Salary Cap: Pittsburgh Penguins Salary Cap: The Trades We'd Make Before The Play Offs

[K Fleur]

Cant win anything with a mostly terrible bottom 6 and an atrocious bottom pairing.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Cant win anything with a terrible bottom 6 and an atrocious bottom pairing.

That's true.

Best coach in the world can't help that.

But he could maybe like... scratch a motherf***er here and there.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

At this point I see them as two gnarly boils on the same ass. But your rationale makes sense. GM will have the biggest job ahead. But whatever that individual does... Sullivan will be there to find a way to get too cute and too stubborn with it.

JR shoulda retired when he said he was going to...

I'd have made it known JR was on thin ice after the Caps series, and fired him after the Isles series.

But I agree, and that's why I'm entirely in favor of a complete, scorched earth revamp of both the front office as well as the coaching staff.

 

[K Fleur]

That's true.

Best coach in the world can't help that.

But he could maybe like... scratch a motherf***er here and there.

Oh so What you want is accountability. Something this organization preaches but doesn’t practice...

Much more likely to pin this all on one person/player and see the media write about how they like to gamble while they’re on their way out.

 

[Turin]

Cant win anything with a mostly terrible bottom 6 and an atrocious bottom pairing.

To be fair, coach could have made it better. But I buy that he couldn’t have made it good enough to ultimately win it all.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Oh so What you want is accountability. Something this organization preaches but doesn’t practice...

Much more likely to pin this all on one person/player and have the media write about how they like to gamble while they’re on their way out.

I thought that's what "accountability" meant, though? That they account for all of the cowardly, made-up narratives that they can kick a player with out the door?

Listen when someone needs to pay for the third pairing and 4th line's sins... there will be a perfectly good appeal to authority made and some media dogs that are too scared to anger the organization that will provide some fluff pieces.

 

[Empoleon8771]

I feel like there was so much catastrophic failure all around that I don't think you can blame 1 player, 1 coach, 1 line or 1 D pair for why the Penguins lost

The Penguins need to add another 2017 Rust caliber player to their top-6, revamp their 3rd line entirely with higher hockey IQ players instead of straight line grinders (more players in the Bonino and Cullen mold and fewer in the McCann and Hornqvist mold), have more accountability with their depth players, completely redo the bottom pair with cost effective players that both fit your system and can bring what you need, address their goaltending and address their powerplay. Beyond that, there are things you might want to do that you don't have to do (Pettersson on the 2nd pair is one of those). There's a lot of work to be done.

 

[K Fleur]

I feel like there was so much catastrophic failure all around that I don't think you can blame 1 player, 1 coach, 1 line or 1 D pair for why the Penguins lost

The Penguins need to add another 2017 Rust caliber player to their top-6, revamp their 3rd line entirely with higher hockey IQ players instead of straight line grinders (more players in the Bonino and Cullen mold and fewer in the McCann and Hornqvist mold), have more accountability with their depth players, completely redo the bottom pair with cost effective players that both fit your system and can bring what you need, address their goaltending and address their powerplay. Beyond that, there are things you might want to do that you don't have to do (Pettersson on the 2nd pair is one of those). There's a lot of work to be done.

This team got pretty catastrophically curb stomped by the Islanders last season and, atleast to me, it felt like only one player got the blame for that from the organization.

That’s not even to say that player wasn’t a problem. He just wasn’t the problem.

But that’s the thing you can’t, or atleast shouldn’t, blame one person or player. Just don’t be surprised if they do.

 

[Empoleon8771]

This team got pretty catastrophically curb stomped by the Islanders last season and, atleast to me, it felt like only one player got the blame for that from the organization.

That’s not even to say that player wasn’t a problem. He just wasn’t the problem.

But that’s the thing you can’t, or atleast shouldn’t, blame one person or player. Just don’t be surprised if they do.

Yeah, that's what I'm concerned with as well. I'm concerned we'll just see Murray moved and basically nothing else changed. Maybe Bjugstad dumped for cap space, too.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

The thing about JJ is that no matter how badly you rake the player over coals for his performance or ability, he's worse than that. He's Scuderi-bad, legitimately.

To go with that issue, you've got a coach who refuses to sit him. Even if Riikola isn't very good, he's a better skater than JJ and cannot be worse.

Add to that the issue, the root issue of the JJ problem, is that our GM not only publicly went on about how he's some secret talent evaluation genius and how everyone else had it wrong about JJ, but he signed him to a f***ing FIVE YEAR DEAL with an AAV north of $3 million.

It's easy to point the finger at JJ, he's earned it. But like others and myself have said, the amount of rot in this team goes way beyond just JJ. Lots of work needs to be done before we're even competitive again, let alone legit contenders for the Cup. I just don't think, realistically, we have the time before the wheels start to fall off for the big 3.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Yeah it's easy to see coming. They'll pick a couple easy targets and blame them. Make some noise about Geno and maybe Letang because why not... it's a yearly tradition, right? Maybe something about "uncertain times" and "rust" and a pantload of other excuses.

 

[Dangles78]

What realistic UFA RD are there going to be out there for the bottom pairing? TvR, DeMelo, Stone?

 

[K Fleur]

The thing about JJ is that no matter how badly you rake the player over coals for his performance or ability, he's worse than that. He's Scuderi-bad, legitimately.

To go with that issue, you've got a coach who refuses to sit him. Even if Riikola isn't very good, he's a better skater than JJ and cannot be worse.

Add to that the issue, the root issue of the JJ problem, is that our GM not only publicly went on about how he's some secret talent evaluation genius and how everyone else had it wrong about JJ, but he signed him to a f***ing FIVE YEAR DEAL with an AAV north of $3 million.

It's easy to point the finger at JJ, he's earned it. But like others and myself have said, the amount of rot in this team goes way beyond just JJ. Lots of work needs to be done before we're even competitive again, let alone legit contenders for the Cup. I just don't think, realistically, we have the time before the wheels start to fall off for the big 3.

Riikola isn’t very good and he only gets overrated here because 1- he isn’t JJ and 2- he has two attributes that pass the eye test where as JJ has none

That the coaching staff is willing to watch JJ push pucks into his own net on a semi regular basis and still keep Riikola in the press box is all you need to know about what they think of the cough drop.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Riikola isn’t very good and he only gets overrated here because 1- he isn’t JJ and 2- he has two attributes that pass the eye test where as JJ has none

That the coaching staff is willing to watch JJ push pucks into his own net on a semi regular basis and still keep Riikola in the press box is all you need to know about what they think of the cough drop.

Says more about the coaching staff than Riikola, to me.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

I just feel like we'll all be back here next summer, talking about the same things. "Do we finally fire JR and Sully after missing the playoffs/getting swept in the 1st round?" "Can we make enough moves, and the right ones, in order to get one last shot at a Cup now that Sid's 34, and Geno's 35?" etc.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Riikola really isn't very good. But I mean... we all know who is worse. There is plenty of evidence at this point.

I don't even care about in-house alternatives. JJ contract should have never been signed to begin. And if it was it should have been emergency-flushed after it was obvious JR had made one of his thousands of "requires course correction" signings.

But they'd rather hang themselves with their stupidity and arrogance so whatever. f*** 'em.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Riikola really isn't very good. But I mean... we all know who is worse. There is plenty of evidence at this point.

I don't even care about in-house alternatives. JJ contract should have never been signed to begin. And if it was it should have been emergency-flushed after it was obvious JR had made one of his thousands of "requires course correction" signings.

But they'd rather hang themselves with their stupidity and arrogance so whatever. f*** 'em.

"Not very good" beats "absolutely abysmal, ECHL-caliber" every day of the week.

 

[K Fleur]

Says more about the coaching staff thank Riikola, to me.

Oh for sure.

I just think if the coaching staff stays the same then pining for Riikola is a waste of time.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

"Not very good" beats "absolutely abysmal, ECHL-caliber" every day of the week.

You'll get no argument from me.

It's just beyond who could have taken his spot. Dude shouldn't even still be a Penguin. If he is for some asinine, cap-sucking reason... then he should be riding pine or buses... where he can't do any harm.

The guy wears a letter sometimes FFS!

 

[JTG]

I do wonder what a Matt Murray trade even looks like.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Oh for sure.

I just think if the coaching staff stays the same then pining for Riikola is a waste of time.

The infatuation and "die on this hill" stance with regard to JJ is just so weird to me, man. I'm no talent evaluator or great thinker of the game, but what in the world could these guys see that has them putting their jobs on the line and the team's chances in the dumpster for Jack f***ing Johnson?

Honestly, no exaggeration, one of--if not the weirdest thing I've ever seen in sports. This would be like the team rallying behind Scuderi in his last couple of years here, saying he was an integral part of the lineup, and giving him 18 minutes a night. It just boggles my mind.

 

[K Fleur]

I do wonder what a Matt Murray trade even looks like.

Disappointing.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

I do wonder what a Matt Murray trade even looks like.

I think we could use him to move up in the 1st round, assuming we don't win the Lafreniere sweepstakes, because several teams in the top-10 desperately need a goalie. Murray's got warts, but he's got Cup pedigree, is young, and RFA, so GMs will probably be interested.

But at the same time, he might simply bring back something like a 2nd + 3rd. Who knows?

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

The infatuation and "die on this hill" stance with regard to JJ is just so weird to me, man. I'm no talent evaluator or great thinker of the game, but what in the world could these guys see that has them putting their jobs on the line and the team's chances in the dumpster for Jack f***ing Johnson?

Honestly, no exaggeration, one of--if not the weirdest thing I've ever seen in sports. This would be like the team rallying behind Scuderi in his last couple of years here, saying he was an integral part of the lineup, and giving him 18 minutes a night. It just boggles my mind.

Robjack "The FINAL Piece" Scudson

 

[dogthateats]

Just don't give JR too much money to play around with in free agency