Salary Cap: Salary Cap Summer | The Hunt for 3C | Updated cap info in Post #1

[Nakawick]

I think I am going to see if Mikey and Big Bob have any new material.

 

[Speaking Moistly]

I can't tell if you're making fun of me here, so I'll just assume you are.

I never make fun of anyone.

 

[66-30-33]

Sure. I can wake you up when September ends...this is an older reference than I initially realized.

Bro...that song is CRINGE worthy.

 

[TheMalkinEra]

I guess im the only one that can recall back in 93 when Mario was out with cancer, a guy named Jagr moved to center on line with Mceachern and Tocchet during that 6 week span. Scotty bowman want to lineup with 2 scoring lines and 2 checking lines. I still remember that lineup when Mario was out.

Stevens-Francis-Mullen
McEachern-Jagr-Tocchet
Errey-Tippet-Loney
Daniels-Stapelton-Needham
Martin Straka also get Into the lineup during this time.

But now if the Pens Think outside the box. And sign Jagr to be the 3rd C would be crazy but fun idea.

Geuntzel-Crosby-Hornqvist
Hagelin-Malkin-Kessel
Sheary-Jagr-Rust
Wilson-Rowney-Reeves

 

[Son Goku]

I guess im the only one that can recall back in 93 when Mario was out with cancer, a guy named Jagr moved to center on line with Mceachern and Tocchet during that 6 week span. Scotty bowman want to lineup with 2 scoring lines and 2 checking lines. I still remember that lineup when Mario was out.

Stevens-Francis-Mullen
McEachern-Jagr-Tocchet
Errey-Tippet-Loney
Daniels-Stapelton-Needham
Martin Straka also get Into the lineup during this time.

But now if the Pens Think outside the box. And sign Jagr to be the 3rd C would be crazy but fun idea.

Geuntzel-Crosby-Hornqvist
Hagelin-Malkin-Kessel
Sheary-Jagr-Rust
Wilson-Rowney-Reeves

Not a bad idea, depends on if Jagr wants the responsibility. Centers don't have to necessarily be fast like wingers so that's a plus.

 

[Penske]

Last year going into the season we had Rust/Sheary/Kuhn all question marks to see if they could back their season up. I would say Rust/Sheary far surpassed anything I would have imagined. Then Jake killed it at camp and we thought it was only a matter of time before he gets a shot, too. And he came in and dominated. I didn't even think Rowney/Ruh were legit candidates for important ice time and both guys were found to be very solid fill-ins. Ruh, especially, for a long time.

Throw in Sprong/ZAR and whoever else wants to step up and make a name for themselves, and we got something beautiful as we head into the season.

The fact that most players can come into this side and do well is a real compliment to Sully. He has built a game plan that's very successful in this era of hockey. We've lost so many guys to injuries and the next guy comes in and performs.

Example: we have a Hagelin-Malkin-Kessel line. Hagelin gets injured and Sully says to Rust his main job is to do what Hags did, hard on the forecheck and create a lot of pressure. If he scores a bunch great if not as long as he's doing his job that'll allow Malkin/kessel to do their thing.

Then Sheary isn't doing well on L1 so Rust is moved there and told the main role he needs to play. Wilson gets a chance to replace Rust on L2 and told the same thing as Rust.

We seem to be able to go on and on. Lose a soldier, replace a soldier. The next guy might not be as good but we have the right support and structure to allow lesser players to be successful. Which is why we are able to handle injuries and adversity better than any other team in the league. Sully is a huge part of that (also JR being on board with the game plan and getting the right players).

 

[Speaking Moistly]

Bro...that song is CRINGE worthy.

Pop culture references are not guaranteed quality nor universal appeal. Green Day is also my Cold Play hill to die on.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

We seem to be able to go on and on. Lose a soldier, replace a soldier. The next guy might not be as good but we have the right support and structure to allow lesser players to be successful. Which is why we are able to handle injuries and adversity better than any other team in the league. Sully is a huge part of that (also JR being on board with the game plan and getting the right players).

Which is why it's a bit weird to see a handful of folks freak out because JR hasn't addressed all the needs yet, or because he added Reaves. At some point, they should probably get a bit of the benefit of the doubt about the vision they have for the team based on the back to back Cups.

 

[Brandinho]

Pop culture references are not guaranteed quality nor universal appeal. Green Day is also my Cold Play hill to die on.

Wake me up when Green Day make good music again.

 

[DegenX]

Wake me up when Green Day make good music again.

There's a dookie joke in there ...

 

[Ugene Magic]

Wake me up when Green Day make good music again.

We'll check if you are still breathing, first.

 

[Speaking Moistly]

Wake me up when Green Day make good music again.

They've never made bad music. You can say they're not in their prime anymore which I'd say is true but they aren't making bad music.

 

[Ugene Magic]

They've never made bad music. You can say they're not in their prime anymore which I'd say is true but they aren't making bad music.

Bang, Bang on.

 

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

Pop culture references are not guaranteed quality nor universal appeal. Green Day is also my Cold Play hill to die on.

Green Day is awesome. More specifically, 1990s Green Day is awesome. 2000s Green Day is much less awesome, although "Holiday" is a good song.

 

[DesertedPenguin]

Just a reminder: Rutherford didn't make the Sutter-Bonino trade until July 28, 2015. The man is patient.

 

[Brandinho]

They've never made bad music. You can say they're not in their prime anymore which I'd say is true but they aren't making bad music.

Bad is relative, though. I'd say they're bad now compared to their pre-Warning stuff. Is it bad in a vacuum? Probably not, but there's so much great music nowadays that I can't be bothered listening to it.

 

[Pick87your71Poison]

Green Day is awesome. More specifically, 1990s Green Day is awesome. 2000s Green Day is much less awesome, although "Holiday" is a good song.

I hadn't paid attention to any new Green Day stuff in a long time but came across this "Still Breathing" song from last year which is solid.

 

[Gurglesons]

I can't believe we are sitting on July 4th off of back to back cups with one spot we really need to address with the cap space to do it and a GM that has made it clear he knows it needs addressed and people are complaining that we missed out on David Desharnais of all people. If you are reaching down for that bargain bin level player for the 4th line, I see no reason to rush out and do it now over letting a young guy get time during the season to see what we have and address it as needed. Getting a guy of his caliber for the bottom line costs very little to address in $ or assets at any point. However, letting an unproven player get some time and develop and see what we have at least gives us the potential for upside and internal fixes, which we have seen is so extremely valuable over the last couple years. You know what you get with Desharnais with no upside and it's nothing very exciting.

You would think seeing what the opportunities that were given to guys like Guentzel, Sheary, Rust, Wilson, Kuhnhackl, Rowney, Archibald, etc over the last couple of years has done for us in contributing to two cups and shaping our roster with so much more quality and cheap depth would be enough for people not to want to just plug every free roster spot with mediocre vets for the sake of having a known commodity in there even if it's not a very good one. If we had been signing too many guys like Desharnais and Hemsky the last couple off-seasons, we may never have the spots and opportunities to give those guys above real playing time in the NHL. Most of those guys were not blue chip prospects that we knew we would find a way to get playing time (like Sprong), but guys that got a shot because of openings and then turned out far better and cheaper than anyone we could have grabbed externally.

Let this stuff play out and be patient. Panic moves and desperation to fill a hole or two right now is completely unnecessary given our roster. We don't need much, so let's make the RIGHT move and not just A move so that we can say the spot is filled.

It isn't about panic moves. Going into July 4th of last offseason we had both Bonino and Fehr signed to shore up our 3C and 4C. Fehr was a 4C. We have no 3C. Last year we could afford to play the waiting game with Cullen, because we effectively had two proven NHL centers. This year we can't. Desharnais and Hemsky are completely different players. Signing Desharnais to a one million dollar, one year contract is exactly the type of bargain bin signing that contenders make and your example of Guentzel, Sheary, Wilson, Rust, etc has nothing to do with that because we had winger depth that allowed those players to ease in. Having a roster with Hagelin, Kunitz, Kessel and Hornqvist all to fall back on if Sheary and Rust didn't play as well in 2016-17 helped. Having players like Wilson and Guentzel waiting in the wings also helped. We literally have nobody to fill in for the center position.

Hopefully, we make two smart moves towards the end of July like we did in 2015 in the Sutter trade and Fehr signing. The main issue is that the more we wait the more we have to trade an actual roster player versus signing a UFA for free. Whatever. This board always thinks I'm an idiot.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Man, still no news? I'm a little more than slightly worried now. More so that JR is going to wait it out too long and then end up over paying.

There's a dookie joke in there ...

Dookie is a good description of their music.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Wait, people are mad about Desharnais? I mean for the 4th line, yeah, but for 3C? Are you guys out of your collective ****ing minds? Good lord.

As the youth say... "I can't even..."

 

[deakka]

Imagine JR being to cheap to trade for a 3c during the summer. Then one of sid and Geno will get hurt to start the season and we have one 1st and one 4th center on the team....

 

[Peat]

I would rather trade for the asset we want than sign in UFA the asset we'll make do with. And given Rutherford's statements, he appears to agree. I don't see why anyone would have expected us to dip back into free agency for a centre.

Admittedly, I'd rather have four proven centres than three and Rowney or even two and Rowney and AN Other to start the season with, but its a relatively minor gamble in the grand scheme of things. This season really is a glorified pre-season for us. The only way we lose hard on it is if Sid/Geno pick up a season ender before we have 3C in place and we have to rush to fill it but there's nothing fool proof in this world.

 

[deakka]

Still think we should get a cheap player that can play center and wing. Still hoping for grigorenko or jokinen. Depending on how the 3c hunt going and how they view Rowney, they can either play center, wing or healthy scratch.

 

[Gurglesons]

I would rather trade for the asset we want than sign in UFA the asset we'll make do with. And given Rutherford's statements, he appears to agree. I don't see why anyone would have expected us to dip back into free agency for a centre.

Admittedly, I'd rather have four proven centres than three and Rowney or even two and Rowney and AN Other to start the season with, but its a relatively minor gamble in the grand scheme of things. This season really is a glorified pre-season for us. The only way we lose hard on it is if Sid/Geno pick up a season ender before we have 3C in place and we have to rush to fill it but there's nothing fool proof in this world.

It really isn't a minor gamble. We have the opportunity to make a similar move like we did at the end of July to get Bonino and sign Fehr, but those deals were mainly made because Bones was a disappointment in Vancouver (plus Benning) and Fehr was going to be out until December with surgery. Signing a player like Desharnais is exactly like signing Fehr. Low risk, moderate reward signing. We have the cap space to make a signing like that.

Center depth is what won us back to back cups. I'm also curious exactly what player would be Sutter in this hypothetical trade.

 

[MattincenseMyrrhey]

If JR cant get a deal done this offseason it's not the end of the world. The good news is we have 3 wingers versatile enough to play center in Wilson, Guentzel, and Rawney. They can hold down the fort until we find a more permanent solution.