Post-Game Talk: | Pens vs Sharks | 8-5 win | Moar eRod and Bjork Bjork please

[DatGuy]

McCann has potential, very good potential. But he will always barely scrape the surface of it. Dupuis and Rodrigues are quite similar. They both are hard workers with a great shot and can produce but were always sort of held back into a role they thought they needed to play to carve out a career. Rodrigues isn't just scoring fluke goals, he's creating and actually looking like a legit top 6. If Rust can be the same, why can't Rodrigues?

Also Godrigues probably also knows he's a good fit and will find a way to stay and get paid.

If Evan continues on this path and gets to 25ish goals, 55ish points. He is going to get paid. Someone is going to offer 25/5 if not more. Hell, The Pens might. If Malkin may get 6/3 and be happy. Letang is the real issue. I wont be surprised if someone offers him 3 years at 9 a year.

The Free agent pool is super interesting this year. You have a lot of 27-20 year old players who currently make 5-6ish a year coming to market.

Forsberg, Hertl, Domi, Palat, Niederreiter, R. Smith, Burakovsky, Trocheck, Strome, Kadri, V. Rask, Rakell, Rust, Copp, etc.

Is Rodrigues in this group of players? Maybe, with only this season was the selling point, absolutely. Only time will tell, but if he continues to play like this, more then one team is going to offer him a 25/5 deal.

 

[DatGuy]

Double post?

 

[BobCole]

GMs overpay in free agency all the time, but I don't see anybody offering a 28 year-old with *one* 20 goal season a 5x5 deal. Mayyyybe a team offers him $5m x 2 years, or $3M x 5 years, but not 5x5, IMHO.

 

[Pens x]

The only GM dumb enough to offer Erod 5 x 5 is in Vancouver.

 

[spcastlemagic]

Yeah I get GMs suffering from recency bias and throwing money at problems, but ERod doesn’t have the track record... I can’t see somebody offering him that many years.

If he gets that expensive I’d like to see us throw money at someone like Hertl instead, who will probably make bank this summer.

 

[Turin]

I think you could probably re-sign Erod to a similar deal Sheary got when he had his big season.

 

[Stubu]

So happy for Kasper!

Y'all think he has a chance of staying up when others come back from injuries?

Small sample but watching the highlights he looked like he belongs just fine. At least he gets some games for now?

(Damn, double hatties, 6-0 first period, quite a game you guys had with such a depleted roster!)

 

[AuroraBorealis]

So happy for Kasper!

Y'all think he has a chance of staying up when others come back from injuries?

Small sample but watching the highlights he looked like he belongs just fine. At least he gets some games for now?

(Damn, double hatties, 6-0 first period, quite a game you guys had with such a depleted roster!)

If all Forwards are available? Zero chance. He's the 17th or 18th Forward.
Hope he finds some positive traction in the AHL though. He's a good kid who works his tail off.

 

[pistolpete11]

Y'all think he has a chance of staying up when others come back from injuries?

No chance.

Malkin, Carter, Kapanen, and Zucker are all expected back soon, probably within the next week. So he won't even get a chance to play enough games to make it a difficult decision for them if he plays well. This is very much a cup of coffee situation.

 

[KareemTrustfund]

It was pretty embarrassing that this team hasn’t had a player drafted by them suit up since Simon and Sprong drafted in 2015.

Well it is my honour and privilege to say, with the exceptional and deserving promotion of young Kasper, we now have had a player we drafted suit up for us from as recently as the 2016 draft.

All those old birds like Lafferty and Angello need to make room for the new wave. The future is now.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

No chance.

Malkin, Carter, Kapanen, and Zucker are all expected back soon, probably within the next week. So he won't even get a chance to play enough games to make it a difficult decision for them if he plays well. This is very much a cup of coffee situation.

I wouldn't expect Zucker back before the final third of January. He was reported injured on Dec.27th.
Week-to-week in Sully talk means 4 weeks on average. Jake took 25 days from when it was announced. Rust took 37.

This is nitpicking though and doesn't change your point about Bjork.

This is probably a good thing for the team as a whole. Sullivan will get to see a sample size with a different LW for Malkin. Might be Heinen, ERod or McGinn...probably ERod? Heinen and Carter have shown chemistry and McGinn is attached at the hip with Blue.
Whoever it is, if they do well then it will stick, and Zucker will be closer to where he should be in the lineup.

 

[Darren McCord]

If Evan continues on this path and gets to 25ish goals, 55ish points. He is going to get paid. Someone is going to offer 25/5 if not more

ya no he’s not. Mike Hoffman had a better pace and way better history and got 4.5 a year last offseason.

Erod isn’t getting a huge deal. He will end up between 3 and 4 depending on length.

 

[Pancakes]

ya no he’s not. Mike Hoffman had a better pace and way better history and got 4.5 a year last offseason.

Erod isn’t getting a huge deal. He will end up between 3 and 4 depending on length.

Mike Hoffman isn't the greatest comparison though since he had that whole spat with Karlsson/EK's wife. That's a pretty big cloud to hang over a guy in terms of character. Also Hoffman is a pretty one dimensional player. Erod does things other than score.

That said Hoffman did have a longer history of scoring at a productive level than Erod does.

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

How did Bjorkqvist look?

 

[Darren McCord]

Mike Hoffman isn't the greatest comparison though since he had that whole spat with Karlsson/EK's wife. That's a pretty big cloud to hang over a guy in terms of character. Also Hoffman is a pretty one dimensional player. Erod does things other than score.

That said Hoffman did have a longer history of scoring at a productive level than Erod does.

Then look at Brandon Saad. He got 4.5 mill too. He does more than just score and is a cup winner.

Erod is not getting more than 4. I think a good offer for both parties would be 3 x 4. Erod gets stability and the team gets a little bit of a deal.

 

[ziggyjoe212]

It’s not like David Perron was much different in his last year here. Then he lit it up as soon as he was gone and pretty much every year after.

How is this relevent at all?
Perron sucked here, and was traded for Hagelin who equally sucked in Anaheim. Neither of those players were worth a high draft pick at the time.

Sure Zucker COULD be good on another team. But he's not good right now and has a bad contract which is weighing down his value.

We'll be lucky to get even a 3rd for Zucker. Me personally, I would trade him for a bag of pucks. I rather have the cap space to help re-sign Tanger and Rust. Maybe even Rodrigues.

 

[Tacitus Kilgore]

Getting the most value out of Zucker would probably involve packaging him with a prospect and/or pick (not a 1st pls).

 

[AuroraBorealis]

Getting the most value out of Zucker would probably involve packaging him with a prospect and/or pick (not a 1st pls).

I'm cool with trading our 1st if it means acquiring someone who fills a hole for multiple years. It would probably be a mid to late pick.
We held onto Poulin and he's probably a career bottom 6'er by the time he finally makes it up here, if he ever does. We held onto Pouliot and got nothing out of that. We got Kapanen and then traded him away. Maatta was a middle pair guy at best, although pretty solid mostly. Joe Morrow didn't play a game for us. Bennett was worthless. Despres was meh before his career got derailed. Angelo Esposito didn't play an NHL game.

Yes, Crosby, Malkin and Staal were bangers..but those were #1 and #2 overall picks.

So what are the odds of hitting a homerun with this pick? Maybe with Hextall in charge he'll draft better I suppose, but I don't like the math. Better to go with the sure thing and address problems immediately, imo.

 

[Gurglesons]

How is this relevent at all?
Perron sucked here, and was traded for Hagelin who equally sucked in Anaheim. Neither of those players were worth a high draft pick at the time.

Sure Zucker COULD be good on another team. But he's not good right now and has a bad contract which is weighing down his value.

We'll be lucky to get even a 3rd for Zucker. Me personally, I would trade him for a bag of pucks. I rather have the cap space to help re-sign Tanger and Rust. Maybe even Rodrigues.

It’s relevant because Zucker has a history of producing and has one year left at 5.5 next year if you cut that cap in half, I can see a team finding it attractive.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

How did Bjorkqvist look?

With his eyes.

 

[AlphaMikeFoxtrots]

With his eyes.

 

[Tacitus Kilgore]

I'm cool with trading our 1st if it means acquiring someone who fills a hole for multiple years. It would probably be a mid to late pick.
We held onto Poulin and he's probably a career bottom 6'er by the time he finally makes it up here, if he ever does. We held onto Pouliot and got nothing out of that. We got Kapanen and then traded him away. Maatta was a middle pair guy at best, although pretty solid mostly. Joe Morrow didn't play a game for us. Bennett was worthless. Despres was meh before his career got derailed. Angelo Esposito didn't play an NHL game.

Yes, Crosby, Malkin and Staal were bangers..but those were #1 and #2 overall picks.

So what are the odds of hitting a homerun with this pick? Maybe with Hextall in charge he'll draft better I suppose, but I don't like the math. Better to go with the sure thing and address problems immediately, imo.

We have been poor at drafting, but improving on drafting in the 1st round only happens through actually having 1st rounders to draft though.

 

[3ladesof5teel]

How is this relevent at all?
Perron sucked here, and was traded for Hagelin who equally sucked in Anaheim. Neither of those players were worth a high draft pick at the time.

Sure Zucker COULD be good on another team. But he's not good right now and has a bad contract which is weighing down his value.

We'll be lucky to get even a 3rd for Zucker. Me personally, I would trade him for a bag of pucks. I rather have the cap space to help re-sign Tanger and Rust. Maybe even Rodrigues.

Perron was on paper a much better player who had the background and pedigree. It just didn't work out like a few of the player GMJR brought in. On paper Brassard, Perron should have worked, for whatever reasons they didn't.

If those players did work out like they were supposed to many opinions would be much different about GMJR. I am not one to knock him because we have 2 cups with his name on it.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

We have been poor at drafting, but improving on drafting in the 1st round only happens through actually having 1st rounders to draft though.

Yeah but often players you acquire through trade and free agency will end up contributing more to your team. You don't have to develop them for 5 years either.
Plus if you acquire a young guy and he plays well for a few years, he still has value around the league at the end of it. You can recoup assets down the line. It's more likely for this to happen too, since those kinds of players are acquired with a body of NHL work going in. You have a much clearer idea of what you're getting.
Kapanen could end up being such a case if he turns it up again with Malkin' s return. McCann could have been as well if we managed to keep him through the expansion draft. Heinen same thing if we keep him for a few years.

Even if Hextall does his utmost to research his picks, it's still a roll of the dice for mid to late 1st rounders. Only so much you can predict from watching players at lower levels. Playing in the NHL is an entirely different ball game, mentally and physically. After pick #15 or so it gets murky.

If we were in a full rebuild right now and had nothing to lose, then I'd be on board with retaining picks 100%. As it stands I think we could do a gradual re-tool and avoid it. Just keep acquiring these cheap low risk/high reward guys and keep the asset pool strong.
Get the team wins through collective depth, rather than star power.

 

[CascadiaPenguin]

As someone else on another site reminded me, the last time we had a double hat trick was Nov 11, 2008, Dupuis #9 and Sykora #17….and now it’s ERod #9 and Rust #17….is that freaky or what?

...and, 17 minus 9 =8! And 2022 minus 2008 = 14 14 minus Erod/Pascal = 5! So, 8-5 it is!