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

[Empoleon8771]

As an aside, I really just started to notice how god damn inconvenient Carter making $3.125 million on L4 really is for the Penguins roster building this off-season. I was trying to run with an idea of something like:

Guentzel-Crosby-Rakell
Bunting-Malkin-Rust
Comtois-Staal-Brown
O'Connor-Poehling-Carter
League min C-Nylander

Pettersson-Letang
Edmundson-Petry
Smith-Rutta
Ruhwedel

Gibson-DeSmith

But you can't afford to make that work, just because Carter is taking up money on L4. If you had even a $1.5 million guy in Carter's spot, it works pretty easily.

 

[Turin]

Sign Staal and Kampf, never blow a lead ever again

 

[Gurglesons]

I mean

I want to try this thing where we get a player who's good *and* has a future

I've heard it's real fun

But given the lack of other good options, sure, why not



Also apropos of nothing but stat watching but I'd be interested in Lane Pederson as a spare forward. 25 year old hitting group 6 UFA, C/W versatility, kills penalties, had good faceoff numbers with Columbus, good possession stats, hasn't produced much but AHL numbers suggest he could. Kinda corn to Iowa when we've got DOC and Poehling, but always interesting to take gambles on young players starting to break through.

That sounds great, but realistically there are no 3Cs that fit the bill rumored to available at our cost.

 

[Peat]

I agree, but if the cost is just money, why not?

I'd rather trade for a 25 year old 3C that can anchor the Penguins 3rd line for the rest of their contending years. But if you can't trade for that and instead have a 35 year old 3C that can do that for the next 2 years and it costs you no assets, why not?

I think a 3rd line of something like Comtois-Staal-Brown would be a really strong 3rd line that fits exactly what Sullivan wants out of his 3rd line.

I already said why not

This is from a poster on another site:

“There's some talk going around the Twitter-verse thinking that Dubas is going to make a hard run at Hanifin. The reasoning is pointing back to Sullivan's request for Chychrun. They aren't the same style player, but Hanifin would definitely be a big upgrade to the Penguins defense on the left side.”

I hope so…he only one year left so he better want to sign here longer term, but if so, I’m guessing it would cost our first this year or next and probably POJ…

Having had a quick look at twitter, this seems about as credible as "there's some talking going around HFBoards that Dubas should look at Staal and Korpisaalo doesn't suck"

That sounds great, but realistically there are no 3Cs that fit the bill rumored to available at our cost.

Away with you and your scurvy logic and your invocation of reality.

 

[Gurglesons]

Away with you and your scurvy logic and your invocation of reality.

I'm all about a young C/W hybrid being acquired with our 1st round pick. It's why I said Nic Roy.

Realistically, I don't see one available.

Also am I the only one who looks at cap friendly and just laughs their ass off that Montreal is the most capped out team in the league?

 

[Empoleon8771]

Sign Staal and Kampf, never blow a lead ever again

Honestly I had the idea of O'Connor-Staal-Brown and Poehling-Kampf-Carter and I think it's actually kinda interesting.

Moot point though because I'm pretty sure they don't have the money to make that bottom-6 work.

 

[Turin]

Honestly I had the idea of O'Connor-Staal-Brown and Poehling-Kampf-Carter and I think it's actually kinda interesting.

Moot point though because I'm pretty sure they don't have the money to make that bottom-6 work.

I would like a little more scoring ability but it would definitely be a defensive clinic.

I'll take Staal at a reasonable price any day despite age - make the age lower in other parts of the lineup. He's still an absolute defensive beast and a good leader - just don't count on him to score the tying goal with an EN like Carolina did this year w/ Svech out.

 

[Gurglesons]

Do you guys ever just look at this?

 

[Peat]

I'm all about a young C/W hybrid being acquired with our 1st round pick. It's why I said Nic Roy.

Realistically, I don't see one available.

Feels like nobody moves those guys unless they have to or don't realise what they have.

What about Sam Steel? I can't remember watching him play but numbers look okay, he plays C, and he's got an okay arbitration case that might be a problem for Minnesota given their cap space. Probably not worth a first but maybe worth a punt.

 

[Turin]

View attachment 720317
Do you guys ever just look at this?

My favourite contract in the league. So many Oilers fans defended it when it happened too lol

 

[Gurglesons]

Feels like nobody moves those guys unless they have to or don't realise what they have.

What about Sam Steel? I can't remember watching him play but numbers look okay, he plays C, and he's got an okay arbitration case that might be a problem for Minnesota given their cap space. Probably not worth a first but maybe worth a punt.

He's not a 3C. 1st line type guy who can't hack it.

 

[Peat]

He's not a 3C. 1st line type guy who can't hack it.

Perfect Pittsburgh 3C then.

 

[Peat]

How much centre did Ross Colton play?

edit: In their off-season thread, one poster unprompted suggests POJ + Puustinen/Nylander/DOC as the sort of deal they should be looking to do with Colton. That would be pretty sweet for W depth.

 

[PensandCaps]

How much centre did Ross Colton play?

edit: In their off-season thread, one poster unprompted suggests POJ + Puustinen/Nylander/DOC as the sort of deal they should be looking to do with Colton. That would be pretty sweet for W depth.

I know he can play C, but even at wing he's a guy we should target for the bottom 6, or even to challenge a top 6 spot.

 

[PensandCaps]

As an aside, I really just started to notice how god damn inconvenient Carter making $3.125 million on L4 really is for the Penguins roster building this off-season. I was trying to run with an idea of something like:

Guentzel-Crosby-Rakell
Bunting-Malkin-Rust
Comtois-Staal-Brown
O'Connor-Poehling-Carter
League min C-Nylander

Pettersson-Letang
Edmundson-Petry
Smith-Rutta
Ruhwedel

Gibson-DeSmith

But you can't afford to make that work, just because Carter is taking up money on L4. If you had even a $1.5 million guy in Carter's spot, it works pretty easily.

That defense is terrible. Going nowhere with Joel Edmundson in your top 4.

LD depth is shockingly bad. One barley top 4 LD in Pettersson. A replacement level bottom pair vet, and a useless Ty Smith.

Also, Gibson/Desmith is horrendous.

 

[66-30-33]

Speaking of Minny, I wish Guerin decided to give us Kaprizov. He would look amazing next to Geno.

 

[Zbynek]

Speaking of Minny, I wish Guerin decided to give us Kaprizov. He would look amazing next to Geno.

We drafted Dominik Simon within 2 picks of Kaprizov (when Vejmelka was still on the board). Can't you just be happy with that?

 

[wej20]

Sign Staal and play him on Malkin's wing. Granlund 3C for life.

 

[Zbynek]

Man just a week away from UFA and less than that for the draft. Shit is about to go down for this roster

 

[Pens x]

Jesus, we’re at the Staal portion of the evening…we have to discuss bringing back every former player and every player that hails from Pittsburgh lol…if there’s one thing I hope Dubas does, it’s avoid anyone who meets the criteria of 1) being over 30, and 2) either being a former Pen, or having dated a former Pen, or being from Pittsburgh lol

Agree 100%

Man just a week away from UFA and less than that for the draft. Shit is about to go down for this roster

Let’s hope so.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

Bertuzzi was someone I was advocating about for a while, not many wanted him here because of his vaccine stance which was incredibly dumb to blackball someone for

He would look really nice with Geno if you ask me

He went on and had a nice playoff series and looked good in Boston and now someone is going to pay him nicely and it likely wont be us.

Likely not. But most of the players this org has targeted since JR'S heyday haven't been my preference...or any good.

If he's coming in at like $5.5 million, sure.

I'd say he's worth more than what Burakovsky got on his last deal.

 

[3ladesof5teel]

Jesus, we’re at the Staal portion of the evening…we have to discuss bringing back every former player and every player that hails from Pittsburgh lol…if there’s one thing I hope Dubas does, it’s avoid anyone who meets the criteria of 1) being over 30, and 2) either being a former Pen, or having dated a former Pen, or being from Pittsburgh lol

There shouldn't be any issues with being over 30 as long as they can still play.

I never understood this take.....many 30 year olds in the NHL can play much better than their 25 year old counterparts.

This is from a poster on another site:

“There's some talk going around the Twitter-verse thinking that Dubas is going to make a hard run at Hanifin. The reasoning is pointing back to Sullivan's request for Chychrun. They aren't the same style player, but Hanifin would definitely be a big upgrade to the Penguins defense on the left side.”

I hope so…he only one year left so he better want to sign here longer term, but if so, I’m guessing it would cost our first this year or next and probably POJ…

I think Hanafin would be a great grab and losing Dumo at that stage in his career and grabbing Hanafin makes this team that much better.

I think he is just coming into his best years

 

[AuroraBorealis]

Think a lot of people here are asking the wrong questions.
You should be asking yourself what kind of performance do you expect from potential acquisitions for the next 1-2 years, not what ages they will be.

If you expect the player to regress due to age, fine, don't pursue it. If he's gonna outplay someone that's 5+ years younger at the same cap hit then who cares? Acquire him.

Is Staal gonna outperform Kampf next year? Kampf had much more difficult usage, so that's important to factor in.
Still, Staal with 17 goals the last 2 years. Still brilliant defensively.

 

[OtherThingsILike]

I like how people defended Hextall’s incompetence, claiming FSG had some made up mandate about trading first round picks, and couldn’t truly compete at all costs. Those 2.5 years were so difficult on this site with the bs theories defending that idiot. But yet, Dubas said he wants the team to compete.

It was supposedly the prior ownership that had that mandate, not FSG.

The appeal of Staal has nothing to do with the fact that he played for the Penguins. It's that he's a monster defensively and the Penguins need a strong defensive 3C, plus the UFA market sucks outside of him.

The fact that he played for the Penguins is completely irrelevant. The benefit is that he's an amazing defensive center and the downside is that he's super old. The fact that he played for Pittsburgh over a decade ago doesn't matter at all.

I could see the benefit of Staal having played here is that it may make him a teensy bit more likely to come back. Or not, perhaps.

 

[Ragamuffin Gunner]

With like 50% of the Flams wanting out of Calgary, they need guys with term. Would love to flip them Granlund.