Confirmed Trade: [PIT/FLA] Colton Sceviour and Mike Matheson for Patric Hornqvist

[PensandCaps]

I'm gonna guess that that might have something to do with him only playing 15 minutes a game by Game 4.
Pettersson is awful every time I watch him play. He's got a nice slap shot, but he's constantly out of position, never wins any battles for the puck, and gets turned around by players half his size.

I seriously do not see how Pettersson is good, and Sullivan must agree with me bc he was 6th in TOI for Pittsburgh's D last year and had worse points/game than either Dumoulin and Marino--both of whom got less PP time and a higher percentage of D-Zone starts.

Very hot take here, but I am convinced the only reason PensHF likes him so much is bc you all hyped up Sprong to something he wasn't, he crashed, you were mad, you got Pettersson in return, and then coped by pumping his tires. Simultaneously, as I said on the previous page, every single year you guys hype up a d-man as the next stud JR found in the rough. He was 2019-20's big t0-do.

No, Pettersson is a fine Defenceman.

Don't get me wrong, he has his awful games, but more often than not he's pretty solid for 60 of them.

Nice slap shot? we talking about the same guy? lol.

Seems like you're talking about Riikola.

 

[violaswallet]

If they can get Matheson down to $4-$4.25 million, I am completely fine with straight up. If the Penguins can get that plus find another way to move out JJ, I'm even happier with the deal.



Schultz's broken ankle in 2018 ruined him. I would definitely take Matheson over him at this point.

Would you like something like JJ+Hornqvist retained to ~7.5M for Matheson straight-up? (No idea how to split Horn/JJ retention given insurance issues)

 

[Elvs]

Acquiring Johnson, Gudbranson, and now Matheson.

Wow. What an eye for dmen

Maybe they should pick up Seabrook too while they're at it.

Gudbranson has been good for the Ducks. Just wanted to get it out there.

 

[kevsh]

The only way this makes sense for Pit is if overnight the NHL rewrote the rules so that full salary could be retained so Florida agreed to pay all of Matheson's contract.

And the Pens keep Hornqvist.

 

[Gurglesons]

Gudbranson has been good for the Ducks. Just wanted to get it out there.

Almost like bad defensive systems make mediocre to okay defenseman look really bad especially when they are played above their head which both Gudbranson and Matheson were in Florida.

 

[Lemieuxs]

Almost like bad defensive systems make mediocre to okay defenseman look really bad especially when they are played above their head which both Gudbranson and Matheson were in Florida.

Well Matheson isn't exactly going to the "Steel Curtain" of defensive systems in Pittsburgh!

 

[Gurglesons]

Well Matheson isn't exactly going to the "Steel Curtain" of defensive systems in Pittsburgh!

Pittsburgh had the best defensive play in the league analytically until Marino and Dumoulin went down with injury last year.

 

[kerrabria]

Gudbranson is a serviceable bottom pair D. It's just for some inexplicable reason GM's sign him to be the defensive anchor of a middle pair.

 

[Riptide]

So a RH JJ?

Except that he's a lefty. That's what makes this weird, especially if the comments about how bad Matheson is (I usually take those with a grain of salt, but there's been a LOT of comments with few (if any) positive ones).

Dumoulin - Letang
Pettersson - Marino
Johnson - Ruhwedel
Riikola
POJ

The above is Pittsburgh's current depth chart. That's a LOT on LD to be bringing in another LD... unless there's some kind of plan for JJ. If MM was a RD/RHS then yeah it would make a lot of sense... but an LD/LHS? I struggle to see it without other moves happening. And even if he moves out JJ, is swapping out Hornqvist and JJ for MM and a minor piece a positive for the team?

 

[66-30-33]

Gudbranson has been good for the Ducks. Just wanted to get it out there.

Yeah he's been good for the Ducks, he was good for the Pens when we traded for him until the next season.

 

[kerrabria]

No, Pettersson is a fine Defenceman.

Don't get me wrong, he has his awful games, but more often than not he's pretty solid for 60 of them.

Nice slap shot? we talking about the same guy? lol.

Seems like you're talking about Riikola.

No, I watch dozens of Pens games every year. Riikola is very underrated by this website, and imo he is the Pens' second best LD.
>Pettersson's slapshot
maybe "shot from the point" would be more accurate.

 

[Mrfenn92]

Acquiring Johnson, Gudbranson, and now Matheson.

Wow. What an eye for dmen

Maybe they should pick up Seabrook too while they're at it.

It can happen. Cost controlled for 4 more years.

 

[PensandCaps]

No, I watch dozens of Pens games every year. Riikola is very underrated by this website, and imo he is the Pens' second best LD.
>Pettersson's slapshot
maybe "shot from the point" would be more accurate.

Riikola is a fine plug amd play guy, has many many tools, definitely much better than JJ.

Riikola can skate, shoot, hit. But just doesn't have the I.Q


But he doesn't come close to Pettersson.

 

[Riptide]

Would you like something like JJ+Hornqvist retained to ~7.5M for Matheson straight-up? (No idea how to split Horn/JJ retention given insurance issues)

You don't "split them". You leave one full contract and retain on the other. Eg Hornqvist at 5.3m and JJ at 2.2m (30% retention). Both contracts have 3 years left. The issue is Hornqvist makes far more money then JJ does who only has 8.25m left owing. Retaining 30% of that saves the cap but wouldn't do much money wise. The alternative is they retain ~20% of Hornqvist's contract (~1m). Either way would give both of these players to FLA with roughly a 7.5m cap hit for the pair.

This is realistically the only way to accomplish that given that the NHL has rules around how many contracts you can retain salary on at any given moment in time (three). There's no reason why PIT would fill two of those slots when they would only need to fill one to satisfy a GMs desire that a pair of players come in at a 7.5m cap hit.

 

[violaswallet]

You don't "split them". You leave one full contract and retain on the other. Eg Hornqvist at 5.3m and JJ at 2.2m (30% retention). Both contracts have 3 years left. The issue is Hornqvist makes far more money then JJ does who only has 8.25m left owing. Retaining 30% of that saves the cap but wouldn't do much money wise. The alternative is they retain ~20% of Hornqvist's contract (~1m). Either way would give both of these players to FLA with roughly a 7.5m cap hit for the pair.

This is realistically the only way to accomplish that given that the NHL has rules around how many contracts you can retain salary on at any given moment in time (three). There's no reason why PIT would fill two of those slots when they would only need to fill one to satisfy a GMs desire that a pair of players come in at a 7.5m cap hit.

Yep that's what is meant by splitting: should it be JJ or PH? If insured, I think JJ makes more sense for both teams given supposed cash rumors for Pitt and ability to move for Florida...without insurance, I think Florida might want PH to be retained given tail risk of PH becoming extremely dead money. See what I mean?

You're right about slots and I wasn't clear

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Schultz is a righty and better than Mathenson

Righty is a fair point, but Schultz went from good/very good second pairing RD to a bad third pairing RD over the course of a couple years thanks to breaking his leg.

Not sure what adding yet another lefty will do to replace Schultz, but upgrading upon what Schultz became will be hard not to do. Schultz is basically awful at everything he used to be good at. His defense is better than it was early in his career, but that doesn't come close to making up for the parts of his game that has disappeared and is unlikely to come back. Broken legs can be a bitch.

 

[SI90]

Righty is a fair point, but Schultz went from good/very good second pairing RD to a bad third pairing RD over the course of a couple years thanks to breaking his leg.

Not sure what adding yet another lefty will do to replace Schultz, but upgrading upon what Schultz became will be hard not to do. Schultz is basically awful at everything he used to be good at. His defense is better than it was early in his career, but that doesn't come close to making up for the parts of his game that has disappeared and is unlikely to come back. Broken legs can be a bitch.

I wasn’t aware he regressed that much.

 

[HawkeyTalkMan]

I think it needs a refill because it's empty

lol

 

[Big McLargehuge]

I wasn’t aware he regressed that much.

To be fair, being paired with Jack Johnson underlined his weaknesses, bolded them, and circled them in the bubble. With a decent partner he can still be propped up as serviceable third pairing guy, but he's firmly a shell of himself and it's not entirely his fault. The aspects of his game that got him to the NHL in the first place are almost entirely gone at this stage and guys usually don't regain 100% of their strength after the injury he suffered.

 

[SEALBound]

To be fair, being paired with Jack Johnson underlined his weaknesses, bolded them, and circled them in the bubble. With a decent partner he can still be propped up as serviceable third pairing guy, but he's firmly a shell of himself and it's not entirely his fault. The aspects of his game that got him to the NHL in the first place are almost entirely gone at this stage and guys usually don't regain 100% of their strength after the injury he suffered.

I do feel bad for him. I think it was the ankle that did him. Shame too because he really turned it around with us. But yeah, now he's a shell.

 

[SI90]

To be fair, being paired with Jack Johnson underlined his weaknesses, bolded them, and circled them in the bubble. With a decent partner he can still be propped up as serviceable third pairing guy, but he's firmly a shell of himself and it's not entirely his fault. The aspects of his game that got him to the NHL in the first place are almost entirely gone at this stage and guys usually don't regain 100% of their strength after the injury he suffered.

My recent viewings of him he can still move the puck pretty well. Obviously there’s more to defense than that but that’s a good element to have.

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

My recent viewings of him he can still move the puck pretty well. Obviously there’s more to defense than that but that’s a good element to have.

probably his biggest weakness tbh.

 

[DesertPenguin]

Gudbranson has been good for the Ducks. Just wanted to get it out there.

Yes we should have kept Guds and shot JJ to the moon. Gudbranson was fine for the Pens. I think they wanted it that way but they couldn't find a taker for JJ. One had to go.

 

[SI90]

probably his biggest weakness tbh.

Wow. Crazy

 

[Mick Jagr]

Gudbranson has been good for the Ducks. Just wanted to get it out there.

Don't kid yourself. He's not built for the NHL in 2020. He woulda been a force back in the late 90s/early 2000s though.