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Bye week mailbag

January 11, 2018, 7:51 AM ET [108 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
No hockey this week for the Penguins. Here’s a mailbag.




The concept of most reasonable is going to be in the eye of the beholder. The most reasonable move might be a non-move and to let the season play out how it’s going to play out. Possession wise they are fine and even improving.




They need Matt Murray to get right and I would bet on the shooting percentage to go up. That strategy didn’t work for the Kings a few years ago, but Pittsburgh has better high end players than the Kings did. I think the cost of doing business at the deadline will be high and I’m not sure the cost will reap the rewards. Outside of moving Ian Cole there’s an argument for standing pat and taking a chance on regression. The caveat here is that Jim Rutherford isn’t known for standing pat.



This is like a George and Elaine situation from Seinfeld. If Elaine is up George is down. If George is up Elaine is down. The Bills broke their 17 year drought and are trending up. That means the Sabres need to struggle to keep that Buffalo balance. Although the rules of the Buffalo sports universe don’t quite work like the one in Seinfeld. There doesn’t always have to be an equal balance between the two teams. They can both be awful. They just can’t both be good. Sorry Sabres.




Morning skates certainly aren’t necessary. Their biggest contribution is for people like myself to get some line combinations and the starting goalie. During college we had optional morning skates at home and on the road. I chose to take part in most of them because it was good to get up and get moving earlier in the day. I felt like it was better than being lazy all day. That was a personal choice I made. Morning skates you only push yourself as hard as you want to go so if you are tiring yourself out that’s on you. Playing time isn’t on the line at a morning skate. I don’t think skipping them or having them has a huge impact on fatigue. At least in my experiences.




Stylistically Derek Brassard is a great fit for Pittsburgh. The issue here is his 5M cap hit and the cost to acquire. That is a little bit of a wild card because Ottawa is a budget team and might move salary for lower than market value. Ottawa is a tough team to predict so I don’t even know what a Brassard deal would look like. Most of Pittsburgh’s movable assets are pending UFA’s, Carl Hagelin and Daniel Sprong. I don’t think the Penguins would like to move on from Daniel Sprong for a pricey third line center and I don’t think Ottawa really wants the other stuff.

As for Jagr, he will get his own blog.




Ian Cole will be traded at some point. I don’t know if it will be this week though. I believe the delay in Daniel Sprong being called up is because the team is intending on keeping him up for good once the trigger was pulled on that roster move. Dominik Simon is a better option than Tom Kuhnhackl, but he will be the odd man out because the team doesn’t seem interested in shaking up the wingers on that fourth line.




I think you do. You are hoping Daniel Sprong is as good as Mike Hoffman. The 1st rounder is whatever when you are acquiring a player like Mike Hoffman who has some term and is on a good deal. Ian Cole is moving on anyways.

As for the second part of your question I don’t think Ottawa makes that deal. There will definitely be other teams interested and will have better futures packages to offer.



Not many. Jim Rutherford isn’t shy on making deals when he has a position of need. I think Vegas outperforming preseason predictions has thinned the market from what it could have been. The market is everchanging so perhaps a name pops up that isn’t available right now. I think we could be looking at Jake Guentzel third line center for the playoffs. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing if the team is able to find a skilled winger to fill Guentzel’s spot. It’s easier to find quality winger help than at center.



These guys are professionals and I don’t think they are lacking motivation. Outside of injury stuff this year’s team has had to deal with some unfortunate percentage related regression. If they weren’t motivated they wouldn’t be trending back towards one of the better possession teams in the league.




The Penguins should not be entertaining the idea of rentals unless they are getting tremendous value IE: Bill Guerin for a conditional 3rd or something like Evander Kane for Carl Hagelin, a 1st, and Jean Sebastian Dea (Hossa deal framework) which isn’t too realistic.




I hate the idea/concept of PK specialists. Players that can play at 5v5 can kill penalties. It isn’t complicated. Sorry, I don’t have much else to add. Chris Kunitz went a decade without killing penalties and last year was fine. In fact, he was better than fine he led the team in CA/60 by a significant margin on the penalty kill. Speed, not blocking shots, is the best asset for a penalty killer. It’s a good reason why Carl Hagelin is so good at it.




No idea. The draft isn’t my thing. I don’t have enough time to commit to it in order to be competent so I don’t. People like Todd Cordell, Corey Pronman, and Jesse Marshall are good and put in the time on that front. If you need to know where somebody played when they were eight years old you can hit up Regis.




Sheary definitely has some trade value, but I’m not keen on moving him. Other players with trade value: Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel, Kris Letang, Justin Schultz, Matt Murray, Patric Hornqvist, Daniel Sprong. Jake Guentzel, Olli Maatta, Brian Dumoulin, and even Bryan Rust.

You have to give to get and these are the players that other teams would want.




Rico Fata had a hand in Pittsburgh getting Sidney Crosby. Imagine the player they could get with 12 of him? He was also really fast so you were led to believe that eventually his World Junior Championship pedigree would show up. With Eric Tangradi you are only going to get a guy that will clog up online message boards about getting a chance with the top six. His nickname was big dog and ironically if you put 12 big dogs on a hockey team you’d get similar NHL results and probably be more entertained.

Thanks for reading!
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