Pens Offseason Discussion

[Pabst]

Interesting article over at Pensburgh this morning.

Kapanen's cap hit is $3,2m for the next two seasons, but the Pens will only pay him $1.8m and $2.5m for each year, respectively. Also, the inclusion of Warsofsky allowed them to unload a $400k/year minor league contract.


From a pure $ standpoint, this makes sense in lieu of Rutherford's comments about reducing team spending. Whether or not this trade ends up being worth it is a different story.

[Ice]

Kapananen for an average of about 2 mill for a couple years is, in fact, pretty good value. Surprised Toronto would eat $ on the deal, they're in some serious cap hell, as well.

[Pabst]

Kapananen for an average of about 2 mill for a couple years is, in fact, pretty good value. Surprised Toronto would eat $ on the deal, they're in some serious cap hell, as well.

It's a matter of how the NHL cap works. Here's his contract on CapFriendly: Your cap hit in the NHL is total contract value divided by number of years - It's not like the NFL where you can get creative with bonuses and whatnot to get under the cap. Cash paid and Cap hit are not necessarily one in the same.

Toronto front loaded Kapanen's contract in Year 1. Going by that Pensburgh article, doing that makes it much easier for a cash-rich, cap-poor team like Toronto to unload a player.

[fractalsteel]

Crosby had minor surgery on his wrist today and is expected to recover in a month. Turns out Malkin and ZAR both had surgeries as well and both are expected to make quick recoveries.

[Pabst]

Pittsburgh Penguins
@penguins
· 31m
The Penguins have named Todd Reirden and Mike Vellucci assistant coaches.

Reirden, 49, will oversee the team’s defensive group and power-play unit.
Vellucci, 54, will work with the team’s forwards and oversee the penalty kill.

Reirden comes back to the Pens and Vellucci gets promoted from WBS. I can't say I follow the AHL, but Vellucci seems like he did well enough considering how many of their players were called up.

[Pabst]

One other update - Apparently Rutherford has said there are offers on the table for a Pens' goaltender, but he's hoping for something better.

In related news, the Blues just traded Jake Allen to Montreal for a 3rd round pick.

[fractalsteel]

Nearly 20% of Montreal's cap is tied up in 2 tenders.
How do you make that work?

[Ice]

One other update - Apparently Rutherford has said there are offers on the table for a Pens' goaltender, but he's hoping for something better.

In related news, the Blues just traded Jake Allen to Montreal for a 3rd round pick.

So, we can assume the 3rd round pick from Montreal for Murray and Jack Johnson is no longer on the table. I'd have taken that one.

[Ice]

Ambivalent on the coaching moves, as well. I get that the Caps not being as hungry as they needed to be, and getting bounced early following the Cup run might not have been all Rierden's fault, but isn't that basically what's been wrong with the Pens? He's coached a scoring offense, I guess.

Velucci? Some of his players called up have done pretty well, so without much other track record to go on, you can't complain too much, but another WBS coach call up?

Just seems like some different versions of more of the same.

[Ice]

Murray rumors beginning to pick up. Colorado and Edmonton recently mentioned.

[Pabst]

We haven't mentioned the resigning of Riikola here, either. Signing him for 2 years at $1.15m/year doesn't make sense with JJ on the roster.

[Ice]

If that means there are plans for JJ to not be on the roster, that's the best news of two offseasons.

[Pabst]

Bjugstad traded to the Wild for a conditional 7th rounder. Pens will retain a portion of his salary.

Sounds like this is a pure salary dump. If they were considering a buyout, this is obviously better than nothing.

[Ice]

Hopefully not too much retained, cause that's not much of a return. His value took a bath during his stint in Pittsburgh.

[Ice]

50% retained

[Pabst]

McCann extended

2 years at $2.94m/year

That's less than I was expecting him to get. At that price, I'm all for resigning him. The obvious question is whether they view him as a LW or C.

[Ice]

It's a good price for McCann. I don't think he's as bad as most of last year, or as good as he was when he first joined the team. He's a decent to good 3rd line wing that can move up and down a little in a pinch.

I'm hoping that's not the plan at 3C. We'll have to see how much more cap can be cleared. Best deal Ol JR has gotten re-signing a player for a few years, so that's a plus. Funny, he's making less on less term than Tanev.

[Pabst]

Kevin Weekes and Pierre Lebrun are both reporting that a Pens/Panthers trade is imminent.

Hornqvist to Florida for Mike Matheson.

Matheson is meh, but he's a decent puck mover and has a good shot. He's clearly a replacement for Schultz (or, at least, what Schultz was supposed to be). It also saves $425k against the Cap this year and $1.8m in salary expense.

Now the Pens have 5 Left-handed defensemen on the roster: Dumo, Pettersson, Riikola, JJ, and Matheson.

[Ice]

Was hoping picks/prospects/cap relief for Horny. Hopefully Matheson as a return, Riikola (who DK seems sure is the JJ replacement) signing means JMFJ is gone.

You're right, though. Still a bunch of LHD.

Also beginning to worry JR may have overplayed his hand on Murray's value.

Stay tuned, I suppose.

EDIT: just took a look at Matheson's contract My God, Florida better retain. 6 more years? NTC? And pretty severely back loaded at that. It's hideous.

[Ice]

Thankfully, it's being reported this deal is DOA. Welcome back, Horny.

[Pabst]

Thankfully, it's being reported this deal is DOA. Welcome back, Horny.

Yeah, looks like this won't materialize.

The more I read about Matheson, the more I dislike him.

What I will say is that I am 100% OK with the Pens moving Hornqvist (provided they get a decent return)

[Louis Lipps Service]

Thankfully, it's being reported this deal is DOA. Welcome back, Horny.

Yeah, looks like this won't materialize.

The more I read about Matheson, the more I dislike him.

What I will say is that I am 100% OK with the Pens moving Hornqvist (provided they get a decent return)

Yeah, Horny is still really good at what he does, but "what he does" is becoming more and more niche on this team....and the things he doesn't do are becoming an anchor for others on his line. It'll be sad to see him go. One of my favorite guys to ever come through town. But that's life.

[Ice]

Thankfully, it's being reported this deal is DOA. Welcome back, Horny.

Yeah, looks like this won't materialize.

The more I read about Matheson, the more I dislike him.

What I will say is that I am 100% OK with the Pens moving Hornqvist (provided they get a decent return)

Matheson has some athletic upside, as a buy-low, Trevor Daley or Justin Schultz type, but dude, that contract is HORRENDOUS. Gotta be one of the 10 worst in the league.

[fractalsteel]

From Pensburgh
First, let’s get a description of the player from Todd Little, the managing editor of SB Nation’s Florida Panthers website, Litter Box Cats:

“He struggles with positioning, decision-making in his own end and turnovers. He either lost confidence along the way after looking pretty good earlier in his career or just became uncoachable when he got a long-term deal. Not really sure what went wrong...”

“The Panthers aren’t a model franchise when it comes to developing young talent, so maybe part of the blame lies there, but a lot of the mistakes Matheson makes are just simple things that a defenseman with his experience should absolutely not be making.

[Matheson] is a really good skater and has all the tools to be a good player, but man, he single-handedly lost the Panthers games at times and was brutal in the first two games of the [2020 playoff] series against the Islanders. Lots of raw talent there - maybe the Pens can mine it. It wouldn’t shock me, but I won’t lose any sleep about moving out the rest of that contract.”

No thank you

The Pens never should have given Horny his last contract.

[Pabst]

Looks like it's official.

Pens get Colton Sceviour as well (who I know nothing about).

https://www.nhl.com/panthers/news/flori ... -319176228

[Pabst]

I'll feel alot better about this trade if a certain other Left Handed Defenseman winds up in another uniform soon. The other thing that we're not discussing regarding Hornqvist is the injury history - 12 or more games missed in each of the last 4 seasons, and he's not exactly young.

Side question - who do you pair Matheson with?

Letang - Dumo
Marino - Pettersson
Matheson - Riikola?

[Ice]

Looks like it's official.

Pens get Colton Sceviour as well (who I know nothing about).

https://www.nhl.com/panthers/news/flori ... -319176228

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (insert Vader gif)

[Pabst]

Here's how I'm looking at this right now. I think the following lines are set:

Guentzel - Crosby - Kapanen
Zucker - Malkin - Rust

I don't know what they do on the 3rd and 4th lines. Do you keep ZAR-Blueger-Tanev together? If so, then you have a 3rd line of Lafferty/Simon - McCann - Sceviour. No thanks.

What if they have a 3rd line of McCann - Blueger - Tanev? Then you have ZAR and Sceviour on the wings, but a big hole at C. Regardless, that could be a good defensive line.

On D, the Dumo-Letang pairing is obvious. I sincerely hope they stick with Pettersson-Marino as the 2nd pair. What does the third pair look like?


I agree with the media consensus that the Pens aren't done fiddling with the lineup, so hopefully some new players are added, and at least one player is traded away

The Pens' Top 6 forwards and Top 4 defensemen are as good as anyone in the NHL. A few tweaks to the depth and this team can make another cup run. Who knows....maybe I'm just being optimistic.

[bradshaw2ben]

If they don't go back to Jake-Geno-Rust, they've got rocks in the head.

Zucker-Crosby-Simon
Guentzel-Malkin-Rust
Lafferty-McCann-Kapanen
ZAR/Poulin/Angelo-Bluegers-Tanev

[fractalsteel]

If they don't go back to Jake-Geno-Rust, they've got rocks in the head.

Zucker-Crosby-Simon
Guentzel-Malkin-Rust
Lafferty-McCann-Kapanen
ZAR/Poulin/Angelo-Bluegers-Tanev

Only in an alternate universe where Captain Lorca is the Pens coach would Jake be on the second line.