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There is not anything new to report on as far as contract negotiations go with Kris Letang, Pascal Dupuis, Matt Cooke, and Craig Adams. They all seem to be in a holding pattern at the moment.
Without any concrete news to report on all that is left is speculation about potential future personnel moves.
According to
Will DePaoli of Inside Pittsburgh Sports the Danny Briere camp is “intrigued” about a possible fit in Pittsburgh. Briere’s natural position is center and he plays significantly better at that position. Center would be Briere’s first choice in most circumstances. In this report it was mentioned that an NHL source close to Briere said “In most places he’s not keen on playing wing, but the idea of playing with 87 or 71 makes everyone keen.”
Keen or not Briere’s play at the winger position last year in Philadelphia left much to be desired.
I will always be confused on why it is so difficult for very talented centers to adjust to playing wing. The X’s and O’s of playing wing are some of the most simplistic in all of sport. If Penguin fans can remember back a few years, even Evgeni Malkin struggled at playing wing.
To be clear on this report it is not saying that the Penguins have formal interest in Briere, all that has happened is the Penguins brass have had internal discussions about Briere, big difference.
With a thin free agency market and the likelihood of Dupuis leaving the Penguins may have to turn to an unconventional winger like Briere to fill a top 6 spot.
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UPDATE 11:16 AM
Will DePaoli is now reporting that the Penguins intend to place a call with Steve Bartlett, the Rochester, NY based player agent for Rob Scuderi. The intent would be to pair Scuderi with Letang.
I can't lie, retaining Kris Letang and adding Rob Scuderi would improve the Penguins top 4 defense quality 10 fold. It remains to be seen what Scuderi's intentions are regarding free agency but a top 4 of Orpik/Martin and Scuderi/Letang sounds pretty appealing to me.
Could Ray Shero get another crack at Scuderi who which is probably one of his biggest regrets to date?
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Josh Yohe of the Pittsburgh Tribune has an article about defenseman Derick Pouliot and Olli Maatta today. The article basically says how happy the Penguins have been with their selections of both players in last year’s draft. Shero had this to say about drafting both players:
“Looking back at last year,” Shero said, “yeah, I'm pretty happy with those two. I think we did very well.”
Shero would not make predictions about their estimated time of arrival for NHL duty but had this to say
“That's going to be a big camp for them,” Shero said. “I love what I see right now.”
Given the importance of these two prospects succeeding at the NHL level, it is a good thing that Shero seems pleased so far with their development to this point.
For those interested Jesse Marshall of the Faceoff Factor has a full write up on Penguins top draft pick Tristan Jarry, you can find that
here.
In other Penguins goalie news here is a some information to take this with a grain of salt.
Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun has reported that the Oilers
may have inquired about the availability of Penguins goaltender Marc Andre Fleury. It is believed that Fleury is not available at the present time.
It’s one thing to publicly claim that Fleury is unavailable but the Penguins should be open to listening to any offers regarding their long time netminder.
And on a much lighter note you can see Evgeni Malkin enjoying the off season with a picture from his instagram account
here. Seems like the kind of picture that would be ripe for a caption contest.
The Taylor Swift curse has officially run its course.
In this picture taken with Taylor Swift in 2009 you can see that every player in the picture is no longer with the Penguins. Max Talbot, Jordan Staal, Alex Goligoski, and now Tyler Kennedy have all moved on from the Penguins.
That’s all for now, thanks for reading!
You can find my non-Penguin related articles over at
HockeyHurts.com
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