ColePens
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I still can't believe people would want Boyle on this team. I like how he plays, but he does not fit our style at all. And to pay a 4C about 3M.. would be absurd.
I still can't believe people would want Boyle on this team. I like how he plays, but he does not fit our style at all. And to pay a 4C about 3M.. would be absurd.
I still can't believe people would want Boyle on this team. I like how he plays, but he does not fit our style at all. And to pay a 4C about 3M.. would be absurd.
I'm probably saying the same thing over and over again, but let me try to lay out my concerns overall and what I would have liked JR to do.
Going into the off season it seemed pretty clear to most around here that Bonino was going to price himself out and Cullen was going to retire. With that in mind, many to most of us expected JR to make a move either at the draft or through middle of July.
As time has passed, it appears that many posters have just moved the goal posts and are trusting JR when he says he has targets he could get today. Without knowing the list of available players, I can't say whether he's right or not, but I'm a bit skeptical. Of course, I complained about Fleury half of last year and ended up being wrong, so it's reasonable to trust JR and probably fair to call me a little negative.
It was a gamble and maybe a smart gamble to wait on Cullen, but I was pretty clear all summer that Cullen wasn't coming back. Of course, I thought he was going to retire, so it's not like I was totally right.
If I were the GM, I would have given Cullen a shorter time frame to decide. I get that Cullen earned the right to take his time, but the Pens frankly didn't have time to wait this summer. Last year we had Bonino and Fehr around, so there was no risk to wait on Cullen. This year, the risk outweighed the reward IMO. Therefore, I would have pushed hard for Moore or traded for a center rather than Reaves. I know the Reaves thing was a priority, but I don't have to agree with the priority and I don't.
As for 3C, I think it makes sense to give your best offer for Duchene and then move on. Waiting it out is a bigger gamble, in my estimation, than the hopes of getting Sakic to come down to your price. You can always circle back later on if he gets desperate. I would have liked to see what Bonino's ask was from the Pens, but I'm not opposed to the term if you could get the cap hit under 4MM and without a restrictive NTC. IF you decide to move on from him, I think you need a plan in place to replace him and I'd like to see that plan acted on before the season starts.
The reason for that timeline is because of the importance of limiting Sid and Geno's ice time in the early parts of the season. I want them playing closer to 18 minutes a night. You can do that when you have Bonino and Cullen. You can't do that with Rowney, McClement, Blueger, Dea.
So if there's a deal for W. Karlsson out there today, make the deal. If it's Sheahan, ugh, I'll think about it if it's cheap enough. You can always open up cap space for a better center later on if you need to.
Some of my view is impatience, but I think some of it is being smart. You don't dick around with the center position and you need a plan in place for properly utilizing your 2 most important players.
Honestly I wouldn't mind him. But not as our #3C. And not at 2x2.75m.
I still can't believe people would want Boyle on this team. I like how he plays, but he does not fit our style at all. And to pay a 4C about 3M.. would be absurd.
Somehow he had a huge impact with Tampa in their series against us in 2016.
Also, 2.25 mil is not three million, and who knows what he signs with us for versus Jersey.
As time has passed, it appears that many posters have just moved the goal posts and are trusting JR when he says he has targets he could get today. Without knowing the list of available players, I can't say whether he's right or not, but I'm a bit skeptical. Of course, I complained about Fleury half of last year and ended up being wrong, so it's reasonable to trust JR and probably fair to call me a little negative.
Probably not a significant difference, because Boyle hasn't made a lot of money over his career plus the idea that players will take drastically less to play for a cup contender is just a fallacy, especially players in their prime years. Even in examples of players that do take less to play for good teams, like Ehrhoff in 2014, they're signing for less with good teams to shoot up the values of their next contracts.
He also signed for $2.75 million AAV, not $2.25 million.
Well I hope you feel better now. It sounds like skepticism and hindsight are big parts of your life. So it looks like you called the Cullen situation....or maybe not. I guess if you continue to think everything is going to turn out negative, some things will. As far as Bonino goes, I have to think Jimmy has a plan in place - he's told us as much - it just hasn't happened yet....and still may not before camp. I hope you'll be able to cope with that. And just for the record, how do you know the likes of Rowney, McClement, Blueger, and/or Dea aren't capable of limiting Sid and Geno's icetime? You don't. But I guess it's fine if you continue to think as such...
I agree with the idea that JR should just go for lesser targets instead of insisting on a big name 3C like it sounds like he's doing now, but I disagree with the Cullen thing. Moore was gone on July 1st, it was never "Cullen or Moore". I don't really see a situation where the Penguins could have given Cullen a reasonable window to sign while leaving open the possibility of getting a good 4C in free agency. Jokinen signed July 7th and I think he's the last guy signed that would qualify as a good 4C. From July 10th to today, there have been 6 UFA signings, they were Oduya, Streit, Beauchemin, Cullen, Stafford and Markov (signed in the KHL). That scenario was never available, it was either say no to Cullen immediately or wait on Cullen.
Up until this week, with the Penguins getting McClement on a PTO, the 4C was always going to be Rowney or Cullen. There really isn't a realistic scenario that was going to change that in that timeframe (so up until last week).
My mistake. That is a little rich for my blood, but honestly Boyle is probably worth that. Really solid player and I think if you get him on that contract for one year it allows you to really wait out the market.
I think fans just need to be patient.
JR has said hes waiting to see if certain players might be available from teams that are right up against the cap.
It really doesn't matter much if JR makes a trade on July 1st or October 1st, he just needs to trade for someone before the season starts.
Please explain which fight that Sid or Geno had last year that would have been prevented if Reaves were here. Do you think Wheeler is fighting Reaves because he was mad at Malkin?
Maybe some things like Staal get deterred but the really dirty players won't and super stars tend to be pretty damn elusive when they're targeted. Unless theyre god damn Letang. And you don't want the fourth line facing those super stars. The slashes, interference and standard cross checking are too common in the league for Reaves to do anything about unless he wants to pick a few fights every game. Penguins are already doing that **** to any player anyway.
I think there's some value to the player being with the team in training camp, but I can agree with that. The question is how long should JR wait into the season before he pulls the trigger?
I love how you resort to personal insults rather than actually addressing what I wrote. I guess that's just your style, so whatever.
You have to think Jimmy has a plan in place. I am just critiquing the plan. Obviously we will see how it turns out.
As for how I know Rowney, McClement, Blueger, and/or Dea aren't capable of limiting Sid and Geno's ice time, well I think that's just common sense. We don't even know if they are NHL centers yet. In the case of McClement, there's a reason why he has to resort to a PTO. For Rowney, he's a 28 year old that finally cracked an NHL lineup, predominantly as a winger. The other 2 are maybes in terms of being NHL read this year and you want me to believe they can take minutes off of Sid and Geno?
It's not impossible, it's just improbable. Do you really believe otherwise?
I guess the question is how serious do people believe that signing Cullen was this summer and if you knew in July he wasn't returning, would you have done anything differently?
That's a hindsight question, but I'm curious.