Well, well, well. Here we are. The Pittsburgh Penguins have been gifted a situation where they can acquire a highly skilled winger to play with Malkin and not only will it not cost them any assets, but will likely come with a very manageable cap hit as well.

The Carolina Hurricanes bought out winger Alexander Semin. No team in the league is going to give Alexander Semin term on a contract. Pittsburgh could offer him as high as 4.0M for one year and it would fall within the boundaries of a good risk/reward decision.

Alex Semin is focused on staying in the NHL after #hurricanes buyout: http://t.co/HO9aTXClWo pic.twitter.com/Tanyq96ffi

— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) June 30, 2015

The 31-year-old Russian could have numerous options to play overseas, but agent Todd Diamond told Sportsnet that he’s focused on getting his client work in North America.
“Without question Semin will play in the NHL and will have a great season,” Diamond said Tuesday. “We’ve already received calls on him.”

I can hear the grumbling starting already.

"He is lazy"

"He is a liability defensively"

"He isn't motivated"

If true it hasn't impacted his numbers in a negative way. Numbers are objective, judging a person's motivations are subjective. I'll stick with the objective measures.

If he is so lazy and doesn't play defense then it would show up. It doesn't

@Schopptalk I might phrase it this way: the stats indicate the effects of his effort and defensive shortcomings are greatly exaggerated

— Matthew Coller (@MatthewWGR) June 30, 2015

There goes the "lazy" narrative https://t.co/MgE9SgMnCg

— Neil Greenberg (@ngreenberg) June 30, 2015

Definitely the team I had in mind. He'd fit in EDM too (and all sorts of places, really) https://t.co/np17W0rHXz

— Jonathan Willis (@JonathanWillis) June 30, 2015

Pittsburgh should get Semin if they're serious about a top line wing and don't want to give up prospects.

— Matt (@zekebud) June 30, 2015

There was a case to be made for trading for Alex Semin. Now that he is a UFA there is really no excuse for the Penguins to not consider adding him. This helps in keeping both Olli Maatta and Derrick Pouliot on the roster with highly valuable ELC contracts.

Perron-Crosby-Hornqvist
????-Malkin-Semin

Those question marks at the present time could be filled with Pascal Dupuis, Chris Kunitz, or Beau Bennett. There is still the chance Pittsburgh could acquire yet another top six winger via trade or free agency.

Signing Alexander Semin gives Pittsburgh more options and more options is always better.

Thanks for reading!

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