Salary Cap: Pens Off Season Thread: Pre Free Agency Shenanigans!

[Empoleon8771]

I wonder if the UFA market ends up being cheap enough that the Penguins would actually have the money to bring back Zucker or sign someone like Bunting in UFA. If you can get both McLeod and Geekie on 1 year, $1.5 million deals, the Penguins would have $12 million in cap space with:

Guentzel-Crosby-Rakell
Smith-Malkin-Rust
XXXXX-Geekie-Granlund
O'Connor-McLeod-Carter
XXXXXX-Nylander

Pettersson-Letang
POJ-Petry
Smith-Rutta
Ruhwedel

XXXXXX-XXXXXX

You could decide to go cheap in net (maybe $5.5 million between Andersen and Kahkonen) and have $6.5 million to play with however you'd want.

 

[Josey Wales]

Right but there is no guarantee they will sign here where you controlled Poehling.

I mean Poehling isn’t anything special but he had size, speed, and youth. All things we lack.

If he has an underlying health issue that keeps him from being healthy none of that is worth a shit

 

[Darren McCord]

And if you can play with that or go to Tampa, Colorado, Toronto, New Jersey, etc. Why are you coming here?

The idea would be to pull a Bunting and play in a scenario where you can force your way into the top six. I don't know if we have that here.

Dude Jersey just let 3 of them go lol

 

[HandshakeLine]

I’m not saying Poehling being not qualified is a tragedy, I’m saying why was he part of the trade package in the first place if he’s so useless here?

 

[Empoleon8771]

I’m not saying Poehling being not qualified is a tragedy, I’m saying why was he part of the trade package in the first place if he’s so useless here?

Because Ron Hextall was an idiot.

All of his moves from the 2022 off-season have backfired miserably.

 

[HandshakeLine]

I find it hard to believe that Dubas can't convince any of the non-qualified RFAs to sign with the Penguins, considering how bad their depth is and how much opportunity they'd get in the Penguins bottom-6.

You should be able to convince one of McLeod, Geekie or Steel to sign to be a 3C.

We already have a 3C. He’s a bad one, but he’ll be there until game no. 80.

 

[Darren McCord]

I’m not saying Poehling being not qualified is a tragedy, I’m saying why was he part of the trade package in the first place if he’s so useless here?

I think Montreal wanted to dump him. I dont think we tried to take him

 

[HandshakeLine]

Because Ron Hextall was an idiot.

All of his moves from the 2022 off-season have backfired miserably.

Dubas hasn’t exactly set the world on fire yet either. It’s not a huge deal, but it’s not a genius master stroke just because Hextall was dumb.

I think Montreal wanted to dump him. I dont think we tried to take him

That is one of our favorites besides “acquiring players Mike Sullivan will never play”.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Dubas hasn’t exactly set the world on fire yet either. It’s not a huge deal, but it’s not a genius master stroke just because Hextall was dumb.

Dubas has been the GM for a month and has only made 1 trade, which was a better trade than literally any trade Hextall made as the Penguins GM.

I don't think anyone is calling not qualifying Poehling "a genius master stroke". It's just that a ton of RFAs aren't being qualified and Poehling isn't anything special of a player.

 

[Gurglesons]

Dude Jersey just let 3 of them go lol

And they can easily resign them or they think they can get cheaper players.

Dubas has been the GM for a month and has only made 1 trade, which was a better trade than literally any trade Hextall made as the Penguins GM.

I don't think anyone is calling not qualifying Poehling "a genius master stroke". It's just that a ton of RFAs aren't being qualified and Poehling isn't anything special of a player.

Why exactly? I'm a fan of the trade, but Riley Smith could easily blow up in our face at 32 just like Hextall's deal for another 32 year old did.

Carter and Rakell were both excellent trades. Carter would've been a perfect trade if we didn't extend him. Which once again you were in support of.

 

[Empoleon8771]

And they can easily resign them or they think they can get cheaper players.

Why can't the Penguins re-sign Poehling?

It's such an odd thing to complain about. He's a 4th liner with arbitration rights. He may come back or he might not, who cares?

They didn't qualify Heinen last off-season and Heinen was way better than Poehling.

 

[Gurglesons]

Why can't the Penguins re-sign Poehling?

It's such an odd thing to complain about. He's a 4th liner with arbitration rights. He may come back or he might not, who cares?

They didn't qualify Heinen last off-season and Heinen was way better than Poehling.

We can. Never said we can't. Just a weird move.

They obviously know more than we do.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Why exactly? I'm a fan of the trade, but Riley Smith could easily blow up in our face at 32 just like Hextall's deal for another 32 year old did.

Carter and Rakell were both excellent trades. Carter would've been a perfect trade if we didn't extend him. Which once again you were in support of.

Hextall paid more for both Rakell and Carter than he did for Smith.

The deal was excellent because Dubas got a Rakell caliber player for a 3rd round pick. Hextall didn't make any trades that were as good of value as that.

 

[Peat]

Dude could have put up 75 pts last year. If there is a big health issue, no reason to keep him around.

Steady on now. Commitment to big scoring frequently injured players is practically this organisation's raison d'etre.

Hextall paid more for both Rakell and Carter than he did for Smith.

The deal was excellent because Dubas got a Rakell caliber player for a 3rd round pick. Hextall didn't make any trades that were as good of value as that.

Tbf Hextall was working at the deadline and Dubas wasn't. I don't Hextall ever had this sort of cap space with which to rework the roster. Apples and oranges.

 

[Gurglesons]

Hextall paid more for both Rakell and Carter than he did for Smith.

The deal was excellent because Dubas got a Rakell caliber player for a 3rd round pick. Hextall didn't make any trades that were as good of value as that.

Well Rakell was also 4 years younger than Smith when acquired and came with a retained cap hit and us dumping additional contracts.

Once again, I like the Riley Smith deal. But declaring it a great trade and better than anything Hextall did is the same type of thing as saying Jeff Carter's contract is excellent before he even started it. Things change fast for 30+ year old players.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Dubas has been the GM for a month and has only made 1 trade, which was a better trade than literally any trade Hextall made as the Penguins GM.

I don't think anyone is calling not qualifying Poehling "a genius master stroke". It's just that a ton of RFAs aren't being qualified and Poehling isn't anything special of a player.

He isn’t, but again, that’s not my point.

Dubas hasn’t really addressed anything yet, which is fine, but I’m not gonna give him a trophy just because he’s not Ron Hextall. Let me know when he does something interesting

 

[Empoleon8771]

Tbf Hextall was working at the deadline and Dubas wasn't. I don't Hextall ever had this sort of cap space with which to rework the roster. Apples and oranges.

But he did last off-season, which he used to absolutely screw up the defense.

Well Rakell was also 4 years younger than Smith when acquired and came with a retained cap hit.

He also cost way more, that was a 2nd and Clang versus a 3rd.

Either way, Poehling is a whatever piece and not qualifying him is whatever.

He isn’t, but again, that’s not my point.

Dubas hasn’t really addressed anything yet, which is fine, but I’m not gonna give him a trophy just because he’s not Ron Hextall. Let me know when he does something interesting

No one is giving Dubas a trophy for anything.

You asked "if Poehling wasn't anything special, then why was he traded for in the first place?". The answer to that was that Ron Hextall was a dumbass.

 

[Gurglesons]

He isn’t, but again, that’s not my point.

Dubas hasn’t really addressed anything yet, which is fine, but I’m not gonna give him a trophy just because he’s not Ron Hextall. Let me know when he does something interesting

Just be patient. He building a barn.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Also still think the pretending he’s not a GM thing is super cringe.

 

[Gurglesons]

But he did last off-season, which he used to absolutely screw up the defense.



He also cost way more, that was a 2nd and Clang versus a 3rd.

Either way, Poehling is a whatever piece and not qualifying him is whatever.



No one is giving Dubas a trophy for anything.

Hextall's additions to the defense performed equal or better to what Marino and Matheson did here.

Petry hit Matheson's point totals last year in 10 less games while not being sheltered and hidden.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Just be patient. He building a barn.

Neat, shall we gather the kinfolk? Have Josiah harness the horses.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Hextall's additions to the defense performed equal or better to what Marino and Matheson did here.

They absolutely did not.

 

[Gurglesons]

They absolutely did not.

Okay. But, they did.

And please don't show me some blue chart.

The issue with the D last year was not the subtraction of Marino and Matheson for Petry and Rutta.

 

[Peat]

But he did last off-season, which he used to absolutely screw up the defense.

He had to create it, rather than just having it fall into his lap, which limited his options in how to fill it as he had to do a money for money move rather than just mugging a team.

And he got very unlucky with injuries per Penguins standard. I for one am looking forwards to Reilly Smith breaking both legs while helping a granny across the road.

 

[Jobeycool]

The backup's probably fine. He was like league average and I'd be surprised if his numbers don't improve with a better blue line in front of him. People just don't realize how much the average has fallen among goalies.
The bottom 6 is all available in free agency. You can get ERod for example and some near league minimum dudes.
We just got a decent goal scorer in Reilly Smith...26 last year.
If they push for Hanifin, they'll get him. If they don't, they won't. Things get more complex if Petry gets traded though.

Smith was a decent pick up.. but how are they going to fit all these players in the cap that will improve Pens? Guess have to wait and see .. because it will be hard to sign a pretty good defensemen cheap.