Salary Cap: Pittsburgh Penguins Salary Cap Thread: Does Anyone Know What’s Going On?

[Dipsy Doodle]

Well, Fehr was going to be injured heading into the season. So he was our hypothetical 3C.

Then he proceeded to put up 8 points in 42 games and everyone wanted him traded. Which is another lesson to learn from. We won a cup with a 3C that scored 9 goals all season with most of those coming in March and April.

Let's not forget there were extenuating circumstances for the entire team offensively for the first half of that season.

Mike Johnson's effects were wide-ranging.

Bonino was coming off 49 and 39 point seasons. He was the natural choice for 3C as I remember it - but again, I'm open to evidence that suggests otherwise.

 

[Gurglesons]

Let's not forget there were extenuating circumstances for the entire team offensively for the first half of that season.

Mike Johnson's effects were wide-ranging.

Sure. I just think it’s odd how people are acting like the 15-16 team that went into G1 with a bottom six of Farnham, Sprong, Cullen, Bonino, Bennett, and I believe Perron was light years ahead of our bottom six which will have McCann, Blueger, Tanev, Sceviour, Jankowski and Rodrigues. Like.. Sprong was a rookie. Bennett was a huge question mark and Farnham was clearly an AHLer.

 

[KIRK]

Stops by to see people talking about Mike Johnson, Eric Fehr, and Brandon Sutter . . .

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

Sure. I just think it’s odd how people are acting like the 15-16 team that went into G1 with a bottom six of Farnham, Sprong, Cullen, Bonino, Bennett, and I believe Perron was light years ahead of our bottom six which will have McCann, Blueger, Tanev, Sceviour, Jankowski and Rodrigues. Like.. Sprong was a rookie. Bennett was a huge question mark and Farnham was clearly an AHLer.

I'd say the critical distinction is that the '15-'16 team was great down the middle in the bottom 6.

Bonino and Cullen is a much better tandem than we have right now. We didn't have to count on bouncebacks from either.

 

[Gurglesons]

I'd say the critical distinction is that the '15-'16 team was great down the middle in the bottom 6.

Bonino and Cullen is a much better tandem than we have right now. We didn't have to count on bouncebacks from either.

Matt Cullen was a 25 PT 38 year old heading into 15-16.

Bonino and Cullen with what we know NOW is a much better tandem than we have right now.

Heading into 19-20 if we hypothetically run McCann and Bleuger as our 3C and 4C. We have McCann who statistically is better than Bonino was in 14-15 and Bleuger who is younger and put up similar numbers to Cullen. Does that guarantee anything? No. But acting like the 15-16 was stacked with proven options in the bottom six is just silly to be honest. Most of us were counting on Fehr returning to normal after shoulder surgery.

 

[NMK11]

O not a ton... just a 50 point shutdown center that's good on the dot. Really no team has won a cup without this standard of production.

2016 Pens - Bonino, scored at a 38 pt pace, FO 50.4%
2017 Pens - Bonino, scored at a 38 pt pace, FO 48.0%
2018 Caps - Eller, scored at a 38 pt pace, FO 49.3%
2019 Blues - Bozak, scored at a 43 pt pace, FO 54.3%
2020 Tampa - Gourde, scored at a 35 pt pace, FO 54.1%

There it is, championship caliber third line centers. An average of 38 pt pace and 51.2% in the dot. I want someone along the lines of the guys above just like everyone else, but sometimes I think thats what people expect any 3C who comes here to do, not just the elite ones.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

Matt Cullen was a 25 PT 38 year old heading into 15-16.

Bonino and Cullen with what we know NOW is a much better tandem than we have right now.

Heading into 19-20 if we hypothetically run McCann and Bleuger as our 3C and 4C. We have McCann who statistically is better than Bonino was in 14-15 and Bleuger who is younger and put up similar numbers to Cullen.

Bonino and Cullen with what we knew then was better. They scored 59 ES points between them going into that season. Our present tandem, if it's Blueger and Jankowski, had 29 ES points last year.

 

[Ugene Magic]

Matt Cullen was a 25 PT 38 year old heading into 15-16.

Bonino and Cullen with what we know NOW is a much better tandem than we have right now.

Heading into 19-20 if we hypothetically run McCann and Bleuger as our 3C and 4C. We have McCann who statistically is better than Bonino was in 14-15 and Bleuger who is younger and put up similar numbers to Cullen. Does that guarantee anything? No. But acting like the 15-16 was stacked with proven options in the bottom six is just silly to be honest. Most of us were counting on Fehr returning to normal after shoulder surgery.

62 games...

He was a steady 30/40 point player for like ever.

 

[Flying Dego]

2016 Pens - Bonino, scored at a 38 pt pace, FO 50.4%
2017 Pens - Bonino, scored at a 38 pt pace, FO 48.0%
2018 Caps - Eller, scored at a 38 pt pace, FO 49.3%
2019 Blues - Bozak, scored at a 43 pt pace, FO 54.3%
2020 Tampa - Gourde, scored at a 35 pt pace, FO 54.1%

There it is, championship caliber third line centers. An average of 38 pt pace and 51.2% in the dot. I want someone along the lines of the guys above just like everyone else, but sometimes I think thats what people expect any 3C who comes here to do, not just the elite ones.

Im with you on the realistic 3C. I was giving you an HF Pens expectation.

I believe Bleuger can provide 35ish points while being great defensively. Face-off is where he needs improvement.

 

[Gurglesons]

Bonino and Cullen with what we knew then was better. They scored 59 ES points between them going into that season. Our present tandem, if it's Blueger and Jankowski, had 29 ES points last year.

Jankowski won't be our 3C.

And once again. Nobody was making these arguments in 2015. You're using ES points which nobody was talking about back then on this forum.

 

[NMK11]

Im with you on the realistic 3C. I was giving you an HF Pens expectation.

I believe Bleuger can provide 35ish points while being great defensively. Face-off is where he needs improvement.

Eh, I'd be pretty surprised if he hit 35, that would be a big jump. That would put him in there as a top tier 3C, and I don't think he's there yet. But I'm all for letting him run with the spot and seeing what he does, I hope he surprises me.

 

[Gurglesons]

62 games...

He was a steady 30/40 point player for like ever.

Neat. Bleuger just put up 22 in 69 and isn't 39 heading into the season.

We can pretend though that everyone thought Cullen was going to be a NHL regular and we aren't all like uhhhh why did we just sign this guy? Guess he'll be a good 4th line C/W until Fehr is healthy. And a lot of people questioned how much he'd fill in defensively on the 4th line given his previous usage.

 

[Flying Dego]

Eh, I'd be pretty surprised if he hit 35, that would be a big jump. That would put him in there as a top tier 3C, and I don't think he's there yet. But I'm all for letting him run with the spot and seeing what he does, I hope he surprises me.

We'll see maybe its too big of a jump but he had a 26pt pace playing 70% dzone starts. Also with ZAR on his wing.

Give him Tanev/McCann and I think he can build his points by 9+.

 

[Gurglesons]

Eh, I'd be pretty surprised if he hit 35, that would be a big jump. That would put him in there as a top tier 3C, and I don't think he's there yet. But I'm all for letting him run with the spot and seeing what he does, I hope he surprises me.

I think 35 pts is like.. absolute peak, but at the same time I think not being buried every shift will do a ton for his offensive game and I also think he's going to get more rope after proving what he can do defensively. Last year was effectively Teddy's first regular season as an NHLer.

 

[K Fleur]

The 5 month love affair with “Beautiful Bobby Farnham” was something else.

 

[Gurglesons]

The 5 month love affair with “Beautiful Bobby Farnham” was something else.

I'd argue this board was way more excited about Sprong, Farnham and Bennett over Bonino and Cullen "solidifying our offensive depth at C" heading into 15-16.

 

[Flying Dego]

The 5 month love affair with “Beautiful Bobby Farnham” was something else.

Hey now. Id take Bobby Farnham over ZAR.

Change my Mind.

 

[Gurglesons]

Hey now. Id take Bobby Farnham over ZAR.

Change my Mind.

One didn't lose his job to Porter?

 

[K Fleur]

I'd argue this board was way more excited about Sprong, Farnham and Bennett over Bonino and Cullen "solidifying our offensive depth at C" heading into 15-16.

We had to have one of the worst, if not the worst bottom 6 in the league in 14-15 and Farnham was atleast a high event player(more bad than good). More interesting to watch than any of Adams/Glass/Sill.

I mean I get why people liked Farnham for a little bit but the love affair just went on way past it’s expiration date.

 

[Gurglesons]

We had to have one of the worst, if not the worst bottom 6 in the league in 14-15 and Farnham was atleast a high event player(more bad than good). More interesting to watch than any of Adams/Glass/Sill.

I mean I get why people liked Farnham for a little bit but the love affair just went on way past it’s expiration date.

I just think it is a reminder of how this board's evaluation of players is often completely awful. Hell, I don't think anyone on this forum thought we had much in the minors beyond Jiggy repping Rust and that one dude who was absolutely obsessed with Kuhnhackl.

 

[Flying Dego]

One didn't lose his job to Porter?

You got it all twisted my guy. Having Bobby I know that Sully won't give the guy unnecessary minutes. Where as we know how much Sully loves playing ZAR.

 

[Tacitus Kilgore]

We had to have one of the worst, if not the worst bottom 6 in the league in 14-15 and Farnham was atleast a high event player(more bad than good). More interesting to watch than any of Adams/Glass/Sill.

I mean I get why people liked Farnham for a little bit but the love affair just went on way past it’s expiration date.

I just think it is a reminder of how this board's evaluation of players is often completely awful. Hell, I don't think anyone on this forum thought we had much in the minors beyond Jiggy repping Rust and that one dude who was absolutely obsessed with Kuhnhackl.

Pretty sure we had the actual Stefan Noesen (or family member) posting here at one point. The profile made a thread on him and when I looked at his posts he seemed to post about Noesen and only Noesen with every team he went to before/during/and after us

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Hey, I was one of the few defending the signing of Cullen as a solid depth add for the 4th line.

Fehr was brought in to be the 4C, didn't do well there, Cullen did, rest is history and Fehr is still sour AF even after winning a cup.

 

[Gurglesons]

Hey, I was one of the few defending the signing of Cullen as a solid depth add for the 4th line.

Fehr was brought in to be the 4C, didn't do well there, Cullen did, rest is history and Fehr is still sour AF even after winning a cup.

That’s a good point. Fehr was pissed because he signed the contract with expectations that he’d be the 3C.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

That’s a good point. Fehr was pissed because he signed the contract with expectations that he’d be the 3C.

I always remembered him being pissed it was the 4c spot and was moved to wing. They traded for Bones the same day they signed Fehr and unless that bloke took too many hits to the head, he couldn't have expected to be 3C over Bones.

I am pretty sure it was for the 4C spot, Cullen was originally brought in as depth for the LW/C option while Fehr recovered from his surgery, took over the 4C job far too easily as an old timer.

I mean even as wingers we started that season with something like Kessel, Plotnikov (lol), Kunitz, Dupuis, Hornqvist, Perron...