Recalled/Assigned: Pens recall Andrew Ebbett

[Ugene Magic]

OK, RRP, I'll play ...

Working under the premise that Tocchet wanted Downie signed and the FO wanted to move Neal for whatever reason ... Let's say instead of Spaling, they got a pair of picks 2nd round or later. They use one of those picks to move Scuds (not unreasonable since Buffalo was buying contracts, as was Burke) and Adams was moved in either trade. They don't sign Erhoff, and sign Grabo and Kule ...

CAPGEEK.COM ARMCHAIR GM ROSTER

FORWARDS
Chris Kunitz ($3.850m) / Sidney Crosby ($8.700m) / Patric Hornqvist ($4.250m)
Mikhail Grabovski ($5.000m) / Evgeni Malkin ($9.500m) / Nikolai Kulemin ($4.188m)
Pascal Dupuis ($3.750m) / Brandon Sutter ($3.300m) / Beau Bennett ($0.900m)
Forward Prospect ($0.750m) / Forward Prospect ($0.750m) / Steve Downie ($1.000m)
13th Forward ($0.550m)

DEFENSEMEN
Olli Maatta ($0.894m) / Kris Letang ($7.250m)
Paul Martin ($5.000m) / Simon Despres ($0.900m)
Defensive Prospect ($0.650m) / Robert Bortuzzo ($0.600m)
7th Defenseman ($0.550m)

GOALTENDERS
Marc-Andre Fleury ($5.000m)
Thomas Greiss ($1.000m)

------
BONUS OVERAGE $0
SALARY CAP: $69,000,000; BONUSES: $0
CAP SPACE (22-man roster): $726,422

That's what the team would have been heading into training camp. One of those prospects could have been Comeau instead, I suppose, or they could have just let the kids battle it out for the spots and let them get a bit of experience. The fourth line has been pretty sheltered so far this season anyway.

When BB got hurt, they could have moved someone up from the fourth line or recalled someone, since there's a little bit of cap space. Losing Duper would hurt, but it has to be easier to acquire a 3rd liner than someone for the top six ... plus we'd have been able to actually showcase some of our D prospects and increase their trade value.

OK, how'd I do?

Where's Scuderi? He was signed the season before.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

It's not so much that for me. It's that he's a terrible bottom-six option at any level, really. Smallish, somewhat skilled. We're building a fourth line that's completely wrong this season.

Actually, nothing has changed and that's disappointing.

I agree, actually.

It's nice to see he's doing well in WB/S. But I didn't see the point of him as a 4th line callup last season (and it showed) and I still don't, today.

Now I'm sure he'll score tonight, of course.

 

[DegenX]

Where's Scuderi? He was signed the season before.

Moved to Burke or Buffalo or whoever using one of the picks we got instead of Spaling in the Neal trade, getting a later pick or meh prospect back ... cap dump, basically.

In that scenario, we could have still signed Goc, Comeau and kept a 13F and 7D, but we'd have been really, really close to the cap.

 

[Zen Arcade]

Eh, would've rather seen Uher if they wanted a center.

At least Ebbett is speedy and tenacious, which is something no one was last night outside of Crosby.

 

[Jag68Sid87]

Uher would have made a lot more sense. Or Farnham/Leblond.

 

[High Flying Birds]

Goc sure masked a terrible 4th line. Can't imagine there's too many worse 4th lines than Sill-Ebbett-Adams

 

[Zen Arcade]

Goc sure masked a terrible 4th line. Can't imagine there's too many worse 4th lines than Sill-Ebbett-Adams

On the bright side, if they suck as bad as it seems they will, the Dead SEA line is a pretty good nickname.

I wish they could just call up WBS' entire 4th line, they've been awesome.

 

[sf expat71]

On the bright side, if they suck as bad as it seems they will, the Dead SEA line is a pretty good nickname.

I wish they could just call up WBS' entire 4th line, they've been awesome.

Nice! Probably will come true too. Even if Ebbett plays his best game ever, he's still flanked by junk, can't expect too much from that line tonight.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

We could have prioritized getting better quality forwards in the summer. Instead we signed a 4 mil per defenseman.

There comes a time when you stop blaming the boogeyman for all your shortcomings. That time is when the new guy has an opportunity to address the issue and chooses not to.

I'm talking about the state the franchise was left in when Shero left. Sure, JR could have signed Kulemin instead of Ehrhoff, which would have helped the forward roster a bit. But there'd still be massive holes even with Kulemin, both on the big club and in the system.

That's on Shero. He left the organization bereft of either on-roster talent up front surrounding Sid/Geno, as well as nothing to speak of in the farm system/juniors.

I'm not happy about JR not doing more to fix the top six issues any more than you are, but you're kidding yourself if you don't acknowledge that the lack of anything forward depth related in the organization is a lingering effect of Shero failing to do anything about it.

 

[Zen Arcade]

I kind of wish they would've given Rust on look on the third line and had Megna center the 4th. Megna is terrible as a center, but it's not like that line would do anything anyway.

 

[Corvidae]

Because he's a terrible Nhler

The one bright side to injuries in the NHL is that it gives some young guys a chance to jump in an prove themselves... except for the Penguins where you see the same recycled group of tweeners and has-beens.

Every defeseman, prospect or roster, should be made available for a deal to improve forward depth (with expected return obviously varying with whichever player is traded). Enough is (and has been) enough.

 

[sf expat71]

I wonder how many wingers we'd need to get to actually sit Adams. With Pascal done for the forseeable future, do we need, what, 2 wingers after everyone else is healthy? 3 wingers? It's a long road ahead for GMJR.

 

[Corvidae]

I wonder how many wingers we'd need to get to actually sit Adams. With Pascal done for the forseeable future, do we need, what, 2 wingers after everyone else is healthy? 3 wingers? It's a long road ahead for GMJR.

You'd think 3 but I'm not entirely convinced that they'd be dumb enough to sit Spaling or Downie before Adams. I have THAT little faith in them. Basically, this means Adams plays yet another 82.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

I'm talking about the state the franchise was left in when Shero left. Sure, JR could have signed Kulemin instead of Ehrhoff, which would have helped the forward roster a bit. But there'd still be massive holes even with Kulemin, both on the big club and in the system.

That's on Shero. He left the organization bereft of either on-roster talent up front surrounding Sid/Geno, as well as nothing to speak of in the farm system/juniors.

I'm not happy about JR not doing more to fix the top six issues any more than you are, but you're kidding yourself if you don't acknowledge that the lack of anything forward depth related in the organization is a lingering effect of Shero failing to do anything about it.

That's where the difference of opinion stems from. I think Kulemin could've been a Hornqvist-lite for Malkin, and that would've worked wonders for our scoring lines and depth even if we still had some forward issues to address.

Kunitz - Crosby - Hornqvist
Kulemin - Malkin - Bennett
Dupuis - Sutter - Downie
Sundqvist - Goc - Comeau

...isn't perfect, but it looks pretty good to me depth-wise. When Bennett and Dupuis go down there, we're still in decent shape until the right deal comes along.

Shero didn't focus enough on forwards (although the cap rollback makes that seems more pronounced than it was), but there was opportunity to address that this summer.

That's what it comes down to. JR's in charge now, and had the chance to change something but didn't.

 

[Zen Arcade]

Im going to maintain my view that Kulemin simply isn't that great of a player and not someone a cap team like the Pens should be committing to at that money over multiple seasons.

 

[mpp9]

Im going to maintain my view that Kulemin simply isn't that great of a player and not someone a cap team like the Pens should be committing to at that money over multiple seasons.

He's certainly not good enough to warrant bringing him up in every ****ing thread.

 

[Zen Arcade]

He's certainly not good enough to warrant bringing him up in every ****ing thread.

That too, it's beyond silly at this point,

I understood the appeal of bringing him in on a "show me" type contract after his down years with the Leafs, but that's not the type of contract he got. I thought that would've ended the discussion, but nope!

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

He's certainly not good enough to warrant bringing him up in every ****ing thread.

When people stop blaming Shero for all the team's forward woes in every thread, I'll stop bringing up the guy that would've made Geno happy.

And not a second before.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

When people stop blaming Shero for all the team's forward woes in every thread, I'll stop bringing up the guy that would've made Geno happy.

And not a second before.

Shero's to blame for all the team's forward woes.

(waits for RRP to quote this to bring up Kulemin)

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

Shero's to blame for all the team's forward woes.

(waits for RRP to quote this to bring up Kulemin)

 

[mpp9]

When people stop blaming Shero for all the team's forward woes in every thread, I'll stop bringing up the guy that would've made Geno happy.

And not a second before.

You keep fighting the good fight.

 

[Jag68Sid87]

When people stop blaming Shero for all the team's forward woes in every thread, I'll stop bringing up the guy that would've made Geno happy.

And not a second before.

Geno always seems happy to me.