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How Long Is The Penguins Window To Win And How To Sustain It |
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Here is the topic du jour:
For me you need to define who the core members of this team are and for me that is Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang. Those are the irreplaceable parts. You cannot go out and find other players like them. While you may experience setbacks losing player(s) like Olli Maatta, Brian Dumoulin, Phil Kessel, Patric Hornqvist, Nick Bonino, and Matt Murray it is possible to recover in ways that just aren't true with the three previous mentioned players.
All three superstars are still in their twenties, albeit closer to 30, but they still have plenty of highly productive years left. Look no further than the San Jose Sharks as an example of how elite players can play well into their thirties and still find quality production.
The trick for Pittsburgh moving forward is to save money when they have the opportunity to do so. This will free up cap space to keep some of those mid-tier players you need in order to win a championship. How do you save money?
One example is not paying a lot for goaltending when you don't have to. Right now the Penguins don't have to. Eventually the day will come when Marc-Andre Fleury will be playing on a different NHL roster. That cap space can and will be used to bolster the roster. Continually seek out cheap goaltending because eventually the cheap guy will not want to be the cheap guy anymore. Stay ahead of the game and always be on the lookout for average goaltenders who don't cost anything. You can win championships with a great roster and average goaltending.
Another example is having usable players who are still on their ELC's. Pittsburgh went away from this for a while but it certainly paid off last year. Players like Brian Dumoulin, Olli Maatta, Conor Sheary, Bryan Rust, Tom Kuhnhackl, and Matt Murray all contributed in some form while costing a combined 4.12M. Eventually these players will want more money. You need to keep developing players so that you aren't forced to give in to all the raises. Obviously guys like Maatta and Dumoulin need to get paid (Maatta did), but you need to draw the line somewhere. Having players that could potentially make the NHL like Daniel Sprong, Jake Guentzel, and Teddy Bluegger helps keep that cheap pipeline going.
Do not give term and no trade clauses to depth players like the Detroit Red Wings. This handcuffs the GM's ability to be flexibile with the roster. Hockey analytics is at a point where you can easily find value players for the fourth line/bottom pairing without needing to give out term. There will always be roster turnover in a salary cap league. Have it be the fourth line and bottom pairing players that are the ones changing and on the cheap.
Do not pay a premium for past performance. Giving out decent sized cap hits to players past 30 years old is a risky proposition especially for players who play a more physical brand of hockey. The most popular way teams pay for past performance is when they reach during unrestricted free agency. Last year's Stanley Cup winning roster for Pittsburgh only included two players that were acquired in free agency. They were Eric Fehr and Matt Cullen and both were low on the cap hit scale. Pittsburgh was built through drafting (at times incredible luck) and trades.
Don't trade away significant futures for rental players. Very rarely does this kind of trade work out for the team giving away those assets. This is how you run out of those competent ELC players I spoke about above. You need those players to win championships.
Injuries can derail the best laid plans as Pittsburgh knows all too well, but if you can stick to some of these basic rules of thumb I see no reason the Penguins can't continue to be in the Stanley Cup converstaion for the next 5-7 years. Pittsburgh has all the hard to acquire pieces where most general managers are in a constant search to acquire those players (which leads to bad trades/signings). Pittsburgh is very lucky and if they are able to properly manage the middle and lower tier players they will be a tough out for years to come.
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Thanks for reading!
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
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