust would be an easier guy to get a good return for, but that deal lasting until he's 36 is pretty gross. Bunting would bring back a nice return if he wasn't playing like liquid garbage, but he is.

Pettersson is really the only guy that seems to have any worthwhile value right now. Malkin would if they'd trade him, but they won't trade him. It just stinks to be a rebuilding team with a bunch of bloated contracts that you can't really get many assets for even if you wanted to move them.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

I never want to see Crosby play for another team, but I'm honestly almost sad that they re-signed him simply because they won't nuke the team like it should be nuked as long as he's here. There's still this idea of owing it to Crosby to keep the team competitive when they should just firmly burn it down and trade anyone of value they can.

This team doesn't have many valuable players right now, because so many guys on this team just have ugly deals. I'd love for them to trade Rust and Rakell for picks, but are many teams taking on a 31/32 year old player with 3.5 years left? I'm unsure of that. I think Rust would be an easier guy to get a good return for, but that deal lasting until he's 36 is pretty gross. Bunting would bring back a nice return if he wasn't playing like liquid garbage, but he is.

Pettersson is really the only guy that seems to have any worthwhile value right now. Malkin would if they'd trade him, but they won't trade him. It just stinks to be a rebuilding team with a bunch of bloated contracts that you can't really get many assets for even if you wanted to move them.

I feel like the bolded isn't even the case, though. No team goes into a season with Matt Grzelcyk as their top LD (or 2LD if you want to say the Pettersson/EK pairing is the top pairing) and thinks it's got a legitimate shot at any sort of playoff run. No team goes into the season with either DOC or Beauvillier as their top LW options. No team goes into a season with Bryan Rust as the best winger on the club.

Which is my biggest issue with how this team is being built/designed. It's clearly not "rebuilding", but it's also not attempting moves that would suggest "going for it" either. It's riding that middle lane where it's not bad enough to get a Top 5 pick but nowhere good enough either up front or on defense (or really, in net) where it's even a playoff lock.

 

[Gurglesons]

I never want to see Crosby play for another team, but I'm honestly almost sad that they re-signed him simply because they won't nuke the team like it should be nuked as long as he's here. There's still this idea of owing it to Crosby to keep the team competitive when they should just firmly burn it down and trade anyone of value they can.

This team doesn't have many valuable players right now, because so many guys on this team just have ugly deals. I'd love for them to trade Rust and Rakell for picks, but are many teams taking on a 31/32 year old player with 3.5 years left? I'm unsure of that. I think Rust would be an easier guy to get a good return for, but that deal lasting until he's 36 is pretty gross. Bunting would bring back a nice return if he wasn't playing like liquid garbage, but he is.

Pettersson is really the only guy that seems to have any worthwhile value right now. Malkin would if they'd trade him, but they won't trade him. It just stinks to be a rebuilding team with a bunch of bloated contracts that you can't really get many assets for even if you wanted to move them.

The 3 worst deals on the team are Dubas acquisitions

 

[Pancakes]

The 3 worst deals on the team are Dubas acquisitions

Who gives a shit

Like seriously I don't really care at this point what GM ruined the team more. They all did a shit job and now here we are.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Who gives a shit

Like seriously I don't really care at this point what GM ruined the team more. They all did a shit job and now here we are.

Well you're agreeing with a dipshit and then also getting mad at the same dipshit for playing his usual both sides of the fence act here and being annoyed is like trying to put out the flaming bag of shit with lighter fluid. His narrative is now Dubas is awful and ignoring Sullivan has quite literally made multiple trades look f***ing awful across 3 Gm's like we don't see a f***ing pattern.

Who gives a flying f*** about Dubas as a GM. He didn't even want the f***ing GM job. More than likely had to take the job because everyone else didn't want their chance at being a GM tanked by a dipshit coach empowered by ownership.

Many Gm's have done shit jobs and those teams have bounced back because they also didn't hang on to the coaches that kept f***ing rosters up after a ton of overhauls through 7 seasons.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I don't think money's the issue. Sullivan's owed like $17M or something isn't he? That's something like 0.001% of FSG's collective net worth.

The real problem is they don't know shit about hockey, don't care about the team beyond having something else in their portfolio, and figured they were getting a hockey prodigy in Dubas who would handle everything for them when in reality he's just a dipshit.

Here's the thing.
For the job he was hired for - He's done a good job, he's been great at that actually. Director of Hockey Operations.

For the job he had to take because Werner has a raging hard on and negotiated directly with Sullivan to give him this extension and apparently doesn't want them to fire him and find other ways, only to have him using players like shit to the point Sid looks like trash as well, kind of hard to really get a read on it. I feel like if he was allowed to fire Sullivan this season, with a new coach in place and Dubas making moves at the TDL, he's step back to his original role only and several candidates will land him a new GM before the draft.

His adds have sucked the same way every GM we've had, had the same happen to their adds 99% of the time. Allowing the Leafs morons on the mainboard to start getting blokes here to spew the same nonsense is sad.

I'd like to see what a new coach could do with this roster before I say his adds are garbage. Because Sullivan refuses to even use anyone you didn't already expect him to use and use poorly. For an example, just look at Puustinen's usage. He's a young player, had an ok rookie season, you'd want to see if he can do more with same or more usage. Instead he's used him on the 4th line for barely 6mins ES for 2 games and expected him to produce. Sullivan has effectively made him look useless because of useless usage.

That is the f***ing issue.

Stay with me here mate, don't lose focus. f*** Dubas, the issue is Sullivan. He ruins several players with moronic usage in a system that doesn't work even when he's had the right players for it in 2017-18 etc, that's when it was Sullivan's system, when Tocc left.

Dubas also skipped the Pens/Habs game and flew over to watch the Sens/Kings

He's doing his job - seeing teams that he can see and has players he's always planned to move to add more picks as well as his other job of the moronic 4 Nations jerk off circle.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

It's funny. Everyone is now on this hate Dubas trip, who cares about Dubas, this team is shit because of Sullivan, not him. Like ok, he's made some bad choices and some good choices but having a coach that constantly makes things far worse than they should be, it's hard to say how bad the bad is because a lot f***ing looks bad with Sullivan with players JR and Hextall have brought in.

Think for a sec - media for the NHL in other markets, this ownership, they think he's a top coach. Ownership loves him, so he has gms that do the things he needs and he keeps failing and the blame is on the Gms? This isn't a regular GM situation at all. No one paid attention to why JR left?

If Sullivan is hailed this beloved hero, what was JR? Minced f***ing meat? He brought that moron to the team. He made trades that helped them win 2 cups. He fired MJ after hiring him and seeing the issues, he's a GM that has also won a cup outside of this franchise. So suddenly he isn't allowed to do moves and he sees where this is trending and says ok you don't need me then as I'm not able to do the job I was hired for.

No other team has kept a coach this long after the failures he's had as a coach after his cups for 7 years worth of it.

Its mind boggling any of you wankers are focusing on Dubas right now, the bloke didn’t even want the f***ing Gm job, who gives a shit how good or bad he’s been at it, the issue has been Sullivan for so much shit. Also you lot know exactly how much a bad coach can ruin players.


It's funny to look at this now and see the same shit with Sullivan as the coach.

Penguins GM openly questions coach Mike Johnston’s decisions

“Well, we’re going to have to do something to change things up,” he said. “We have underachieved. We’ve definitely underachieved. We’re in a position where we shouldn’t be right now, and we know it. I am going to have to take a look at few things. Something needs to change.”

sports.yahoo.com

Except imagine if Mike was great friends with Mario. He would have lasted that second season.

They fired Mike when Sid was on pace for around 55pts under MJ. Currently, Sid is on pace for 57pts, everything that was wrong with the Pens before MJ was fired is the same right but far worse. It's funny how MJ got a f***ton of heat for it. But right now, Sullivan is getting zero heat for doing worse.

Yeah the other was 28 games in, but the other was after they were a playoff team. 10 games is more than enough, it's also far worse knowing he's not in trouble with the two previous seasons being playoff misses.

 

[pistolpete11]

They might not be good, but they aren't this bad.

Fire Sullivan and then reevaluate where to go with the roster as the deadline approaches.

 

[Jacob]

Sullivan would find another job pretty quickly, which would nullify his current contract.

 

[deakka]

I wonder how long rust will be out. Guess we'll find out at practice today

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

I think it's fine, correct even, to simultaneously want Sullivan to lose his job due to years of psychotic, ego-driven, piss poor coaching and a total unwillingness to even attempt to coach younger players, while also criticizing Dubas for his moves throughout a full calendar year and change, and his refusal to fire the extremely problematic coach. /shrug

 

[PenguinSuitedUp]

I think it's fine, correct even, to simultaneously want Sullivan to lose his job due to years of psychotic, ego-driven, piss poor coaching and a total unwillingness to even attempt to coach younger players, while also criticizing Dubas for his moves throughout a full calendar year and change, and his refusal to fire the extremely problematic coach. /shrug

People have to pick one side of the fence, though. You guys want to blame Dubas for not firing Sullivan, then you want to blame ownership for not firing Sullivan and name-call Dubas in the meantime. It’s a constant narrative shift to see who can be the biggest complainer on this board. There’s plenty of conversation to be had, but Dubas has barely been here and some people just seem like they want to hate the guy. I think he’s overall made some very good moves with a franchise in a position that is very difficult to navigate.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

People have to pick one side of the fence, though. You guys want to blame Dubas for not firing Sullivan, then you want to blame ownership for not firing Sullivan and name-call Dubas in the meantime. It’s a constant narrative shift to see who can be the biggest complainer on this board. There’s plenty of conversation to be had, but Dubas has barely been here and some people just seem like they want to hate the guy. I think he’s overall made some very good moves with a franchise in a position that is very difficult to navigate.

We don't even know if he has the power to fire him. Ownership adores him.