penguins2946*
Guest
As soon as Letang comes back, I'm expecting Niskanen to be traded. At that point, either Maatta will stay up or Despres will get recalled and Maatta sent to the OHL. Seeing how sending Maatta to the OHL doesn't burn a year on his ELC, I'm expecting that. So, I'm expecting:
Letang-Scuderi
Orpik-Martin
Despres-Bortuzzo
Engelland
Next year really depends on how Despres looks this year. If he is solid in the #5 spot, he will slide up and take Orpik's spot along Martin, and Maatta will slide into the #5 spot. If he's not solid, he will probably be traded, Orpik re-signed and Maatta at the #5 spot. Dumoulin would be in the #7 spot, and he will get plenty of games due to the inevitable injuries to the D. I'm hoping for the first option, so I'll go with that. The D at that point would be:
Letang-Scuderi
Despres-Martin
Maatta-Bortuzzo
Dumoulin
The year after, I don't expect Martin to be retained. I'm expecting him to want 1 more big paycheck, which the Pens can't give him. This is the year that the lines get changed up. I think, at that point, Bortuzzo will be a serviceable top-4 D, so another Orpik-Martin pair will be made with Bortuzzo and Despres. Also, I don't think that Scuderi will be able to handle top-4 minutes anymore, so I think he will slide down the lineup to the bottom pair to mentor young D, in this case, Dumoulin. I'm expecting:
Maatta-Letang
Despres-Bortuzzo
Scuderi-Dumoulin
Harrington
The year after gets too hairy to predict. If Scuderi only had a 3 year deal, he would go and Harrington would just take his spot. However, he has a full NTC, and I'm not sure he would retire before this deal would be over. Also, other D like Ruopp, Samuelsson and Pouliot will probably be knocking on the door at this point, and because of the abundance of D prospects we have, we will probably have to trade some D prospects or lose them to waivers. That's an inevitable situation with Shero's drafting strategy.
Letang-Scuderi
Orpik-Martin
Despres-Bortuzzo
Engelland
Next year really depends on how Despres looks this year. If he is solid in the #5 spot, he will slide up and take Orpik's spot along Martin, and Maatta will slide into the #5 spot. If he's not solid, he will probably be traded, Orpik re-signed and Maatta at the #5 spot. Dumoulin would be in the #7 spot, and he will get plenty of games due to the inevitable injuries to the D. I'm hoping for the first option, so I'll go with that. The D at that point would be:
Letang-Scuderi
Despres-Martin
Maatta-Bortuzzo
Dumoulin
The year after, I don't expect Martin to be retained. I'm expecting him to want 1 more big paycheck, which the Pens can't give him. This is the year that the lines get changed up. I think, at that point, Bortuzzo will be a serviceable top-4 D, so another Orpik-Martin pair will be made with Bortuzzo and Despres. Also, I don't think that Scuderi will be able to handle top-4 minutes anymore, so I think he will slide down the lineup to the bottom pair to mentor young D, in this case, Dumoulin. I'm expecting:
Maatta-Letang
Despres-Bortuzzo
Scuderi-Dumoulin
Harrington
The year after gets too hairy to predict. If Scuderi only had a 3 year deal, he would go and Harrington would just take his spot. However, he has a full NTC, and I'm not sure he would retire before this deal would be over. Also, other D like Ruopp, Samuelsson and Pouliot will probably be knocking on the door at this point, and because of the abundance of D prospects we have, we will probably have to trade some D prospects or lose them to waivers. That's an inevitable situation with Shero's drafting strategy.