Salary Cap: Salary Cap & Roster Building | Tell me where it hurts you and I'll tell you who to call

[Honour Over Glory]

I think if you're going after Schmidt, you offer Vegas Maatta for Schmidt and Haula straight up and work from there. And even then, I'm not all that enthused about that deal because Schmidt and Haula are free agents relatively soon.

I don't think Dumoulin is the guy that gets traded, I think Maatta has more value than Dumoulin and Dumoulin fits the Penguins system better than Maatta does. I do think Maatta is better than Dumoulin, but I think Maatta would be more likely to be traded than Dumoulin.

Maatta's play this year has me wanting to keep him around a little longer. Dumoulin for the most part goes under the radar because he's a solid guy in his own end, is a nice guy that tries hard at trying to be effective on the rush, but he's also a guy that needs to be kept away from Letang where he ends up babysitting and renders him useless.

But I can see why teams would want Maatta more right now, production is better, is playing fairly decent defensively...is signed long term.

 

[Ryder71]

And yet hes still better than almost everyone else. You dont trade that unless your getting something elite back

His play this year isn't better actually. He's a defensemen, not a rover, though he plays like it. His offensive acumen is never a question. If he helps set up two goals and directly or indirectly helps give up three, it's a net loss. Nearly half way through the season and it's not getting any better. Offensively HIS stats look great. Good, it'll help with his value. But defensively he's just god awful and has been for quite some time.

 

[bigkam]

Seeing folks claim that Letang has had “an up and down year” might be the funniest thing I have seen in a while. The second part is definitely true. Trading him not only eliminates a gigantic liability on defense, it opens up cap space while getting us assets. This team has proven that it can win a cup without him, and that was when he was actually playing serviceable defense. Regardless, winning 3 in a row is insanely difficult, and I’m convinced the only way we have a shot is with a trade that shakes up the team before the deadline. This team looks and smells stale right now.

 

[ColePens]

Yeah... if you look at JR's trades here.

Neal for Hornqvist and Spaling, the value was at best equal but Hornqvist
1st for Perron was fair when the pick was expected to be in the 20s and he was supposed to fit
Perron for Hagelin was fair but the Pens took on more years
The Kessel trade was a win, win, win
Scuderi for Daley Hahahahahahahahahahaha
Despres for Lovejoy was bad, it worked out but it was a bad value trade
Hainsey was fair enough
Streit was fair enough
Reaves trade was a loss
The Pouliot trade looks like a loss-ish
The Sheahan trade was at least fair but he’d been struggling for awhile.

A lot of his trades have worked out well because the6 won two cups but they weren’t necessarily value wins. It’s something to be fairly nervous about.

On top of this, which I very much agree with, the luck factor is not on our side. All the teams we needed to be sellers are not sellers. Everyone who is a seller really isn't a great partner.

The one team who I feel has been a good trade partner is Ottawa. But the rest really don't meet the criteria.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Also, I'd probably add this. If Sheary gets traded for a center, I think Sprong would get recalled at that point. He's not producing like you'd want him to with WBS so far (he is at 14 goals and 21 points in 23 games, he has a ton of PP goals and PP points) and his defensive game needs work, but I think they'd call him up the second a top-9 spot opens up. It's just a question of how you fit in all of those players into the lineup. With trading Sheary, that means Simon, Guentzel and Rust are your LWers and you don't have that much wiggle room to change that.

I don't get the token line that people keep throwing out that Sprong isn't producing like we want or they want or whomever wants...

He's second in the AHL in goal scoring... 1 goal away from the top slot with two games in hand. As a rookie.

What else are we expecting from a goal scorer who is scoring goals?

 

[Tom Hanks]

I don't get the token line that people keep throwing out that Sprong isn't producing like we want or they want or whomever wants...

He's second in the AHL in goal scoring... 1 goal away from the top slot with two games in hand. As a rookie.

What else are we expecting from a goal scorer who is scoring goals?

Probably because he had a bad stretch of 3 points in 13 games just recently. Not sure when he was scratched but he has 4 goals and an assist in his last 3 games. Maybe it was a gentle wake up call.

 

[Empoleon8771]

I don't get the token line that people keep throwing out that Sprong isn't producing like we want or they want or whomever wants...

He's second in the AHL in goal scoring... 1 goal away from the top slot with two games in hand. As a rookie.

What else are we expecting from a goal scorer who is scoring goals?

More ES production. Guentzel when he was called up averaged nearly a ES points per game, he had 16 goals and 30 points at ES in 33 games. Sprong is a little over half a ES point/game, he only has 7 goals and 13 points in 23 games at ES. It's really nice that he's scoring a ton of goals on the PP, but he's not needed as a triggerman on a PP unit currently unless the Penguins split up their PP units into 2 units.

Ideally, I'd probably want Sprong at 17 or 18 goals and 26 or 27 points on the year, considering how much he has produced on the PP. Then again, if not for that bad stretch he had, he probably would be at those numbers already, so who knows? I don't actually think Sprong will be better or worse based on how many points he produces, it's not like he'd get EXP for scoring goals or something.

 

[Nakawick]

I don't get the token line that people keep throwing out that Sprong isn't producing like we want or they want or whomever wants...

He's second in the AHL in goal scoring... 1 goal away from the top slot with two games in hand. As a rookie.

What else are we expecting from a goal scorer who is scoring goals?

I thought he would have 50 by now, give or take.