Haha maybe a little. Don’t get me wrong Panarin is an elite LW, one of the very best in the league. But is he even worth Guentzel straight up? He wouldn’t be on PP1 here and optimistically is a 65-70 point guy in PIT. Guentzel hopefully scores 55ish next year. His contract also probably comes in a little more than half of what Panarin is gonna want (5M vs 9M) and he’s younger. Is the huge difference in pay worth 10 or so more points a year? I don’t think so.
Ryan Murray’s best case here is supplanting Maatta, and that’s doubtful given that Schultz and Letang are offensive minded and get paired with more “stay at home” types. He’d likely be on the bottom pairing even though he’s a decent NHL defenseman. I know the boxcar numbers aren’t amazing but Dumoulin gets thrown to the wolves in terms of usage, has to baby sit Letang at times, and still comes out with strong possession numbers and passes the eye test well. He showed some real offensive upside in the playoffs too, and 4M for the next 5 years is a fantastic deal to have him on. Real case to be made that he’s the Penguins most valuable asset in terms of trade value outside of Crosby, Malkin, Guentzel, and Kessel.