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The Piece is back in Pittsburgh.
The Pittsburgh Penguins and defenseman Rob Scuderi have come to an agreement on a 4 year contract worth 13.5M. The salary cap hit for each season will be 3.375M. It comes with a limited no movement clause, the details of which have not been announced as of this time.
The Scuderi signing is a mulligan for General Manager Ray Shero. When Shero elected to allow Scuderi to walk as a free agent in 2009 he had no idea the cap would rise like it did. The Penguins have struggled since to replace that void on their defense.
The Scuderi signing has many positives for the Penguins. The first positive is that it will give Kris Letang exactly the kind of defense partner that will mesh perfectly with him. Rob Scuderi and Drew Doughty were a terrific pairing in Los Angeles and Scuderi’s responsible play allowed Doughty to showcase his dynamic skill set. Hopefully this puts an end to the revolving door at the d spot opposite of Letang.
According to Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette Scuderi has not missed a game since December 7, 2009. He has played in 264 consecutive regular season games. You could say that Scuderi has been a durable player.
Another big benefit of signing Scuderi is his professionalism. There is no doubt that Scuderi will be one of the leaders in the Penguins locker room whether he has a letter on his jersey or not.
One nice tidbit of info on Scuderi comes from Helene Elliott of the LA Times:
“After road games, he always brought his own equipment bag into the hallway. Saved equipment guys a bit of effort.”
Scuds is just a good guy, and an overall positive person to be around. That is a great thing to add to your team’s culture.
How did the Penguins land Scuderi? A lot of it boiled down to Scuderi making a family based decision. Scuderi is from Long Island and the thought of moving back to the Eastern Conference was appealing for that reason. Scuderi was not going to leave the Kings for another Western Conference team.
Rob Rossi of the Pittsburgh Tribune had an interview with the newly re-acquired Scuderi for the Pittsburgh Tribune that you can find
here .
Some of the highlights from that interview were that Scuderi never thought the Penguins were going to be a possibility. He said as soon as he saw the Penguins had interest he was intrigued.
Scuderi wanted to know how the Penguins intended to use him. He was reassured that the Penguins knew what kind of player he still is and that he will provide the same role that he has been with LA.
Scuderi spoke of how he has been a mentor to younger players on the Kings, specifically Voynov, and that he learned how to be a professional from Sergei Gonchar. The Penguins have a ton of promising young defensemen who will be coming up the ranks in the near future. Having a guy like Scuderi around to provide a model of professionalism is invaluable.
Last but not least Scuderi feels the Penguins are still in a win now mode and that they can still challenge for the Stanley Cup.
Here is a quote from Scuderi that is from the
Penguins official website Penguins official site:
“I’ve heard from (Sidney) Crosby and (Brooks) Orpik and other guys,” Scuderi said. “I appreciate all those welcome back texts and phone calls. I think that’s the family part of the team and that’s a very positive thing.”
As great as the news of Scuderi rejoining the Penguins is, there is still work to be done. The Penguins are now pretty close to the salary cap ceiling for the 2013-2014 season with a few spots left to fill in their bottom 6 forward group.
Per Mike Colligan, the Penguins have $1.3M left in cap space. That number assumes Steve MacIntyre will be in Wilkes-Barre and not count against the cap. With the rule that teams can go 10% over the cap during the offseason the Penguins could potentially add close to 7.7M in salary right now. It could be a scenario where the Penguins can still target players they want and then worry about shifting salary out the door after the fact.
One of the more popular targets for the Penguins to trade will certainly be defenseman Matt Niskanen. Niskanen had a rough playoff but he still has value. There are enough teams that would be willing to trade for a good #4/5 d man that has the ability to play on the second power play. The reality for the Penguins is that they cannot afford to retain his 2.3M salary cap hit. The only other option would be to trade a guy like Brooks Orpik but I do not think that option is on the table.
What does this mean for Simon Despres, who was originally penciled in for the Penguins top 4? It means that he can thrive and become one of the best #5 defenseman in the entire league. Given that the Penguins are as close to the cap as they are, it is extremely unlikely that they will not utilize Despres and his entry level contract. Despres will get solid bottom pairing minutes and most likely an opportunity to run some of the Penguins second power play. If you remember, there was a young defenseman on the Penguins in 2009 that was filling that same exact role, his name was Kris Letang.
Here is an article from the aforementioned Mike Colligan about the Penguins and their usage of Simon Despres. It speaks to how the Penguins managed Despres’ minutes and playing time this past season. Mike is one of the best Penguins writers out there and he usually has very interesting and well thought out points.
Today was a very good sign that the Penguins have realized their current state of defense has not been good enough. They got the one guy on the market that could come in and fit in perfect right away.
Enjoy Penguin fans; The Piece is back in Pittsburgh’s puzzle.
Thanks for reading!
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