Salary Cap: Salary Cap+Roster Building: 'twas a great run....

[Pancakes]

Yohe yesterday: I don't think the Penguins will be making any big changes this off-season.

The reality is that the Pittsburgh media is filled with a bunch of guys who don't have a clue what they're talking about.

I think it's probably like what @KIRK said which is these guys get spoon fed info that JR/Mario etc want out in the news. Putting this article out lets other GMs know to start calling JR and asking about those guys. Then, JR listens and if he wants to move them, it happens, and if he doesn't, he reaches out to the media and they put out another article saying there's no truth to the rumors.

I mean that's more or less what they did with Letang last summer, right? Put it out there, JR got offers, JR almost did it, but then it fell through, and in the process of that JR put it out there that the rumors were false and the media ran with it.

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

Can not express how angry and disappointed I’d be if they were to trade Geno. Could care less about the return. You don’t trade a player like that ever.

 

[Empoleon8771]

I think it's probably like what @KIRK said which is these guys get spoon fed info that JR/Mario etc want out in the news. Putting this article out lets other GMs know to start calling JR and asking about those guys. Then, JR listens and if he wants to move them, it happens, and if he doesn't, he reaches out to the media and they put out another article saying there's no truth to the rumors.

I mean that's more or less what they did with Letang last summer, right? Put it out there, JR got offers, JR almost did it, but then it fell through, and in the process of that JR put it out there that the rumors were false and the media ran with it.

No, Mackey is just a dunce who's talking out of his ass. The dude has literally not gotten anything right since the Sheahan trade in 2017. If Yohe was saying something like this, I'd believe it more because Yohe is usually the guy they feed this kind of information to. Mackey? He's absolutely credit-less in my eyes.

 

[PensandCaps]

Letang doesn't need to play a smarter game. He was fantastic all year and one of the best Dmen in the sport this season.

He shouldn't change a thing because he is elite.


He tried changing in 2017-18 and he was horrible.

Let Letang be letang.

Fix the disgusting mess around him.

 

[Shady Machine]

I doubt the conversation is an abrupt "We want you to waive your NMC so that we can trade you." I believe it would be a nice sit down with JR, Mario, and Burkle asking Geno about his desires. Im sure they will be have established the direction they want to go in and see if thats something he wants to be a part of or if he wants to start fresh with a new team. Thats not that unreasonable. Its those tough conversations good leaders have to have to prevent major downfalls. Burkle will have that convo no doubt. 4 game sweep cut deeply into his playoff revenue. Make no mistake...hes a businessman who watches the bottomline.

Dont know where he'd go though to be honest. LA for Kopitar? Calgary, Montreal, Nashville, Florida Chicago? Not even sure what the list looks like.

What direction could they possibly want to go in that doesn't include Malkin other than "tank rebuild"

 

[Pancakes]

No, Mackey is just a dunce who's talking out of his ass. The dude has literally not gotten anything right since the Sheahan trade in 2017. If Yohe was saying something like this, I'd believe it more because Yohe is usually the guy they feed this kind of information to. Mackey? He's absolutely credit-less in my eyes.

I expect Yohe to comment on these rumors eventually so it will be interesting to see what tact he takes.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

You trade Malkin you better be all in on a full rebuild. Crosby better be all in on a full rebuild (does that sound Crosby-like?). Doubly so if you trade both Malkin and Letang.

Then again... Mackey. Why even devote much thought to it?

 

[cheesedanish87]

Yohe comes out with an article making Geno and Letang look bad.

Mackey comes out with an article talking about the Pens considering trading Geno and Letang.

I'v seen this movie before, its the smear campaign that the Pens organization does to players when they are a trade candidate.

Its happened to Neal, Phil, Brass

Now its Geno and Letang.

 

[Gurglesons]

What direction could they possibly want to go in that doesn't include Malkin other than "tank rebuild"

Well, we’ve got occasional 3-4 defenseman Jack Johnson. So, at least we can ride that if Geno gets traded.

 

[ZeroPucksGiven]

Letang doesn't need to play a smarter game. He was fantastic all year and one of the best Dmen in the sport this season.

He shouldn't change a thing because he is elite.


He tried changing in 2017-18 and he was horrible.

Let Letang be letang.

Fix the disgusting mess around him.

Unfortunately Letang got hurt and was never the same. Prior to his injury, you could've made a Norris candidacy debate for him

I'm hoping that another offseason can help him mend

 

[Empoleon8771]

Letang doesn't need to play a smarter game. He was fantastic all year and one of the best Dmen in the sport this season.

He shouldn't change a thing because he is elite.


He tried changing in 2017-18 and he was horrible.

Let Letang be letang.

Fix the disgusting mess around him.

Oh spare me this stuff. Letang has been **** in the playoffs in each of the last 2 years and has 1 good playoff run in his last 6 years. If anyone should change his game to be more risk adverse, it's him. Letting Letang be Letang has killed them in the playoffs in the last 2 years.

 

[Turin]

Oh spare me this stuff. Letang has been **** in the playoffs in each of the last 2 years and has 1 good playoff run in his last 6 years. If anyone should change his game to be more risk adverse, it's him. Letting Letang be Letang has killed them in the playoffs in the last 2 years.

Nonsense. You’re blatantly ignoring the difference an injury made. Malkin has has had a much worse stretch from last playoffs til now than Letang.

 

[ChaosAgent]

Nonsense. You’re blatantly ignoring the difference an injury made. Malkin has has had a much worse stretch from last playoffs til now than Letang.

So we're expecting Letang to go into future playoffs healthy now?

 

[Turin]

Yohe comes out with an article making Geno and Letang look bad.

Mackey comes out with an article talking about the Pens considering trading Geno and Letang.

I'v seen this movie before, its the smear campaign that the Pens organization does to players when they are a trade candidate.

Its happened to Neal, Phil, Brass

Now its Geno and Letang.

Let’s build around just Sid by trading his best friends on the team and main support. Noice. Good thing they have JJ amirite.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Nonsense. You’re blatantly ignoring the difference an injury made. Malkin has has had a much worse stretch from last playoffs til now than Letang.

You keep trying to go after Malkin as if Malkin isn't absurdly better than Letang is. You're also blatantly ignoring the fact that Letang is made out of glass and regularly misses time due to an injury. The fact that he went to **** after those injuries is a damn good justification that he needs to change his game, because he's going to continue to get injured if he keeps playing that way.

 

[Turin]

So we're expecting Letang to go into future playoffs healthy now?

Dunno, are we trading Dumoulin too? 2 straight injured playoffs where he was mediocre at best. Let’s trade Malkin like I mentioned before as he’s done nothing two springs in a row and wasn’t elite like Letang this season. Let’s just be consistently reactionary and Pejorative Slured. Who knows if Murray will be healthy? Deal him too because being able to minimize risk is better than actually having good players.

 

[Turin]

You keep trying to go after Malkin as if Malkin isn't absurdly better than Letang is. You're also blatantly ignoring the fact that Letang is made out of glass and regularly misses time due to an injury. The fact that he went to **** after those injuries is a damn good justification that he needs to change his game, because he's going to continue to get injured if he keeps playing that way.

Malkin is even more injury prone than Letang and just had a horrible season relative to his position while Letang was a top 5 defenseman. Take the stroke out of the equation and who misses more time, Geno or Letang? Geno.

You don’t trade either unless somebody wants to give a better player. And they won’t.

 

[KIRK]

I think it's probably like what @KIRK said which is these guys get spoon fed info that JR/Mario etc want out in the news. Putting this article out lets other GMs know to start calling JR and asking about those guys. Then, JR listens and if he wants to move them, it happens, and if he doesn't, he reaches out to the media and they put out another article saying there's no truth to the rumors.

I mean that's more or less what they did with Letang last summer, right? Put it out there, JR got offers, JR almost did it, but then it fell through, and in the process of that JR put it out there that the rumors were false and the media ran with it.

I don't actually think it's from JR. I think it's from Sullivan apologists like (although not necessarily specifically) Guerin and Recchi. This inclusion of Malkin here and the Yohe article.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Malkin is even more injury prone than Letang

No he's not.

and just had a horrible season relative to his position while Letang was a top 5 defenseman.

Malkin put up 72 points in 68 games and was 16th in the NHL for points/60. And I like how you're ignoring that Letang's abortion of a season last year is miles worse than what Malkin did this year.

Take the stroke out of the equation and who misses more time, Geno or Letang? Geno.

So take out one major injury Letang had and who gets hurt more? That sounds like a completely logical comparison.

You just sound like a standard yinzer Malkin basher. It's really pathetic.

 

[Shady Machine]

Malkin and Letang are part of the solution ya'll. I am a part time Letang basher but trading him without in house replacements is going to blow up in our face. Trading Malkin is lunacy.

 

[heysmilinstrange]

Im sorry, but your comment is literally fake news. No where in the whole ****ing article does it suggest they keep Johnson. Hes not even mentioned. Letang Malkin and Kessel are mentioned in passing.

Get a grip and cut the fake news victim bull****.

This is a really inappropriate response to my comment. I think it's clear that I'm putting together what I read in the article and what JR has said defending both our defense corps generally and Jack Johnson specifically. Maybe you're having a bad day or something, which I certainly get, but if you find my posts that objectionable, just set me to ignore. Don't accuse me of doing something different than what literally every poster does here all the time.

 

[Empoleon8771]

It just blows my mind how anyone can even begin to equate Malkin and Letang:

-Malkin has been a huge factor in all 3 cup wins. Letang didn't play in one of the cup wins and was a 2nd pair defenseman in another.
-Letang has cost the Penguins in the playoffs in the last 2 years and has 1 good playoff run in their last 6 playoff appearances.
-Malkin's award closet is infinitely more full than Letang's, because Letang has literally no individual awards
-Malkin's best right now is better than Letang's best. Malkin last year was on the 4th all-star team for centers (barely losing out to Kopitar for 3rd). Letang won't even be in the top-5 in voting for this year.
-Malkin's worst right now is better than Letang's worst. Malkin in a "horrible" year for him was still a PPG player that was 16th in overall points/60 and 35th in ES points/60. A "horrible" year for him has him performing on par with guys like Giroux, Duchene and Kuznetsov. Letang managed to individually cost the Penguins a playoff series at his worst.

But yeah, outside of all of that, they're totally equal.

Malkin and Letang are part of the solution ya'll. I am a part time Letang basher but trading him without in house replacements is going to blow up in our face. Trading Malkin is lunacy.

I agree on trading him, but you absolutely have to get him to simplify his game. His current style won't result in the Penguins winning again, just because it is too high risk/high reward and he gets injured too often.

 

[Turin]

No he's not.



Malkin put up 72 points in 68 games and was 16th in the NHL for points/60. And I like how you're ignoring that Letang's abortion of a season last year is miles worse than what Malkin did this year.



So take out one major injury Letang had and who gets hurt more? That sounds like a completely logical comparison.

You just sound like a standard yinzer Malkin basher. It's really pathetic.

A stroke isn’t an injury genius. It’s not something you can relate back to his actual profession. If Sid gets cancer is he injury prone? I’m not bashing Malkin, I’m bashing you for your inability to use context and assess defensemen.

Malkin hasn’t played 80 games in 10 years. He’s played less than 70 games almost every year besides like 2 in the last decade. If your standard is eliminating risk and trading people for being hurt, he’s the guy to go. But that’s mostly a pretty stupid thought process.

 

[Empoleon8771]

A stroke isn’t an injury genius. It’s not something you can relate back to his actual profession. If Sid gets cancer is he injury prone? I’m not bashing Malkin, I’m bashing you for your inability to use context and assess defensemen.

Malkin hasn’t played 80 games in 10 years. He’s played less than 70 games almost every year besides like 2 in the last decade. If your standard is eliminating risk and trading people for being hurt, he’s the guy to go. But that’s mostly a pretty stupid thought process.

There you go making strawman arguments again. You don't seem capable of actually addressing the arguments other people make. Can you actually do that or do you have to make absurdly stupid arguments and act like you're refuting those? Because that seems to be all you do.

It's literally on the same page:

Oh spare me this stuff. Letang has been **** in the playoffs in each of the last 2 years and has 1 good playoff run in his last 6 years. If anyone should change his game to be more risk adverse, it's him. Letting Letang be Letang has killed them in the playoffs in the last 2 years.

 

[JTG]

Malkin has the ability to be a part of the solution. He has years like this and he typically follows up a bad year with an MVP type season. He'll shake out of it. Sid and Geno should retire as Penguins and as time goes on, their cap numbers just look better and better.