Confirmed with Link: Pens sign F Nick Spaling to 2-year, $4.4M contract (2.2AAV)

[stepdad gaary]

We also had a more composed top six. Also, Sutter is a downgrade from Staal, Spaling a Cooke without the physical edge, and Kennedy sucked total dick so who cares who takes that third wing role.

uh yeah... right. That top 6 was awesome. Haha get real. So composed with Feds there. Satan fluttering up and down. Talbot playing on the second line. Soooo composed.

Why would you compare Spaling to Cooke when Downie is going to spend time on the 3rd line?

If sucking total dick is 0.5 PPG on the 3rd line than i think the pens may need to be more progressive and find some more guys willing to suck total dick on the 3rd line.

Cooke-Staal-Kenedy was one of the most dominant 3rd lines in hockey. I can't believe how some people (mostly you) are willing to completely rewrite history.

 

[Shady Machine]

Or we shouldn't have signed Comeau, Downie, Goc, etc. We should've allocated our money towards what we needed in our top six. We need a top flight winger, it is why we have lost every playoff series since the cup win besides the Tampa series. Instead, we have Staal Kennedy Cooke back at an inflated price, yay.

Comeau, Downie and Goc were all very good signings. We didn't lose any money there for the top 6.

 

[Gurglesons]

Majority? No. Richards was spotfilling on the second line in the finals, but mostly playing on the fourth.

He made a couple key picks throughout the playoffs, but nothing that Clifford (who is a fourth line player and Richards' most-frequent linemate in the finals) didn't do 5 times as frequently.

Uh, Richards had more time than both Lewis and Clifford in every game in the final.

 

[Gurglesons]

uh yeah... right. That top 6 was awesome. Haha get real. So composed with Feds there. Satan fluttering up and down. Talbot playing on the second line. Soooo composed.

Why would you compare Spaling to Cooke when Downie is going to spend time on the 3rd line?

If sucking total dick is 0.5 PPG on the 3rd line than i think the pens may need to be more progressive and find some more guys willing to suck total dick on the 3rd line.

Cooke-Staal-Kenedy was one of the most dominant 3rd lines in hockey. I can't believe how some people (mostly you) are willing to completely rewrite history.

So the third line is going to be Spaling - Sutter - Downie and we have Kunitz - Crosby - Dupuis back? This is my exact point. We had Dupuis to take Spaling's place. Signed Downie and Comeau to add some aggressiveness and grit to our bottom six. If we were going to sign Spaling at 2.2 we should've left out one of Downie, Comeau, or Goc. Or we should trade Sutter. We need a player in our top six that is going to help Crosby and Malkin, not seven bottom six players. Isn't this Shero in reverse? Acquiring grinders instead of defenders and building a team around them.

Kennedy never scored at a .5 PPG on the 3rd line unless you are saying he was scoring at a .5 PPG pace. Also, he is out of the league at 28 because he was so terrible.

 

[mpp9]

Or we shouldn't have signed Comeau, Downie, Goc, etc. We should've allocated our money towards what we needed in our top six. We need a top flight winger, it is why we have lost every playoff series since the cup win besides the Tampa series. Instead, we have Staal Kennedy Cooke back at an inflated price, yay.

We lost the last two years b/c of our top 6 and bottom six. We can address both.

People are acting like trades don't happen during the season all the damn time. JR is known for it. And for dealing off his roster.

 

[Gurglesons]

We lost the last two years b/c of our top 6 and bottom six. We can address both.

People are acting like trades don't happen during the season all the damn time. JR is known for it. And for dealing off his roster.

Known for absolutely terrible trades. Our top six has let us down far more often than our bottom six. Last year was the first time our bottom six looked terrible and it was essentially because we had no cap room unless we traded a player like Orpik or Niskanen.

 

[wgknestrick]

That's Baller Money

Need to PS the D out of that

 

[Zirakzigil]

About what I expected. Would have liked a year or two of free agency at that price though.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

*shrugs*

 

[Rocket of Russia]

its so funny that a people are calling for the pens to have just let Spaling go...

This board LOST ITS MIND when Strait was waived...or god, remember Nick Johnson? Now a useful 3rd line RFA capable of 30 points gets 2.2 million but they should have just let him walk?

Someone said the Pens would be better off letting him walk?

 

[Shady Machine]

Someone said the Pens would be better off letting him walk?

Like one dude. No one should take that opinion seriously.

 

[Gurglesons]

Like one dude. No one should take that opinion seriously.

I never advocated letting him walk. It was just a pointless piece in the Neal trade and a prospect or draft pick would've been the better choice if we were going to take all of our UFA/RFA money and throw it at bottom six players.

 

[mpp9]

What does it matter if the trade's made in January or April? The point is that the roster is fleshed out before the playoffs, and it has been.

We'll see what roster possibilities Rutherford exploits here. If Shero wanted to double-down on value for every star player he had, I'm sure he wouldn't have had a problem. Getting another quality top 6 option will require Rutherford to actually trade up in value, which will probably prove more difficult.

Shero usually sold futures for expiring contracts at the deadline.

I'm saying I think JR will trade roster players to address our top 6 well before then.

We dont necessarily have to trade up in value. Just bringing in the right players to complement our talent. Dupuis vs McGinn for example. Or trading more for than you'd feel comfortable with for an older star like Marleau. Those two would be my targets.

But I think Roy may repeat his Downie/Talbot and PAP/Briere trades. A healthy productive Dupuis falls in line with what he's done.

And I think SJ is under pressure to make changes. Marleau may be the most cost effective impact player out there. You don't like his age. But again, who cares as long as he helps the team the next few years while Bennett/Kapanen develop.

 

[radapex]

He likes him so much he only signed him for 2 years, instead of attempting to add another year or two to take care of some of his UFA years?

More years would've upped the cap hit. Buying UFAs years from an RFA is always more expensive. Look at Eller's deal for a perfect example - $2.5M + $2.5M in his RFA years and $4.25M + $4.75M in his UFA years.

 

[Shady Machine]

I never advocated letting him walk. It was just a pointless piece in the Neal trade and a prospect or draft pick would've been the better choice if we were going to take all of our UFA/RFA money and throw it at bottom six players.

I can understand that argument. It depends on the pick and prospect of course. At the time of the trade, no body knew that guys like Winnik and Stemps would be available for bargain deals. Maybe Rutherford should have waited, but he obviously likes Spaling. Depending on your view of JR and the pro scouting staff, that can be seen as a positive or negative

 

[Waffle Fries]

Two thoughts:

1. Management really doesn't want to commit to anyone right now, it seems. Every contract this offseason has been short term and it makes me wonder how they're approaching Sutter.

2. I would have expected arbitration to give Spaling a contract exactly like this one.

Exactly. It's a temporary bottom six to go with our temporary GM. I don't mind that at all, and it's probably for the best.


I would have preferred about 200k less per year, but it's not that big of a deal.

 

[radapex]

I would've liked to sign him for about 700k less/year. Oh well.

There's no way he was going to just take his qualifying offer after having a career year last season.

 

[Rocket of Russia]

More years would've upped the cap hit. Buying UFAs years from an RFA is always more expensive. Look at Eller's deal for a perfect example - $2.5M + $2.5M in his RFA years and $4.25M + $4.75M in his UFA years.

I think we can all agree here that everyone knows RFA yrs are cheaper to buy than UFA yrs. We don't need to bring it up in a way that implies that's something that hasn't been grasped by the knowledgeable posters here.

Like one dude. No one should take that opinion seriously.

Yeah, and it was swept into a general statement addressing posters who were "freaking out!" It's an unnecessary tactic for a generally reasonable discussion.

Exactly. It's a temporary bottom six to go with our temporary GM. I don't mind that at all, and it's probably for the best.


I would have preferred about 200k less per year, but it's not that big of a deal.

My problem with this is Spaling was the sweetener to a deal that saw us lose a very permanent fixture of our top 6.

 

[Gurglesons]

I can understand that argument. It depends on the pick and prospect of course. At the time of the trade, no body knew that guys like Winnik and Stemps would be available for bargain deals. Maybe Rutherford should have waited, but he obviously likes Spaling. Depending on your view of JR and the pro scouting staff, that can be seen as a positive or negative

It is fine, but I wouldn't offer Sutter a contract now. I'd trade him for someone that is either a similar situation that can benefit Malkin or Crosby, or I'd package him for someone that is even better. In retrospect, I'd rather give Sutter a 3.5$ 2 year deal over Spaling getting a 2.2$ 2 year deal.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

The bottom-6 needed an overhaul, for sure. But as we saw this year, it's not that hard to turn it over.

It just seemed hard to overhaul the bottom-6 because Shero and Bylsma literally didn't give a **** about doing it.

While I agree that the Bottom-6 has gone from 30th to ~15th, I don't think it's enough, because the top-6 has gotten worse.

When the Top-6 was better, yes, all they needed to do was fix the bottom-6.

However, now we have, at best (my opinion, I get it) Hornqvist being a lateral move on Neal, Kunitz being a year older, and then two of the following three in the top-6: Beau Bennett, Downie, and Dupuis.

I do not think any combination of those 3 players gives the Penguins an above average set of top-6 wingers. In fact, I would say they are easily in the bottom third of the league.

You're asking all three of those guys to rebound from significant injuries. You're asking Downie to play at a level he's done once in his entire career. You're asking Bennett to take the next step offensively, despite a consistent lack of practice, training camp, and even knowing which of the two centers he'll play with. You're asking Dupuis to reach a level he's reached once, maybe twice, at the age of old, with one knee, and in a system that may or may not fit a guy who can't handle the puck.

I'm not being negative for the sake of being negative. I just don't know how we can look at this roster objectively and think the is better set up for the long term than it was a year ago.

So, to keep it on topic, I don't think Spaling, and Sutter, when it happens, are the kinds of guys you worry about spending market or slightly-above market value on. They aren't critical. I don't think this team loses ANYTHING if they aren't here. If you told me right now that they were both out for the year with some injury, does it really change your opinion on the team?

Kunitz - Crosby - Dupuis
Bennett - Malkin - Hornqvist
Downie - Goc - Megna
XXX - Sill - Adams

is that significantly worse than

Kunitz - Crosby - Dupuis
Bennett - Malkin - Hornqvist
Downie - Sutter - Spaling
Megna - Goc - Adams

?

Did you go from, "wow, contender" to "hehheh, 2nd round loss" ?

I really hope not. Sutter and Spaling are the walking epitome of average.

This is sort of where I'm at with the current roster. The bottom six has improved over last year, but then again, last year's was one of the worst bottom sixes I've ever seen from a non-expansion roster.

But the bottom six isn't good enough to offset the top six being as weak as it is. If the top six was a lot stronger then, yes, you can get by with a league average bottom six. The problem is, the top six (minus two obvious guys) isn't exactly potent, either.

IF Rutherford can bring in another quality top six forward (or two, if they don't want to rush Bennett), then a bottom six consisting of guys like Dupuis, Sutter, Spaling, Goc, Comeau, etc. is more than fine. If the top six includes guys like Downie, Bennett, and Dupuis, then that bottom six isn't strong enough to offset that.

 

[Shady Machine]

More years would've upped the cap hit. Buying UFAs years from an RFA is always more expensive. Look at Eller's deal for a perfect example - $2.5M + $2.5M in his RFA years and $4.25M + $4.75M in his UFA years.

It would have for sure, but what me and others are saying is that 2.2 is too high for RFA years in our opinion. Eller has a more proven track record of success to ask for that type of jump (even if I think he's deal is a tad too high).

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

More years would've upped the cap hit. Buying UFAs years from an RFA is always more expensive. Look at Eller's deal for a perfect example - $2.5M + $2.5M in his RFA years and $4.25M + $4.75M in his UFA years.

Why are you using Eller as an example? He's not comparable to Spaling. Eller's more comparable to whatever Sutter ends up signing at. Why not point to the recent signing of King? He's more comparable to Spaling. The Kings buying one year of UFA for King didn't cost them a song and a prayer.

 

[Shady Machine]

I think we can all agree here that everyone knows RFA yrs are cheaper to buy than UFA yrs. We don't need to bring it up in a way that implies that's something that hasn't been grasped by the knowledgeable posters here.



Yeah, and it was swept into a general statement addressing posters who were "freaking out!" It's an unnecessary tactic for a generally reasonable discussion.

Totally agreed.

 

[Shady Machine]

It is fine, but I wouldn't offer Sutter a contract now. I'd trade him for someone that is either a similar situation that can benefit Malkin or Crosby, or I'd package him for someone that is even better. In retrospect, I'd rather give Sutter a 3.5$ 2 year deal over Spaling getting a 2.2$ 2 year deal.

I think most of us would prefer to package Sutter in a trade for a top 6 winger.

 

[mpp9]

Sutter badly outperformed Goc in the postseason. I'm fine dealing Sutter, but if he'll commit longterm, Id rather have him. I think he has that extra gear offensively for the playoffs. Whereas Goc can't be relied upon to help anchor your secondary scoring.

And Spaling is a much better player than Megna at this point. Megna hasn't shown he's an NHL regular yet. Intriguing upside, but that's all for now.