News Article: Despres/Ebbett to WBS, Bennett to ECHL, Pouliot to WHL, Letang/Vokoun to IR

[LetangInTheSO]

Explanations needed:

Penguins Make Roster Moves

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[MonsterSurge]

Bennett is obviously for the cap, but why was Despres sent down?!?!?!?

 

[LetangInTheSO]

Bennett is obviously for the cap, but why was Despres sent down?!?!?!?

Maybe there was truth to the team being upset with Despres' conditioning?

And how is Bennett a cap move? Do you think the intention is to keep him down there?

 

[MonsterSurge]

Maybe there was truth to the team being upset with Despres' conditioning?

And why is Bennett a cap move? Do you think the intention is to keep him down there?

Sending him to Wheeling makes absolutely zero sense, so it obviously has something to do with the cap/something similar

Edit: Could you imagine putting Engelland, Bortuzzo, and Ruopp in the lineup?

 

[skullman80]

Bennett will be back up before Thursday guaranteed. Just a paper transaction.

 

[LetangInTheSO]

Bennett will be back up before Thursday guaranteed. Just a paper transaction.

Gotcha. I guess every day of cap relief helps.

 

[end]

I've basically sworn Penguins hockey off until Bylsma is fired, but today on Facebook I discover that Despres and Bennett were sent down. I can only assume they were sent down to make room for more Craig Adams and Mark Eaton.

Apparently one is a cap thing. That's good.

 

[IcedCapp]

M-O-O-N

that spells **** off whoever decided to send Despres down

 

[cheesedanish87]

Bennett is obviously for the cap, but why was Despres sent down?!?!?!?

Maybe they wanna let Maatta play some games, after he reaches his limit pens can decide on keeping Maatta or calling up Despres.

 

[Wes C Addle]

The Ruopp recall in conjunction with the Despres demotion is peculiar.

 

[Stad]

Lol @ the Pens fans on twitter freaking out about Beau being sent down, talk about clueless.

Is Vokoun going on LTIR?

 

[IcedCapp]

The Ruopp recall in conjunction with the Despres demotion is peculiar.

Ruopp's cap hit is 85k more than Despres' for those curious

 

[MonsterSurge]

Is Maatta still up?

 

[Alesle]

And how is Bennett a cap move? Do you think the intention is to keep him down there?

Get under the cap now. Put Vokoun on LTIR when possible, then bring Bennett back up using the cap room from the LTIR exemption.

 

[Tasty Biscuits]

Ruopp's cap hit is 85k more than Despres' for those curious

Yep. It was explained to me that Ruopp has a higher cap hit than Despres and Bennett, so calling him up gets them as close to the upper limit as possible, allowing them to maximze the use of putting Vokoun on LTIR. So there ya go.

 

[Shrimper]

Bennett being sent down to the ECHL is akin to the Tangradi move a few years ago.

 

[Burgs]

Ruopp is injured and hasn't played a single pre-season game for WBS, he's not expected back soon either. Paper transaction to save cap space, that's all it is.

 

[wej20]

Bennett's obviously a cap thing but Despres I'm not so sure about. Not sure why they called Ruopp up when McNeil is the cheapest dman signed in WBS, I know Ruopp has playing bonuses so maybe that has something to do with it but his base salary is still higher than McNeil's.

 

[Freeptop]

I'll post this here as well. First, read this article by Mike Colligan:
http://thehockeywriters.com/tomas-vokoun-injury-salary-cap-ltir/

Specifically, look at option 2 at the bottom of that article.

Now notice that, according to CapGeek, the result of these moves is that the Pens are sitting at $1,990,833 over the cap.

Add to that the fact that Shero specifically stated, "What our roster is on Thursday, it might not be the same [as 5 p.m. Monday]. We'll wait and see." (quoted from a PG+ post: http://plus.sites.post-gazette.com/index.php/pro-sports/penguins-plus/122902-shero-bylsma-on-roster for those who can read it).

Oh, and since Conner already cleared waivers, they've got a few days where they can still send him down without him having to pass through them again.

If I had to guess, Conner and Ruopp won't be on the opening night roster. Bennett will be. Despres will have to toil in the AHL until they decide to send Maatta back to Juniors. But that's just my guess.

 

[Shrimper]

Is it likely that tomorrow players will be moved around again?

 

[orby]

I wonder if the severity of Letang's injury has become any clearer? there certainly weren't any indications that it was something long-term. I guess the extra 3.5 mil in cap space will help in the short term, but do they really need to do that much?

Also I am very surprised that Maatta is still in town. It'd be neat to see him get his nine games in. Very confused about Despres though.

 

[shureshot66]

We don't know if Letang is getting an LTIR designation like Vokoun (I'd expect not), so that greatly affects the cap situation. Bennett will obviously be back. Despres seems less likely to start the year to both get under the cap ceiling and sign Kobasew.

The key word is patience. We need to see which moves are cap shenanigans and which aren't. Remember, the goal is to be as close to the ceiling as is humanly possible before designating anyone for LTIR. That's how you get the most cap relief.

We can argue about decisions by Bylsma and Shero, but I would urge people to trust Botterill when it comes to managing a cap situation like this.

 

[Shady Machine]

Bennett is obviously for the cap, but why was Despres sent down?!?!?!?

Despres was likely sent down for cap purposes as well as roster spot for Maatta. They called up Ruopp who will obviously not be playing so it seems likely that they were trying to get as close to the cap as possible.

 

[MtlPenFan]

M-O-O-N

that spells **** off whoever decided to send Despres down

Exactly one person reads Stephen King novels.

 

[cygnus47]

Relax guys. The moves are just to ensure that we're as close to 2 million over the cap as possible. We can place Vokoun on LTIR (edit*) now, get close to 2 million in cap relief and then swap back at least Bennett and Conner, and send down Ruopp and we'll get a little extra cap space than the maximum 2 million if we just LTIR'd Vokoun. So later in the year we have as much room as possible for any further injuries/moves.

Apart from Despres possibly getting sent down for a few games, none of this is more than a paper transaction.