Follow me on twitter
The Pittsburgh Penguins will enter tomorrow with a little bit money to spend on unrestricted free agency, 14.63M to be exact. However, they have qualified all of their RFA's which include Brandon Sutter and Simon Despres. They don't have a lot of wiggle room but they can make a few moves if they so choose. The Penguins are trying to change up the makeup of the team and part of that is signing free agents.
I believe the Penguins should play their youth on defense and find the best options from the grouping of Simon Despres, Scott Harrington, Brian Dumoulin, Derrick Pouliot, Robert Bortuzzo and Philip Samuelsson. Find out what you have and go from there. No need to spend money on retread defensemen and especially no need to pay a premium for it. Take advantage of those ELC contracts.
The Penguins should use the limited cap space they have to improve their forward grouping. The bottom 6 needs some serious repair and there a few different ways you can go about this. You can sign a top 6 player and have a guy like Pascal Dupuis bump down. Or you could leave Dupuis in his familiar RW role with Crosby and also add Bennett to the top 6 while shopping for bottom 6 help. There are options and arguments for both approaches.
I have some options for the top 6 and some options for the bottom 6. In no particular order:
Top 6
Ales Hemsky
Hemsky is one of the higher end forward available in this UFA market. For years he has been buried in Edmonton where the team has had its share of struggles. On the surface Hemsky's puck possession and goals for percentage look unappealing but the team he played on needs to be taken into consideration.
In 2013-14 Ales Hemsky played 55 games with Oilers and had 26 points. His possession with Edmonton was 47.4%. After being traded to Ottawa he scored 17 points in 20 games and his possession climbed to 54.9%. He gets a bad wrap for his health concerns but he played in 75 games last year.
Hemsky would look great on Crosby's wing and the success he found in Ottawa would no doubt continue on in Pittsburgh. This also allows the Penguins to use Pascal Dupuis or Beau Bennett in a 3rd line role which certainly helps on the depth front.
Hemsky gets my full endorsement. I believe he would flourish playing in Pittsburgh and would be money well spent.
Nikolai Kulemin
That chart looks alarming doesn't it? Have no fear there is a simple explanation for his low numbers. He was Carlyle'd. Randy Carlyle took over the Maple Leafs and previously successful European players like Mikhail Grabovski and Kulemin were misused and buried with poor usage.
In 2011-12 predominately under the guidance of Ron Wilson Kulemin was a very effective player. It is no surprise that in the last full season under Ron Wilson Kulemin saw his best offensive season where he had 30 goals and 27 assists.
Kulemin is close with Evgeni Malkin and would most likely be joining his line.
Kulemin is the most probable addition from the players in this blog. It is rumored that he will be offered a 3 year contract worth 3.5M per season.
Radim Vrbata
The chart looks like Vrbata takes a nose dive but under a closer look you will see that all of his numbers are above the 50% clip which is exactly where you want to see them.
Vrbata has been an under the radar sniper down in the desert for the Coyotes. Given that the Coyotes don't get a lot of attention on the natnional scene it would be easy to over look Vrbata's contributions to their offense. Being on a line with Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin would certainly help him continue to be a difference maker on the offensive end of the ice.
Some people have concerns that he will not play well if he leaves the Coyotes. The last time he left via free agency he struggled mightily in Tampa Bay. The struggles were not hockey related though, his wife was extremely sick and that most definitely weighed heavily into his sub par production. There should be no reservations about signing him away from Arizona.
Milan Michalek
Michalek has been a solid positive possession player while in Ottawa always staying above 50%. In most years his GF% stays above 50% as well but last year for whatever reason it dropped significantly. Given that his possession numbers were solid it could just be a case of bad luck.
Michalek has seen his offense dry up a bit since scoring 35 goals in 2011-12 but some of that can be contributed to knee issues that have plagued him. His value may have been lowered because of this injury situation and he may come at a slightly lower cost than what he could have gotten if he was healthy.
Michalek certainly has offensive skills, it is just a question of whether he is over his injury past at this point.
Bottom 6
David Moss
David Moss is another former Coyote who is a free agent. The Penguins are rumored to have contacted Moss during the new negotiating period. Moss is a really nice bottom 6 option that should not come at a high cost. Moss has been a rock in the possession department the past 3 years consistently above the 50% mark. This is a drastic difference from what the Penguins bottom 6 has been putting up the past two years.
HIs awful GF% in 2011-12 can be attributed to playing on a very bad Flames team.
Moss played 2:09 per game on the penalty kill last season in Arizona.
Moss has a career high of 39 points but realistic projections have him between 20-30 points annually.
Mike Santorelli
Santorelli much like Moss has been a consistent possession player hovering right at the 50% barrier. Santorelli saw his GF% plummet in 2012-13 while playing for the Florida Panthers but they were a lottery team so that is understandable.
With Vancouver last season Santorelli played solid bottom 6 minutes while putting up 28 points in 49 games. Santorelli had that offensive production while playing in a shutdown role for the Canucks. That is a very good sign. Santorelli should come at a relatively cheap price tag which should be attractive to the Penguins if they choose to go this route.
Other bottom 6 options such as Benoit Pouliot and Mason Raymond are very appealing to me but I believe that their price tag will be out of range for what the Penguins have to spend. Pouliot's value ballooned by playing on a Stanley Cup Finalist and Raymond will certainly get a healthy raise from the 1M he made last season with Toronto after a really splendid year. The key to getting good value is to get ahead of the curve, not pay the premium after the players produce.
These are just some of the options the Penguins could look at. The Penguins will definitely be active tomorrow and it will be extremely interesting to see the kind of decisions they make moving forward with the new regime in place.
Thanks for reading!
Follow me on twitter
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»