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So not much has been released about Brandon Sutter and his situation moving forward with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Here are the facts so far:
The Penguins re-signed Marcel Goc to a one year 1.2M deal
Sutter elected to forgo arbitration rights
Sutter remains unsigned.
To me this situation doesn't strike me as being a positive for Brandon Sutter. Any potential leverage he had is gone. Goc can play a third line role and can do it well. And without arbitration forcing the Penguins hand they won't enter a deal with Sutter that they don't like.
With each day that Sutter is not signed the chance of a trade going down increases more and more. Personally
I would be in favor of moving Sutter and letting Goc take over the third line center duties. Sutter's cost won't bring proper value and the Penguins have competent options.
Sutter is only one season away from the ability to hit unrestricted free agency. I could see this playing a major factor in how the negotiations are going. Sutter is probably looking for a short term offer that will get him closer to that UFA market while the Penguins are going to want some more control of him as an asset.
So far the only information that I have seen as it pertains to Sutter has come from William DePaoli of Inside Pittsburgh Sports.
According to the same report the Oilers have "keen" interest in Brandon Sutter.
The only players on the Oilers roster that make sense for the Penguins are David Perron and Nail Yakupov but I personally can't see how Sutter's value alone is close enough to land those kind of players in return.
For the Penguins to get the Oilers interest they would need to toss in something extra, perhaps that could come in the form of defense prospect Brian Dumoulin who is on the verge of becoming a full time NHL player. Dumoulin has been considered the Baby Penguins best defenseman and if it wasn't for the Penguins having a glutton of defense prospects he might have already found a regular spot in the NHL lineup.
The likelier cost would be somebody like Simon Despres.
The Oilers could certainly use some help at center and they could always use a little assistance on the backend while they wait for their other prospects (Darnell Nurse, Oscar Klefbom) to make their way through development.
Here are Perron's possession numbers throughout the years:
Perron had great numbers while playing for St. Louis. He benefited from playing on a quality Blues team but as you can see he is above the team's average more times than not. When he gets to Edmonton his possession does what everybody's does in Edmonton, it falls off the table.
David Perron carries a 3.81M cap hit for the next two seasons and is what I would consider an ideal fit for Sidney Crosby's right wing. If the Oilers are indeed "keen" on Brandon Sutter I would try to scrape together something that is appealing for Edmonton and sell high on Brandon Sutter after his offensive output in these playoffs.
I wouldn't trade David Perron if I were the Oilers, but stranger things have happened before.
Thanks for reading!
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