Pens at Kings: Breakout season for Niskanen
It's nice to see Niskanen taking a realistic approach to the season. He'd like to stay but realizes that the organization is loaded with good defensive prospects, so all he can do is play his game and let the chips fall where they may.
Agreed. And the fact that he wants to stay should indicate that he would be willing to take a hometown discount. And as long as we give him only a partial NTC, I think it would be smart as hell to re-sign him; particularly with all the other assets we have pissed away. The way he's going, he's only going to get better and better over the next 2-4 seasons, which is exactly the time when Pouiot will really be knocking on the door, and possibly when Martin may start to slow down (if it was those 2 we kept and not Letang). Signing him is a no-brainer.
Awesome article. Niskanen seems like a really good dude. I am definitely open to keeping him around next year. The issue though is will he want to play a 3rd pairing role and will the Pens want to pay 4+ mil for a 3rd pairing dman?
Well, I would rather roll the dice and keep Nisky at $4-4.5 million per year as long as it's not a full NTC, because we could always trade him in 2-4 years. But keeping him would virtually be essential if we either traded Letang, or lost Martin to UFA.
If we signed Nisky to that money, and extended Sutter for a long term deal in the same range, we would have about $2 million to play with. This is not enough money to get a Vanek/Cammalleri/etc., though if we somehow signed Vanek, we could then trade one of Nisky/Letang/Martin/Scuderi to make up space. If it was Letang, the package of young players and futures we would get would be insane.
But that is enough money to give a guy like Setoguchi or Kulemin a whirl: two guys who would probably want a short-term, inexpensive deal to re-gain their best performance and prove they deserve more. No better way to do that than on this team with the centres we have.
AND...if we were to pull off the type of trade I would like to pull off for a top-end young winger (Coyle/Niedereiter/Silfverberg/Brock Nelson/etc.), it's possible we could fill that RW need for a (future) star-caliber winger without breaking the bank and fitting within that sub $2 to $2.5 million cap space.
So while it's not a guarantee it would be the best move, it's worth the risk, and there's nothing that says we could't trade another player to give us that cap room if we really need it. I think the risk is WELL worth taking.
He's such a grounded guy and he took on the leadership role with the rookies like it was no big deal, he's a better leader than Orpik, hate me for saying that all anyone wants.
You took the words out of my mouth with the bolded. Orpik is a great leader, but for different reasons, and his leadership alone is not enough to keep him on this team (though it definitely helps his value if we trade him before the deadline, or even to trade his rights for whatever at the draft). But Nisky is a great guy who has good insights and no just the cookie-cutter talk. And we love to have guys who love being here. He is loved by his teammates and fits in well into the locker room, which just further justifies the idea to extend him.
