Past time for a new thread? Does one just do it and ask a mod to close this one?
In any event, I start from the premises of and conclusions from said premises:
- The Pens finished first last year
Shouldn’t matter, how many times did the Bolts and Caps win their divisions and it led to nothing?
- They haven’t had playoff success for three years, however Goaltending explains this year and COVID may explain last year. Conclusion—they are close to contending.
Funny, so the top line being absolutely impotent and the lack of changes didn’t enter into your reasoning for why this team failed? Because against the Isles x 2 and Habs, this top line was shit offensively. Goaltending being the one thing people keep bringing up is a bit of a joke. Jarry didn’t perform, but the offense also didn’t come from Crosby, Rust, and Guentzel as it should have.
Btw, it’s 4 years of shit.
Lost to the Caps in the 2nd round, Trotz officially enters the psyche of Sullivan.
Islanders sweep the Pens.
Habs beat the Pens in the play-in, the Pens didn’t even freaking make it to the proper playoffs, that’s how idiotic this coaching staff and that top line was for help, but we all blamed Murray.
Islanders beat the Pens again, top line does a no show for 3rd straight year, but here we are again, blaming a goalie only.
- Jarry was an all-star last year. So what, but definitely don’t have to move him
Not a lot of teams will move goalies, this was a year of trends that were down for a lot of goalies, statistically the save percentage has not been this low in 16 seasons. Context is something that is insanely lost on this fan base.
- One of Matheson/Pettersson has to go. Probably not until after the expansion draft.
I mean it’s 100% obvious Pettersson has to go, his style of play is not conducive to the style the Pens should be playing to win. He’s bland offensively, defensively he has no physicality to stand the grind in the playoffs and bigger players for a player his size.
- Keep Freddy for new C on BART, make Teddy/Carter the basis of 3rd line.
There’s a reason teams that Freddie played for, didn’t keep him around, he’s not a regular, he’s good for those short burts, he’s a player you replace Sceviour with on the depth chart. I would never make him a regular on this roster, if he is, we’re already f***ed even more.
- Angello and especially Zohorna have earned a shot at being regulars. I think Zoho has the better chance since we are going to be down LWs, see below.
They should have had a chance in the playoffs to be honest, the coach almost refuses to use them or something…oh wait he does. Both players should have had far more opportunities than they did this season and neither are that young so you need to cultivate that now or allow the ignorance of this coach to ruin them and they f*** off to another team.
- Protect Carter and Teddy which means expose Zucker and McCann which means trade McCann for futures or as part of a bigger hockey trade before expansion draft instead of losing to Seattle.
I would trade Zucker, expose McCann and keep Carter and Blueger.
- Seattle’s choice is between Zucker/Matheson. They choose Zucker.
Penguins should be moving Zucker if they can, this summer. It’s clear he doesn’t fit in whatever garbage this system is and the coach literally had him playing on his off wing and didn’t figure out how that wasn’t working for him while Zucker came back from an injury and didn’t quite look the same, but was probably one of the better forwards in the playoffs with throwing his small frame around and actually trying to score. He’s smaller than Jake and was able to take more abuse, but you can’t have Jake and Zucker on this roster and I don’t know if we can have either at this point with the powers in the East having players that can really take it to those type of guys.
-
[*]If Zucker and McCann are gone then need to re-sign ZAR. Zohorna draws into lineup. NEED—top9 LW.
Wishful thinking that a rookie would get such an opportunity. You seem to forget Drew O’Connor exists, don’t worry, so did our moron of a coach. Thank god Drew got to play with such insane talents like Mark Jankowski and Colton Sceviour though, proves all you needed to know about him being able to play with talent right?
-
[*]NEED Bottom pairing RD. Re-sign Ceci if deal is short and reasonable.
I would let Ceci walk and allow some other team to sign him to some multi-year deal, he’ll likely sign with the Seattle team as depth/veteran presence. I would rather see this team go after a more physical 6th/7th RHD that can skate and play a fairly well rounded game.
- NEED—1A/1B goalie to compete with Jarry and DeSmith. I’d like Grubauer or Gibson. Pipe dreams. Raanta is good and would be cheap.
DeSmith needs to be gone. Jarry is fine as the starter, but you can’t throw the guy there with a goalie that wasn’t even in the NHL last season as the back-up, even he struggled hard down the stretch which people seem to forget about quite decidedly.
Gibson is a pipe dream. The starter for him would be too costly for a team with so few assets like this. Grubauer? Why wouldn’t the Avs try to keep him? Francouz took his job a season ago and then Grubauer just earned it back in a big way, the goalie market for him is going to be high, there’s literally no chance the Pens would be a contender for him with the contract he will get and why would he come into another situation he just left twice for? He went through the same shit in Washington, then in Colorado and now he’s coming in again as a 1A/1B situation? Also, downgrading heavily from a team with a bright future to whatever shit show this is.
