Salary Cap: Penguins in 16/17

[russ4king]

Okay I have been looking at where some of the teams stand against the cap for next year.

The Penguins are by far the closest team to the cap for next year already...with 70.6m spent for 9 Fwds, 6 Dman, and 2 goalies.

Now they do get back 3.7m with Dupuis going on LTIR once the season starts. So that puts them at about 67m...with 8 Fwds, 6 dman and 2 goalies once you remove Dupuis.

Many are forcasting the Cap will be flat but could possible shrink by a million or so. If it remains flat..that gives them 4 million dollars to sign a minimum of 4 players with no reserves...so ideally they need to also sign a spare D and F. So that's 6 players divided into 4m...that's not much.

Luckily only players that need to be resigned are Bennett and Schultz which will be tough unless they are willing to play for the league minimum.

What do you think they will do?

Click to read more...

 

[Empoleon8771]

They'll probably give the young guys full time spots (Rust, Wilson, Sprong, Kuhnhackl and Pouliot) and probably move Kunitz and Bonino. As of right now, their base lineup would be something like:

Hagelin-Crosby-Hornqvist
XXXXXX-Malkin-Kessel
Rust-Fehr-Sprong
Wilson-Cullen-Bennett
Kuhnhackl-Sheary

Maatta-Letang
Dumoulin-Daley
Pouliot-Cole
Schultz

Fleury-Murray

Assuming Schultz gets like $1.5 million, that lineup will probably cost around $68 million. They'll probably look to bring in some sort of tweener 2nd/3rd liner for around $2 million and that would be it.

 

[Malkinstheman]

I tried it out on capfriendly and these are the results :

If you resign kuhn, bennett, rust and cullen at around 800k and schultz at 1.7 mil you are over 900k over the cap. Thats if the cap stays the same.

Trade any of bonino/daley/cole and we're fine. If we want to fit a big Ufa then theres some dealing to be done

 

[IcedCapp]

Cole, Kunitz, Bonino = $8MM in space. get futures if possible, slot the kids in the right place. Re-sign Cullen.

That should mean you need one forward (top-6 LW).

Let Lovejoy walk. Make up your mind on Schultz and Pouliot (re-sign and trade bait, respectively). Decide if Daley is your guy at #3. If he's not, move him and find a long term 2nd pairing RD OFD.

They have plenty of space if they make the correct moves, and most of the correct moves are sending money out and not trying to bring new assets on. Only need one or two outside players.

 

[Speaking Moistly]

Well, I look at Kunitz and I see he's awful. So there's 3.85M right there. Bennett and Schultz won't be expensive to re-sign for obvious reasons. Does Bonino seem like a real fit for what this team is trying to do? That's 1.9M and what should be an easily movable asset. Cole could be a dump option for another 2.1M but if he stops them from doing something stupid with Lovejoy by staying and keeps this up then that's a win. So that's a potential 5-8 cleared

Guys like Rust and Wilson will probably be up full time next season, maybe Sprong is in the mix. They're all cheap. Cullen could be a decently priced re-sign.

X-Crosby-Hornqvist
Hagelin-Malkin-Kessel
X - Fehr - X
X - Cullen - X
X

Bennett, Sprong, Wilson, Rust, Kunhnackl and other WBS players as possible bottom 6 options. They still need a top 6 LW unless we see a miracle out of Bennett's health or the others' performance.

Maatta-Letang
Dumoulin-Daley
Pouliot-Schultz/Cole/X
X/Cole/Schultz

 

[Malkinstheman]

Cole, Kunitz, Bonino = $8MM in space. get futures if possible, slot the kids in the right place. Re-sign Cullen.

That should mean you need one forward (top-6 LW).

Let Lovejoy walk. Make up your mind on Schultz and Pouliot (re-sign and trade bait, respectively). Decide if Daley is your guy at #3. If he's not, move him and find a long term 2nd pairing RD OFD.

They have plenty of space if they make the correct moves, and most of the correct moves are sending money out and not trying to bring new assets on. Only need one or two outside players.

Wouldnt that just be another veteran blocking a young guy. I think Pooh could fill that hole for us as early as end of next season. Daley seems like the perfect place holder.

 

[Ogrezilla]

Hagelin-Sid-Hornqvist
______-Geno-Kessel
Fehr-Cullen-Sprong
Wilson-Sundqvist-Rust
Bennett, Kuhnhakl

Maatta-Letang
Dumoulin-Daley
Pouliot-Schultz/NotLovejoy
NotLovejoy

The big hole is the top 6 LW. That has to be priority number 1, 2, and 3.

If we can get a better 3C, do it. If so, I still try to get Cullen for another year. Sundqvist isn't so good he can't still develop in the AHL, and having him as a call-up option would be nice anyway.

Find a good strong D. Basically, I am happy with that top 4 and possibly top 6. I think we need someone we would be happy playing on the 3rd pair in case Pouliot or Schultz struggles. If we can get someone better than that, great. I'd prefer to upgrade over Cole certainly. But if our current healthy 7D are our 7D going into next season, I won't panic too much.

And I wouldn't build a line-up that relies on Bennett until I see him stay healthy. If he's healthy, he wouldn't be our 13th forward, he'd be in. I just don't want us to build this team with the expectation that he'll be healthy. Consider him a bonus.

If Sprong isn't on the team, then I think Rust and Kuhn can each move up a spot. Again, ideally Bennett, but not to be counted on.

So I think we need 1 outside addition. We need a top 6 LW. 3C and one more D would be positions I'd explore upgrading.

 

[eXile59]

I believe Schultz has to be qualified at 3.9. That's what was being said on the main boards at least. There is definitely fat to cut. Kunitz and Cole being the obvious.

My biggest worry is we have some major holes on LW in the top 6 and no cap room to fill it. I like Wilson, Rust, and Kuhn but I don't think any of them are going to be top 6 players. Sprong will probably stay in juniors.

 

[Ogrezilla]

I believe Schultz has to be qualified at 3.9. That's what was being said on the main boards at least. There is definitely fat to cut. Kunitz and Cole being the obvious.

My biggest worry is we have some major holes on LW in the top 6 and no cap room to fill it. I like Wilson, Rust, and Kuhn but I don't think any of them are going to be top 6 players. Sprong will probably stay in juniors.

we can just not qualify him. We did it with TK a few years ago. We just lose the RFA rights, so we sign him as a UFA. Its not a guarantee that he signs here, but its reasonably likely. JR is certainly acting like its a certainty.

As for cap room, we need to move out Kunitz and Bonino. Preferably Cole too, and let Lovejoy walk. That's enough for a solid LW and some cushion space so long as we run a fair number of young guys in the bottom 6. If we don't move Kunitz, who the hell cares what else we do

 

[Speaking Moistly]

I believe Schultz has to be qualified at 3.9. That's what was being said on the main boards at least. There is definitely fat to cut. Kunitz and Cole being the obvious.

My biggest worry is we have some major holes on LW in the top 6 and no cap room to fill it. I like Wilson, Rust, and Kuhn but I don't think any of them are going to be top 6 players. Sprong will probably stay in juniors.

You don't qualify him and then you sign him as a UFA at a lower price. A much lower price.


They can make cap space, but like always with this team it's if they will. They have a garbage can that costs almost $4M a season, start there. Then you look at Bonino and Cole

 

[IcedCapp]

Wouldnt that just be another veteran blocking a young guy. I think Pooh could fill that hole for us as early as end of next season. Daley seems like the perfect place holder.

Daley can play RD. Dumo really shouldn't. I have not seen Poo do it. It's hard to say he's the 2nd pairing RD of the future when I'm not even sure he can play the position.

 

[Ogrezilla]

Daley can play RD. Dumo really shouldn't. I have not seen Poo do it. It's hard to say he's the 2nd pairing RD of the future when I'm not even sure he can play the position.

I would say keeping Daley for another year makes the most sense.

 

[Malkinstheman]

Daley can play RD. Dumo really shouldn't. I have not seen Poo do it. It's hard to say he's the 2nd pairing RD of the future when I'm not even sure he can play the position.

I wonder what they would do then. Has maata played rd? I cant remember if he has.

 

[russ4king]

All good suggestions....problem is...a lot of teams are going to be feeling cap pressure. Why would they want Kunitz or Cole? Not without their own crap contract coming back. Unless Pitt retains or sweetens the trades it will be pretty tough to move those 2 contracts.

 

[WayneSid9987]

At this point, if Cole continues to be steady, he can just take LJ's spot as the #6-7 defender.
Just simply let LJ walk.

Theres also the option of trading Daley(3.3M) if Pouliot and Schultz develop well.

Kunitz/Bones definitely should be moved.

The other possible options/in the near future/future:
Bennett/Sprong: one or 2 stick and Phil becomes expendable.
Murray becomes a legit #1 option and MAF is expendable.

 

[JackFr]

Sprong - Crosby - Hornqvist
Hagelin - Malkin - Kessel
Wilson - Fehr - Bennett
Cullen - Sundqvist - Rust
Kuhnhackl

Maatta - Letang
Daley - Dumoulin
Pouliot - XXXX
Schultz

Fleury
Murray

Trade: Kunitz, Bonino, Cole
Look for (trade market): Draft picks, top-six LW
Look for (free agency): Defenceman (Demers ideally), JR's magic beans (like Comeau, Cullen, etc.)

Possibly flip Sprong and Bennett if Sprong looks lost, but groom him to be 1LW of the future.

 

[SaturdayNightSlegr]

Looking longer term, they gotta extend Dumo at some point. Where's that $$ coming from? If Kessel flubs in the playoffs dumping that hit for futures wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

 

[JackFr]

Looking longer term, they gotta extend Dumo at some point. Where's that $$ coming from? If Kessel flubs in the playoffs dumping that hit for futures wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

Assume the cap goes up I guess? Basically we'll have to do what the Blackhawks do and ride our kids.

 

[Malkinstheman]

Thats something you worry about during the 2017-2018 season. Who knows what the cap looks like then.

 

[Jacob]

Kunitz is a must-deal at the draft or later in the summer.

XXXX (6) - Crosby (8.7) - Hornqvist (4.25)
Hagelin (4) - Malkin - (9.5) - Kessel (6.8)
Cullen (.8) - Bonino (1.9) - Sprong (.8)
Wilson (.6) - Fehr (2) - Rust (.6)
Kuhnhackl (.6)

Maatta (4) - Letang (7.25)
Dumoulin (.8) - Daley (4.6)
Pouliot (.9) - Cole (2.1)
YYYY (.6)

Fleury (5.25) / Murray (.6)

= $72.65 million

XXXX = Eriksson, Boedker or a trade
YYYY = Warsofsky, Redmond, etc.

 

[Pancakes]

Kunitz is a must-deal at the draft or later in the summer.

Eriksson (6) - Crosby (8.7) - Hornqvist (4.25)
Hagelin (4) - Malkin - (9.5) - Kessel (6.8)
Cullen (.8) - Bonino (1.9) - Sprong (.8)
Wilson (.6) - Fehr (2) - Rust (.6)
Kuhnhackl (.6), Sheary (.6)

Maatta (4) - Letang (7.25)
Dumoulin (.8) - Daley (4.6)
Pouliot (.9) - Cole (2.1)
XXXX (.7)

Fleury (5.25) / Murray (.6)

= $73.35 million

Dunno if I like 6 for Eriksson. If we're going to dump that kinda cash on a forward we might as well clear a little bit more space and sign Stamkos.

 

[Malkinstheman]

By a little more you mean at least 4 million more? Also I think flower makes 5.75 mil.

 

[Nakawick]

Simon is another player who could get a look next year. I think we are trading for a LW in the off season. I don't want to get into a biding war for UFA wingers.

 

[deakka]

No one will take Kunitz without us sending a pick or prospect with him. How would the cap penalty look if we were to buy out his last season?

And please dont sign Lovejoy. Well, if we can move Cole and Lovejoy will take the Cole money in guess its ok. But we really shouldnt have two or three 2m guys in the 6-7 rotation.

 

[cygnus47]

No one will take Kunitz without us sending a pick or prospect with him. How would the cap penalty look if we were to buy out his last season?

And please dont sign Lovejoy. Well, if we can move Cole and Lovejoy will take the Cole money in guess its ok. But we really shouldnt have two or three 2m guys in the 6-7 rotation.

Yes they would. He's still a decent 2nd liner in the right spot and he'd fetch a 2nd or B-level prospect. A plodding, heavy team would be happy to have him mucking about chipping the puck in and getting the odd goal. It just doesn't work for us when he's playing 20 minutes a game playing shut down defense against Crosby.