Salary Cap: Pens Salary Cap Thread: If we score 6 we win, its science!

[Big Friggin Dummy]

I get it but start this year if you have to. Explore the trade market as well. Try to target teams that might have a player you think could work very well for THIS team but might not be in the best situation where he is. Actually use those pro scouts, maybe. Find teams with cap problems and go poaching... I dunno... commit to it. Don't just rely on the FA market because I agree that it comes with pitfalls.

I think trades are for sure the better avenue, without question. I just don't think this team really has any valuable assets. They've got a buncha turds in their prospect pool, 1st rounders likely in the mid-20s for another couple years, and a buncha guys people don't want like Zucker, Petts, Blueger.

Even if you manage to swap Dumo for a nice piece a la Scuderi-Daley, I don't know that it really accomplishes much of anything. It was huge when the team still had 26-27 year old versions of Sid, Geno, Kessel. Whole different monster now, and Sully's settled into a spitefully rigid form of coaching. /shrug

I know it's beating a dead horse but I think this team's on cruise control until they can't even keep up the masquerade, then the rebuild begins in earnest. For a couple years at least, it's just a whole lotta increasingly boring, worsening hockey. Then we get to see what Hextall can do for a rebuild--the guy who took Nolan Patrick (though concussions screwed his career, didn't look any impressive at all as a 2OA pick beforehand), and whose big draftees are Broz and Pickering. The former looking like a fart in the winds of draft history and the latter a dude who seems pretty boom or bust, and is probably like 5 years away from really challenging for an NHL spot.

 

[Darren McCord]

I think trades are for sure the better avenue, without question. I just don't think this team really has any valuable assets. They've got a buncha turds in their prospect pool, 1st rounders likely in the mid-20s for another couple years, and a buncha guys people don't want like Zucker, Petts, Blueger.

Even if you manage to swap Dumo for a nice piece a la Scuderi-Daley, I don't know that it really accomplishes much of anything. It was huge when the team still had 26-27 year old versions of Sid, Geno, Kessel. Whole different monster now, and Sully's settled into a spitefully rigid form of coaching. /shrug

I know it's beating a dead horse but I think this team's on cruise control until they can't even keep up the masquerade, then the rebuild begins in earnest. For a couple years at least, it's just a whole lotta increasingly boring, worsening hockey. Then we get to see what Hextall can do for a rebuild--the guy who took Nolan Patrick (though concussions screwed his career, didn't look any impressive at all as a 2OA pick beforehand), and whose big draftees are Broz and Pickering. The former looking like a fart in the winds of draft history and the latter a dude who seems pretty boom or bust, and is probably like 5 years away from really challenging for an NHL spot.

This pretty much nails it. I think you just hope that something unexpected happens at this point. A Prospect breaks out out of nowhere like Jake or Rust. You score on a reclamation. Or luck out in a buy low trade. With the cap going up trades are going to be more expensive for guys with term and same with UFA's.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

This pretty much nails it. I think you just hope that something unexpected happens at this point. A Prospect breaks out out of nowhere like Jake or Rust. You score on a reclamation. Or luck out in a buy low trade. With the cap going up trades are going to be more expensive for guys with term and same with UFA's.

Just imagine this team after the B2B if Jake and Rust didn't like, come out of absolutely nowhere and become insanely effective, productive NHLers. Yeesh.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Just imagine this team after the B2B if Jake and Rust didn't like, come out of absolutely nowhere and become insanely effective, productive NHLers. Yeesh.

I always can't help but have a little guffaw over the absolute laser focus (to the point of near insanity) Shero put into drafting defensemen only to have two third round forward prospects blow up. Guentzel was always considered to be pretty high ceiling and had some NCAA pedigree but I don't recall anyone proclaiming to the rooftops that he was gonna be a two-time 40 goal scorer. Rust was basically thought of as maybe a third liner.

 

[Gurglesons]

I think trades are for sure the better avenue, without question. I just don't think this team really has any valuable assets. They've got a buncha turds in their prospect pool, 1st rounders likely in the mid-20s for another couple years, and a buncha guys people don't want like Zucker, Petts, Blueger.

Even if you manage to swap Dumo for a nice piece a la Scuderi-Daley, I don't know that it really accomplishes much of anything. It was huge when the team still had 26-27 year old versions of Sid, Geno, Kessel. Whole different monster now, and Sully's settled into a spitefully rigid form of coaching. /shrug

I know it's beating a dead horse but I think this team's on cruise control until they can't even keep up the masquerade, then the rebuild begins in earnest. For a couple years at least, it's just a whole lotta increasingly boring, worsening hockey. Then we get to see what Hextall can do for a rebuild--the guy who took Nolan Patrick (though concussions screwed his career, didn't look any impressive at all as a 2OA pick beforehand), and whose big draftees are Broz and Pickering. The former looking like a fart in the winds of draft history and the latter a dude who seems pretty boom or bust, and is probably like 5 years away from really challenging for an NHL spot.

Konecny, Farabee, Provorov, Carter Hart, Allison, Sanheim, NAK, and Friedman is a pretty good haul over 5 years tbh. That's without Frost showing he is something.

If he drafts like that for us over the next few years we can probably extend the window.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

I always can't help but have a little guffaw over the absolute laser focus (to the point of near insanity) Shero put into drafting defensemen only to have two third round forward prospects blow up. Guentzel was always considered to be pretty high ceiling and had some NCAA pedigree but I don't recall anyone proclaiming to the rooftops that he was gonna be a two-time 40 goal scorer. Rust was basically thought of as maybe a third liner.

And the great irony is that if Shero didn't get canned, Jake and Rust probably never amount to anything because this team would continue to be chock full of retreads, over the hill vets and Bylsma coaching them.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

And the great irony is that if Shero didn't get canned, Jake and Rust probably never amount to anything because this team would continue to be chock full of retreads, over the hill vets and Bylsma coaching them.

Comeau/Malkin/Downie superline. Never forget.

 

[Gurglesons]

And the great irony is that if Shero didn't get canned, Jake and Rust probably never amount to anything because this team would continue to be chock full of retreads, over the hill vets and Bylsma coaching them.

Good thing we have noted soothsayer of the young in Mike Sullivan lol.

Comeau/Malkin/Downie superline. Never forget.

Sadly that was somehow an even worse coach.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Sadly that was somehow an even worse coach.

lol oh man you're right... thought that was still Ray/Dan.

 

[Gurglesons]

lol oh man you're right... thought that was still Ray/Dan.

I mean Comrie - Malkin - Kobasew is basically the same line.

Although Comeau really carved out a role that year and then with the Avs and even the Stars. Versus the usual put up 30 points with the Penguins then disappear into dust.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I mean Comrie - Malkin - Kobasew is basically the same line.

Although Comeau really carved out a role that year and then with the Avs and even the Stars. Versus the usual put up 30 points with the Penguins then disappear into dust.

He was no Plotnikov, Rita or Golden Helmet Dude, that's for sure.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Konecny, Farabee, Provorov, Carter Hart, Allison, Sanheim, NAK, and Friedman is a pretty good haul over 5 years tbh. That's without Frost showing he is something.

If he drafts like that for us over the next few years we can probably extend the window.

I mean, I guess, but I don't see that group extending the window. I think people just have a real hard time accepting that it's over, practically speaking. Sure there's the off chance a miracle run happens, but the window's slammed shut realistically. It'd take one hell of a 180 to go from 4 straight 1st round exits to vying for a Cup with as many 35+ dudes as the Pens have, and an unproven goalie tandem like Jarry-CDS--and injury prone no less.

 

[Gurglesons]

I mean, I guess, but I don't see that group extending the window. I think people just have a real hard time accepting that it's over, practically speaking. Sure there's the off chance a miracle run happens, but the window's slammed shut realistically. It'd take one hell of a 180 to go from 4 straight 1st round exits to vying for a Cup with as many 35+ dudes as the Pens have, and an unproven goalie tandem like Jarry-CDS--and injury prone no less.

Having a player like Konecny immediately turns around our top nine IMO. He's the type that has everything we are missing.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Good thing we have noted soothsayer of the young in Mike Sullivan lol.



Sadly that was somehow an even worse coach.

Yeah, that's the irony was. The guy who gave them a shot and helped them excel is now a guy who seems like he'd rather have his fingernails ripped out with pliers than scratch McGinn/Archibald/Caggs for DOC and Poulin.

 

[Pancakes]

Rebuild on the fly, or retool, or whatever name people want to throw on the whole "cut corners and try to cheese your way back to success instead of building from the ground up" thing--just ain't gonna work, imo. Pittsburgh's not gonna draw guys in as a living destination like an LA or NYC would. The team's chock full of old dudes in the extreme twilight of their careers, so it's only down from here. They have a ton of guys locked up long-term, so there's not a cap situation where you can see the Penguins throwing like $14 million AAV to snag Auston Matthews in FA and build around him or something.

This team's window has been shut for years, imo. They needed to make a sharp turn and do things differently when they lost to the Habs, but they locked in and stayed the course and now I think it's too late. So it's just hope Sid/Geno have an exceptional game now and then for entertainment's sake, and ride out the rest of this victory lap with zero expectations.

Yeah I dunno.

I feel like it might take two years of missing the playoffs in a row before they'd do anything dramatic anyhow. Unless they are a cellar dweller when they miss. But if they miss this year and finish say just outside the playoffs, I'm sure they just chalk that up to a fluke and try to retool rather than rebuild.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Yeah I dunno.

I feel like it might take two years of missing the playoffs in a row before they'd do anything dramatic anyhow. Unless they are a cellar dweller when they miss. But if they miss this year and finish say just outside the playoffs, I'm sure they just chalk that up to a fluke and try to retool rather than rebuild.

I don't think we see anything until Sid hangs 'em up, or asks to be dealt to a place with a better shot at the Cup in his final year. I'm like 99.999% sure he won't ever do the latter, but y'never know.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I don't think we see anything until Sid hangs 'em up, or asks to be dealt to a place with a better shot at the Cup in his final year. I'm like 99.999% sure he won't ever do the latter, but y'never know.

I always figured Sid was gonna be one of those guys that is like 46 and still playing on the third line or whatever just because he can't quit the game. But he had that Chicklets interview recently where his stance seemed WAY closer to a big ol "meh" on that.

 

[Gurglesons]

I always figured Sid was gonna be one of those guys that is like 46 and still playing on the third line or whatever just because he can't quit the game. But he had that Chicklets interview recently where his stance seem WAY closer to a big ol "meh" on that.

*32 Thoughts. He hasn't been on Chiclets since like 2018.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

*32 Thoughts. He hasn't been on Chiclets since like 2018.

Oh my bad. Someone linked me to it here. Dunno why I was thinking Chiclets.

 

[Gurglesons]

Oh my bad. Someone linked me to it here. Dunno why I was thinking Chiclets.

I think the thing I got from the interview is he wants to start a family but doesn’t feel like he can with the way he has to train.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I think the thing I got from the interview is he wants to start a family but doesn’t feel like he can with the way he has to train.

I think it's kinda cool that he'd be willing to set it aside and go do his own thing even if he can still play.

It's gotta be scary in some ways to just go live life after you've done something and lived it every single day for like 30ish years straight at the highest level.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Part of me thinks Sid's been part of hockey and hockey's been part of Sid for so long he just, doesn't know anything else. He'll play until his body won't let him kinda thing.

Part of me thinks he might just wrap it up once he realizes this team's spinning its tires and is well out of the running for Cups anymore. Maybe it happens at the end of this contract, maybe he plays a couple more years like he said he wants to. The state of the team when his deal is up, and how his body holds up until then probably makes that decision for him.

Dude's idol is Yzerman though. I've never thought it was within the realm of possibility he plays elsewhere, he's always loved that Yzerman one team thing. He'll probably be a scout or AGM for the Penguins until taking over as the legit GM down the line.

 

[Pens x]

? lol. what?

Hextall can throw shit at a wall and hope it sticks.

Isn’t that what he has been doing, more or less?

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Part of me thinks Sid's been part of hockey and hockey's been part of Sid for so long he just, doesn't know anything else. He'll play until his body won't let him kinda thing.

Part of me thinks he might just wrap it up once he realizes this team's spinning its tires and is well out of the running for Cups anymore. Maybe it happens at the end of this contract, maybe he plays a couple more years like he said he wants to. The state of the team when his deal is up, and how his body holds up until then probably makes that decision for him.

Dude's idol is Yzerman though. I've never thought it was within the realm of possibility he plays elsewhere, he's always loved that Yzerman one team thing. He'll probably be a scout or AGM for the Penguins until taking over as the legit GM down the line.

The way this team's playing, the bolded might be sooner than later.

 

[Turin]

Dumoulin, Rust, Puustinen for Marner

Toronto gets a guy who’s no drama who can play on the top line, Dumoulin replaces Muzzin, Puustinen is redundant with Marner and Rakell and seems like somebody Dubas would like. The salary is a wash and Pens get a star and don’t have to see GCR anymore.