Salary Cap: Pens '23-'24 Salary Cap Thread: "But if you don't get the President of the Pittsburgh Penguins on that phone, you know what's gonna happen to you?"

[Zirakzigil]

Group Capt. Mike Sullivan: Colonel... that Coca-Cola machine. I want you to shoot the lock off it. There may be some change in there.
Colonel "Sid" Crosby: That's private property.
Group Capt. Mike Sullivan: Colonel! Can you possibly imagine what is going to happen to you, your frame, outlook, way of life, and everything, when they learn that you have obstructed a telephone call to the President of the Pittsburgh Penguins? Can you imagine? Shoot it off! Shoot! With a gun! That's what the bullets are for, you twit!
Colonel "Sid" Crosby: Okay. I'm gonna get your money for ya. But if you don't get the President of the Pittsburgh Penguins on that phone, you know what's gonna happen to you?
Group Capt. Mike Sullivan: What?
Colonel "Sid" Crosby: You're gonna have to answer to the Coca-Cola company.

Its that time of the year

Crosby, Malkin, Letang set to make history with Penguins | NHL.com

Entering 18th season with Pittsburgh, breaking record for longest tenure as teammates in North American sports history

www.nhl.com

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Click to read more...

 

[Zirakzigil]

Also. start signing up in the GDT please.

Penguins 2023-2024 GDT sign up: Volunteer you slackers

Date: Opponent: Time: Volunteer: Fri, Dec 8 @:panthers 5:00 PM Tue, Dec 12 vs:coyotes 5:00 PM Wed, Dec 13 @:habs 5:00 PM Sat, Dec 16 @:leafs 5:00 PM Mon, Dec 18 vs:wild 5:00 PM Thu, Dec 21 vs :canes 5:00 PM Sat, Dec 23 @:sens 5:00 PM Wed, Dec 27 @:isles...

forums.hfboards.com

 

[Zirakzigil]

Didn't see if this was posted but I feel like Jake is most likely back for the opener tomorrow. L1 and PP1 practice time under Sully usually suggests he's playing

My lone criticism of Dooby is that he's hyper focused on 4th line guys. I'd prefer he had that same fervor in getting Tatar which in turn would push another decent player down the line up. That would also make some guys in the top six accountable like Rust. Unless DOC really emerges we're looking at swapping in and out 10th-12th forwards on the depth chart.

Few more comments today from Dubas on the fringe NHLers:




Really interesting how high he seems to be on Nylander. I think the handling of Poulin is definitely appropriate as well, I imagine he'll be up full-time in December or January assuming he keeps playing well.

I'm also interested to see who comes out of the lineup if these guys end up cutting it as NHLers. You'll definitely have players get hurt and struggle, but I imagine a lot of the roster spots are pretty much locked in. I think Harkins and Carter are the most likely, with possibly O'Connor sliding to L4 as well if he doesn't maintain his hot start, but that's really about it as far as I can tell.

I am trying to look on the bright side but...L1 and L2 are defensive black holes, if they don't produce in overwhelming numbers we are in for a long season Tanger and EK will be pinching and getting exposed, not sure Petts and Garves will be able to cover. our 3L and 4L at best will make it equal, they won't outscore anyone...my hope is that guys like DOC, Harkins, maybe Pouliot, Pusty, or someone totally unexpected or something like that change this equation

Ben Gleason apparently had a great camp for the Oil. Edmonton fans said he was arguably their best d in preseason. Only 25 too.

Sounds like a worthwhile pickup. I'd waive Shea for him.

This is refreshing, clear message to these guys whats expected,

Ugh...I'm tired of worrying about the fringe guys.
Just show me the games already...
It's been 6 goddamn months...

I wanted BOGO 5 years ago. Not so sure now. I wouldn't hate it though. It's not like we have a good #6

Sounds like GM-speak to me

Sure, stay motivated and playing well. But when push comes to shove, they could have a million excuses why they called up White, Hino, etc. instead.

I definitely think it's the best thing for Poulin to be getting big minutes and opportunity in WBS as opposed to playing 4th line minutes in like 25% of the games at the NHL level.

He missed a lot of time. He serves no purpose in a grunt role which seems like what the team wants out of their bottom-6, and he's not in a spot yet where he's an upgrade over any top-6 options. /shrug

Carter will be gone next season. If Poulin acquits himself well throughout the year in WBS, I imagine he'll get a call up later in the year or he'll be on the inside track to land a top-9 spot next camp/pre-season.

Nice some of you can get some sleep tonight. I know it was a rough one

 

[Empoleon8771]

The interesting thing to note is that teams do know ahead of time whether their player is getting claimed off waivers, it's a common courtesy among GMs to call the other GM and inform them of a player claim well before it becomes official. I question Yohe's credibility at this point, but Zohorna (or at least Dubas) would likely know he would have been claimed off waivers by now if he was going to be claimed off waivers.

 

[Freeptop]

One thing about roster selection: the players aren't being evaluated solely on the preseason games. They're also evaluated based on practices and off-ice things.
For example - if a coach tells a player to do X,Y and Z, and the player does none of those, but scores a goal in a preseason game? We look at it as the player doing well. You won't find too many coaches who take kindly to a player ignoring them.
(Phil Bourque has a great story about a time he scored a flashy goal in a game using a risky maneuver, and Badger Bob's response was, "that was a very pretty goal. Don't ever try that again." ).

One of the reasons why preseason game performance isn't taken too seriously? The veterans on both sides aren't taking those games nearly as seriously as the players on the bubble. They don't want to get hurt before the season begins, they just want to start getting their timing back. For the experienced players, getting back into the habits the coaching staff expects of them is more important in those games than whether they racked up points. Preseason points and wins don't count towards anything, after all. They'll start taking chances and risking the coaches' wrath when it will make a difference on the season. This is one of the reasons for the double-standard existing - the evaluation criteria for coaches are not what they are for us fans.

That said, that doesn't mean the coaches are always right on their evaluations here, but it is worth considering that we don't see everything the players are evaluated on.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Final crisis of the off-season averted if/when Zoho goes unclaimed, just like Smith did. Whew, time to fire up those regular season-quality rabid reactions to dumb shit that doesn't matter, no more of this pre-season bullshit.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Lavoie cleared waivers. If no one is claiming him, then definitely no one is claiming Zohorna.

 

[Josey Wales]

#pens claim John Ludvig from #FlaPanthers.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Who the fook is this guy?

Also everyone waived by the Penguins cleared.

 

[Your Boy Troy]

Pittsburgh claimed Ludvig. A very good under-the-radar claim. A physical shutdown defensemen with a bit of offence in his game. I liked him a lot when he was on Portland.

 

[Empoleon8771]

The Ludvig claim is interesting but I'm not sure how they're going to be able to finalize their roster by tomorrow with claiming him. Shea didn't get put on waivers today, meaning that Zohorna is going to have to be assigned to the AHL without a trade.

Which is actually an interesting idea: are we going to see a Ruhwedel trade and have Shea and Ludvig as the #6 and #7 D?

 

[Josey Wales]

John Ludvig

 

[3ladesof5teel]

Pittsburgh claimed Ludvig. A very good under-the-radar claim. A physical shutdown defensemen with a bit of offence in his game. I liked him a lot when he was on Portland.

This is all I've seen on him so far but it's something I wouldn't mind looking at.

Summary
"Old-school defensive defenseman who can take care of his own zone. Blocks shots and will take the body.

 

[Gurglesons]

The Ludvig claim is interesting but I'm not sure how they're going to be able to finalize their roster by tomorrow with claiming him. Shea didn't get put on waivers today, meaning that Zohorna is going to have to be assigned to the AHL without a trade.

Which is actually an interesting idea: are we going to see a Ruhwedel trade and have Shea and Ludvig as the #6 and #7 D?

We can waive Shea tomorrow and bring Z back up for the game.

Either way it probably hints that Jake is healthy.

 

[Josey Wales]

This is all I've seen on him so far but it's something I wouldn't mind looking at.

Summary
"Old-school defensive defenseman who can take care of his own zone. Blocks shots and will take the body.

Where will he take the bodies ??

 

[WickedWrister]

Cool. Another Czech

 

[Empoleon8771]

We can waive Shea tomorrow and bring Z back up for the game.

Either way it probably hints that Jake is healthy.

No they can't, they'd have to clear waivers before being sent down. Shea would have had to be waived today to be able to be sent down for the same tomorrow.

 

[Freeptop]

Considering the Pens don't have anymore waivers-exempt players on the roster, then this means everyone who cleared waivers will get sent down, and the 5pm roster is effectively set:
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Smith-Malkin-Rakell
O'Connor-Eller-Harkins
Nieto-Acciari-Carter

Graves-Letang
Pettersson-Karlsson
Joseph-Ruhwedel
Shea/Ludvig

Jarry
Nedeljkovic

Since they'd have to waive someone else to make space to call up another forward, and they didn't put anyone else on waivers, it certainly looks like they expect Guentzel to be ready for tomorrow's game.
Or else they plan on signing Pysyk and putting him on LTIR in order to give themselves some extra cap space to work with to call up an extra forward.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Yeah he seems to be much more of that physical DFD partner for POJ that people have wanted. Not sure he plays RD, though.

 

[Andy99]

So I guess Shea gets waived then? They’re not carrying 8D, although I guess they could only carry 12F to compensate

 

[FunkySeeFunkyDo]

So I guess Shea gets waived then? They’re not carrying 8D, although I guess they could only carry 12F to compensate

For Chi it sounds like 12F and if Jake is not ready then 11F?

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

IMO handedness is gonna screw Ludvig over unless he's very comfortable at RD. Sully seems obsessive about that.

 

[Gurglesons]

IMO handedness is gonna screw Ludvig over unless he's very comfortable at RD. Sully seems obsessive about that.

Screw Ludvig or POJ?

 

[pistolpete11]

Yay, shiny new toy.

Doesn't mean a whole lot in the short term unless he can play RD. In the long term, who knows? If POJ regresses, maybe he takes over. If POJ takes a step forward, then maybe they move on from Petts next year or the year after.

 

[MrBrightside]

Odds are pretty good you'll need at least 4 LD over the course of a season, so I wouldn't worry a whole lot about his sidedness.