Salary Cap: Pens Salary Cap: Free Agency, everyone panic!!! Geno talk to the Geno thread only please

[Zirakzigil]

Off season time. New thread time apparently cause @Ugene Magic doesn’t like high page counts.

So how about them Malkin and Letang UFAs? Maybe we should sign one or both.

Geno thread. Keep Geno talk here:

Rumor: - Geno where art thou?

With all the Geno rumors and news, time for its own thread. Keep the Geno talk here please.

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[Scandale du Jour]

Eklund was actually weirdly relevant last trade deadline. Got the Chiarot and Middleton trades iirc.

That said, I do respect his general approach of "screw plausibility, let' offer something so ridiculous people will talk about it".

He does have SOME sources, but most of his stuff is clickbait bs.

 

[HandshakeLine]

He does have SOME sources, but most of his stuff is clickbait bs.

Someone here sat by him at the draft years ago. I forget who, though.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Need to get rid of Kap/McGinn and upgrade that 3rd pairing.

Why should the Penguins be gutting their depth to upgrade on a fine 3rd pair?

If POJ struggles, they can just go with Friedman-Ruhwedel. It may need to be upgraded at the deadline, but I'd rather see what POJ can do first. You need to give these young guys a chance at some point.

 

[jmelm]

FSG has no stakes in the actual hockey operations. They left it to those in charge.

Yes, for now.

I know they're not directly involved, but I guarantee you that with time, they will have their fingerprints on everything. They'll put in place the people, practices, culture, etc., that they believe in as the future unfolds and they get better acquainted. This is the first time they've ever owned a hockey team, so it takes time to build up the knowledge and of how to do that.

And they only acquired the team mid-season so it's not like they've had a lot of time to ramp up. They are smart to have essentially left things "as-is" given that the team was performing relatively well and Burke & Hexy are not blatantly inexperienced idiots (or so we hope).

Why should the Penguins be gutting their depth to upgrade on a fine 3rd pair?

If POJ struggles, they can just go with Friedman-Ruhwedel. It may need to be upgraded at the deadline, but I'd rather see what POJ can do first. You need to give these young guys a chance at some point.

Agree about the 3rd pair and POJ.

That said, I have no problem getting rid of McGinn and replace him with a league min guy if that means getting a top end UFA for the top 6.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Mario and Burkle had zero stakes in hockey operations, too.

I mean... until they did.

 

[Trade]

Nashville’s paying over 22 million for their three LD as it stands

I wonder if the McDonagh trade makes Ekholm available?

Ekholm-Letang
Matheson-Marino
Dumoulin-Ruh

 

[Ugene Magic]

Why should the Penguins be gutting their depth to upgrade on a fine 3rd pair?

If POJ struggles, they can just go with Friedman-Ruhwedel. It may need to be upgraded at the deadline, but I'd rather see what POJ can do first. You need to give these young guys a chance at some point.

It's not about that, you can run any of the trio, but in the end they all need upgraded.

All as in S.M. ALL..... SMALL!

 

[Empoleon8771]

It's not about that, you can run any of the trio, but in the end they all need upgraded.

All as in S.M. ALL..... SMALL!

I question what kind of expectations you have if you think all 3 of those guys are unacceptable on a bottom pair role. Look at what Ruhwedel did last year



The situation right now is that they need to see what they have in POJ and Ruhwedel had an excellent season last year, to the point where he should absolutely stay in the lineup. I don't really see anything wrong with entering next year with that bottom pair.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Personally, I just find Ruhwedel incredibly boring to watch, as I do pretty much any blueliner of ours who isn't Letang or Matheson.

 

[Pens x]

Why should the Penguins be gutting their depth to upgrade on a fine 3rd pair?

If POJ struggles, they can just go with Friedman-Ruhwedel. It may need to be upgraded at the deadline, but I'd rather see what POJ can do first. You need to give these young guys a chance at some point.

The whole “we can upgrade later at the deadline” approach doesn’t work with Hextall as GM.

 

[Night Shift]

Yes, for now.

I know they're not directly involved, but I guarantee you that with time, they will have their fingerprints on everything. They'll put in place the people, practices, culture, etc., that they believe in as the future unfolds and they get better acquainted. This is the first time they've ever owned a hockey team, so it takes time to build up the knowledge and of how to do that.

And they only acquired the team mid-season so it's not like they've had a lot of time to ramp up. They are smart to have essentially left things "as-is" given that the team was performing relatively well and Burke & Hexy are not blatantly inexperienced idiots (or so we hope).

This is a very good post and it's what I think is happening too. I believe that once they learn the ins and outs of the league they will then begin to figure out the front office, coaching staff and player personnel that they want to build and put in place. Nothing wrong with how FSG is approaching this. Sitting back and learning from the people in place now will make them better owners (or decision makers if you prefer that) in the future.

 

[bambamcam4ever]

It kind of sucks how teams keep helping Tampa become cap compliant, but I would too if I got McDonagh for scraps

This trade is understandable, but Seattle selecting Gourde over Palat is difficult to explain

 

[Night Shift]

This trade is understandable, but Seattle selecting Gourde over Palat is difficult to explain

IIRC I think Gourde was one of the better centers available. Teams usually don't make good players available at that position. That would be why.

 

[Turin]

So...

Hagel for two 1sts
Nick Paul huge extension
McDonagh for nothing

Kinda hard to see those moves as fitting Tampa’s genius reputation.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

It would be nice if we could somehow trade our underperforming overpaid cap hits instead of holding on to them because we're scared of change and in love with the idea that we're always just one bad bounce away from the Cup.

Yeah this organization's love affair with their mediocre players is kind of strange. Other clubs are even willing to move on from quality pieces if they feel they need to bolster another part of the roster or if they need to free up cap space for other important pieces. Meanwhile the Pens horde as many vanilla players as possible because apparently our current roster would have been where Colorado is if only Jarry was healthy.

 

[Dennis Reynolds]

So...

Hagel for two 1sts
Nick Paul huge extension
McDonagh for nothing

Kinda hard to see those moves as fitting Tampa’s genius reputation.

Nick Paul @ $3.1M is more than fair and will only look better with time.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Yeah, I don't really get what's off about the Nick Paul thing.

 

[K Fleur]

Paul never scored like this until he got to Tampa. Could be the new norm now that he’s on a better team, or could just be a hot streak with his new better team. That’s why some people have hesitation over a 7 year extension.

 

[Turin]

Nick Paul @ $3.1M is more than fair and will only look better with time.

He could be out of the league in 3 years or continue to get better. It’s a gamble.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Paul never scored like this until he got to Tampa. Could be the new norm now that he’s on a better team, or could just be a hot streak with his new better team. That’s why some people have hesitation over a 7 year extension.

He's produced at roughly a 30 point pace and improved that this season after the trade. Combine that with his work ethic and defensive ability and I'm not sure why that's such a risk at slightly over $3 million per year.

Worst case scenario is he "regresses" back to being that 30 point defensively responsible 3rd liner who plays on the top PK unit and that's still worth what he's being paid.

Granted I'm not a fan of the term either, but other than it being 2 or so years too long (for my liking) I'm not sure why people think there's much risk with how he'll perform.

 

[Ryder71]

The whole “we can upgrade later at the deadline” approach doesn’t work with Hextall as GM.

Rakell was a good pick up at a reasonable cost last deadline. Why not wait until UFA is over before arriving at a conclusion? We'll get answers soon.

 

[ChaosAgent]

Rakell was a good pick up at a reasonable cost last deadline. Why not wait until UFA is over before arriving at a conclusion? We'll get answers soon.

Hello my amigo!!!?

 

[Tom Hanks]

Personally, I just find Ruhwedel incredibly boring to watch, as I do pretty much any blueliner of ours who isn't Letang or Matheson.

I love “the Chad”. He’s stuck around with the Penguins for 5 years now knowing he might only get to play every 2nd or 3rd game but is always ready to go.

This past season was his first full season and he’s a decent bottom pair D man. Nothing special but pretty safe.

Career earnings (estimate) 5.6mil so far. Never had an AAV over 800k and has signed 5 Pens contracts.

A #6/7 signing 5 times with a club probably doesn’t happen much.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Great. He's Gord Dineen. He looks like store brand Mr. Clean.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

If this team misses the playoffs entirely, or is booted in the 1st round again, I pretty much expect FSG to clean house in the FO. I don't know about Sully, because they apparently like him a lot, but a win now objective coming from ownership being met by the fifth 1st round exit in a row is probably gonna mean dramatic changes.