Brace yourselves, trades are coming. The elephant in the room is that the Penguins are not a championship caliber team as constructed right now. None of the underlying numbers are encouraging when your only acceptable goal is winning it all. Possession isn't bad, but middle of the pack isn't good enough when you are the worst team in the league in both shooting and save percentage. Sure, those will rebound on basic regression trends alone, but if you are a mediocre possession team not known for defending well your PDO better look like it did last spring. It doesn't.
Can anybody confidently say looking at that roster that the Penguins are still a favorite (even if Schultz were healthy)? Jim Rutherford has taken notice
A passage of interest:
“We’re coming in to a critical period where we’ll make a decision whether we need to shake things up or not,” Rutherford told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Asked whether he would do something big to create a ripple effect to get his team’s attention, Rutherford simply replied, “Yes.”
Rutherford has been quite open with the media since being hired and has hardly ever been misleading with his intentions. I fully expect him be active in the trade market. This is the time of year when he's been known to be active. Mike Johnston was fired on December 12th and Rob Scuderi was traded on December 14th. Carl Hagelin was a mid-January trade. Rutherford will make his major moves sooner than later. Waiting until the deadline is a risky proposition.
If he is going for a major shakeup who is off limits? Crosby, Malkin, Kessel, Letang, Murray, Guentzel, and ...?
Any major shakeup is going to include somebody of stature from the Penguins. They don't have the prospect pool that other teams do. I think Carl Hagelin is the most ideal player to move, but he has struggled so much that any value he had from his HBK run has completely evaporated.
Patric Hornqvist is a pending UFA with a 4M cap hit. He's a guy that will have definitely have a high perceived value with a good number of general managers.
Olli Maatta is similar to Hornqvist in that their salaries are the same and that other general managers would probably find value in him. He's having a really nice offensive season with a 5v5 per 60 of 1.22 (which is solid for a defenseman). Possession wise he's above 50% It has been a good year for Maatta.
It's no secret that Ian Cole is on the market. What could Jim Rutherford add to an Ian Cole trade to legitimately add value? Daniel Sprong? Conor Sheary?
There are quite a number of paths Rutherford could take. Those paths are more than likely leading to a third line center that can produce offense.
That sounds like a guy who wants to recreate the scoring impact HBK had as a third line two years ago. I think this is the most prudent strategy in trying to make the team better. No amount of trades are going to turn this into a defensively responsible team. You might as well embrace what you are and go for it.
It will be really fun speculating who that third line center could be. Tyler Bozak? Derek Brassard? Jordan Staal? Ryan Nugent-Hopkins? Sam Reinhart? Eric Staal? Jonathan Marchessault? Alex Galchenyuk? Mark Letestu? Matt Cullen? Ryan Strome? Valtteri Filppula? William Karlsson? Who knows with Rutherford. He could swing for the fences or he could go the other way for a single. Your guess is as good as mine.
Should make for a fun couple of weeks.
Thanks for reading!
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