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#BrassardWatch

February 23, 2018, 10:54 AM ET [306 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Penguins are not done with their third line center search. They are still aggressively pursuing Derick Brassard of the Ottawa Senators







The issue here remains the cap space problem. I don’t think Brasard’s contract is unreasonable, but the odds of getting salary cap help from Ottawa is as close to zero percent as it gets in the NHL. Eugene Melnyk is willing to sell low on Erik Karlsson as long as somebody takes the Bobby Ryan contract. Every single decision in Ottawa right now if financially based. If they are trading Brassard they are not doing it to take back any significant money.

The only way this trade is going to work is if the Penguins can agree to a deal along the lines of Daniel Sprong and a first rounder with Ottawa and then also find separate deal for Matt Hunwick. That wouldn’t be enough so they would also need to move somebody in that 3.0-4M range. You are talking about Conor Sheary, Carl Hagelin, and Patric Hornqvist. I ranked those in order of likeliness. There is no deal that is going to be made for Brassard without moving out some of the current roster that has contributed in a positive way for the Penguins the last few years.

As for Michael Grabner the Penguins should not be in the rental business anyways. The only attractive thing about that situation was the low cap hit. He is the opposite of Carl Hagelin. While Hagelin has had his goal scoring issues the past two years he can still help drive possession and contribute elsewhere when the goals dry up. It doesn’t always justify it’s 4M price tag when you have to ride out an elongated cold stretch, but he’s not technically hurting the team. If Grabner’s shooting percentage dries up he doesn’t do anything else even though he has great speed like Hagelin. He just isn’t as good.






Told you they were opposites.

Sometimes the raw percentages can be misleading because of team effects, but in this case Grabner has been negative relative to his teammates in recent years while Hagelin, even while playing on a championship club, has a positive xGF% relative to his high caliber teammates.

Grabner is consistently a negative relative possession player the last few years and he isn’t facilitating the puck through assists.

I never saw this idea as reasonable for the Penguins. High risk rentals with that are limited in their contributions. Yes, goals are important, but I’m not gambling on a rental with a suspiciously high shooting percentage. That isn’t a good bet. It was a good move to step away and let the Devils take that chance.

No Grabner means we can fire up #BrassardWatch in the meantime.

Thanks for reading!
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