NHL Free Agency Extravaganza 2021

[Pabst]

Mike Lange has officially retired from the broadcast booth. Sad day, but congrats to him on a great career.

Here's a great article he wrote during the 2017 cup run: https://www.theplayerstribune.com/artic ... romir-jagr

[DonnieBrasco]

The ZAR arbitration drama lasted all of 10 minutes. The Pens have a total of $120k in Cap space, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say we're done with signings. We shall see what happens with any future trades, but for now, the lines look something like this:

Guentzel - Crosby - Rust
Zucker - Malkin - Kapanen
McGinn/Heinen - Carter - Rodrigues
ZAR - Blueger - McGinn/Heinen

Dumoulin - Letang
Marino - Pettersson
Matheson - Friedman(?)

If only Sully had 1/2 brain and flipped Geno with Sid..

[Ice]

Would be nice to see Poulin and POJ get a real shot at supplanting, say, Rodrigues and Friedman, respectively. Slide those two in there and it seems like positive change from last season's lineup.

[Pabst]

Has Poulin even played in the AHL yet? It's not like he was setting the world on fire at the junior level, so making the leap to the NHL seems like a stretch.

I feel like he's been way over-hyped because he's the only 1st round pick the Pens have had in a long time.

I like POJ, but there is a glut of LHD on the roster.

[DonnieBrasco]

Has Poulin even played in the AHL yet? It's not like he was setting the world on fire at the junior level, so making the leap to the NHL seems like a stretch.

I feel like he's been way over-hyped because he's the only 1st round pick the Pens have had in a long time.

I like POJ, but there is a glut of LHD on the roster.

Same. I don't think we'll see much of Poulin or POJ this season unless injuries really hit.

The roster is pretty much set at this point.

Honestly I'm kind of surprised we didn't do anything w/ the goalies, it just seemed like there were rumors that Hextall wasn't super pleased.

Note that I'm still a Jarry fan and think he'll rebound from this.

[fractalsteel]

Poulin just turned 20 half a year ago. Don't you have to be 20 years old to play in the minors?

Two years ago Poulin really showed in camp and the talk was that he was a year away. Last year he took a big step back in his progression.
Guy has the size you want in a PF and skill to be a decent to good goal scorer. I wouldn't count on him this year.

[Pabst]

I'm honestly not sure what the age restrictions are in the minors - but the world got crazy over the last 2 years, so I don't know....

I agree with Donnie 100% on Jarry. Even if Hextall wasn't sold on him, I feel like the price might have been too high, and I'm not sure how much we'd have really improved the position given who was out there.

[fractalsteel]

I did about 45 seconds of research and found there is no age limit.
Most teams feel that if a player(18 years old) isn't ready for the NHL that it is better for them to play in juniors with others of the same age/physical maturity. So most teams wait for players to turn 20 to move them to the minors.

It also got me to thinking, neither Crosby nor Malkin made the jump to the NHL at 18. Not because they weren't ready(they were, one was ROY the other runner-up) but with Crosby the lockout cost him a year. Ditto for Malkin who spent an additional year trying to get away from the Russian mob linked with his home club.

[Pabst]

Speaking of the Calder, it still blows my mind that McDavid finished 3rd in the voting.....behind Shayne Gostisbehere.


In other news, this should warm everyone's heart: Jakub Vrana just signed a 3 year extension in Detroit for less $ than Washington is paying Mantha, thus negating the entire point of the trade

[fractalsteel]

He missed nearly half a season.
And since then he has more than made up for it.
This year was insane on his part but then again, there are the playoffs and failure in such.
Needs a lot of work on becoming a 200 foot player.

[Pabst]

Oh, for sure, I was commenting more on how far Ghost has fallen.

Even if McDavid played the full season, I would still think that Panarin wins the Calder that year. He was 5 years older, way more experienced, and played on a much better team.

[fractalsteel]

Because of boredom
Over on Pensburgh they did a survey on the four former Pens on the Caps roster and which one would the fans like back.

In order of garnering most votes:
Sprong
Hagelin
Sheary
Schultz

The highest vote count went to 'none of them'.

[Pabst]

"None of them" is the correct answer.

If I absolutely had to choose, it'd be Sheary. Hagelin is fine as a bottom 6 winger & PK specialist, but not at that cap hit. Hard pass on Schultz and Sprong.


Daniel Sprong is the hockey equivalent of Pedro Alvarez. Fans get blinded by his goal scoring, but the problem is that he's a straight up liability in every other aspect of the game. Yes, Sprong posted 13 goals in 42 games last season, but his advanced stats continue to be dogshit. He's starting over 70% of his shifts in the Offensive zone (he was 80% in the playoffs) yet the caps are barely controlling 50% of shot attempts while he's on the ice. That's......terrible. And to top it off, he's only getting 11 minutes/game. Lowest among Washington's regular Forwards.

[fractalsteel]

I posted to show the infatuation many Pens fans have with Sprong-still.
Look, I don't think the guy got a fair chance to see if he could work with either 87/71. That said, it is in the past and he wasn't going to play here as long as Sully was the man.
If money were not an issue I'd go with Hagelin.

[Pabst]

I posted to show the infatuation many Pens fans have with Sprong-still.
Look, I don't think the guy got a fair chance to see if he could work with either 87/71. That said, it is in the past and he wasn't going to play here as long as Sully was the man.
If money were not an issue I'd go with Hagelin.

Wasn't Sprong on Crosby's wing for a good chunk of his last pre-season in Pittsburgh? IIRC, he did nothing and got bumped down. I'm of the opinion that he didn't get a 'fair chance' because he didn't earn in.

After Pittsburgh, Sprong was so bad with Anaheim that he was often a healthy scratch and later let go. He's been OK in Washington, but he's been very sheltered and plays limited minutes. The same issues he had with the Pens are still there several years later.

I'm not arguing with you, btw, just voicing my frustration on why so many continue to have a hard on for this guy.

[fractalsteel]

I posted to show the infatuation many Pens fans have with Sprong-still.
Look, I don't think the guy got a fair chance to see if he could work with either 87/71. That said, it is in the past and he wasn't going to play here as long as Sully was the man.
If money were not an issue I'd go with Hagelin.

Wasn't Sprong on Crosby's wing for a good chunk of his last pre-season in Pittsburgh? IIRC, he did nothing and got bumped down. I'm of the opinion that he didn't get a 'fair chance' because he didn't earn in.

After Pittsburgh, Sprong was so bad with Anaheim that he was often a healthy scratch and later let go. He's been OK in Washington, but he's been very sheltered and plays limited minutes. The same issues he had with the Pens are still there several years later.

I'm not arguing with you, btw, just voicing my frustration on why so many continue to have a hard on for this guy.

I'm not sure about the preseason but he only played 42 games with the Birdies and I don't remember much time with either Crosby or Malkin in that sample.
I'll amend my comment to mean that when Sprong made a mistake in a game Sully buried at the end of the bench and often wouldn't put him out on the ice. Then he would be a healthy scratch for long periods of time.

Anyway, he wasn't going to work out in Pittsburgh and we had Guentzel and Rust coming on at about the same time and proving themselves so there is that.

[Pabst]

Yeah, we had Guentzel and Rust plus (at the time) Kessel and Hornqvist. Sprong wasn't bumping any of those guys out of the top 6

[Ice]

I'd go with Hagelin out of that group. I bought into Sprong a little too heavy the first time around, not gonna make that mistake again.