It is trade deadline month and with it brings all the fun speculation of potential roster moves from around the league. Every healthy scratch is scrutinized and every game’s list of NHL scouts is scoured over.
As we get closer to the final deadline there is a very important factor when talking about any potential moves involving the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Every deal has to be dollar for dollar. They have no room to add on money unless it is a veteran’s bonus money which can be pushed onto next year’s cap IE: Jagr.
Given this predicament there are only a few legitimate options for the Penguins to trade to save some money. Some make more sense than others.
The top three candidates in order
1. Brandon Sutter
2. Nick Spaling
3. Chris Kunitz
*Special mention for Rob Scuderi but we all know this isn’t realistic*
Brandon Sutter is the same player he has been his whole career, overrated and put in roles that are above his abilities. The Penguins only hope if they move forward with Sutter is that he hits another run of high PDO like he did last year in the playoffs that can hide his consistent deficiencies. His PDO was 1030 during the playoff run.
In fairness he is suffering from a little bit of bad luck this year as his PDO so far in 2014-15 is only 977. It is amazing what the PDO stat can do to people’s perceptions. A lot more people are down on him lately because the offense dried up, but he’s the same player in both sample sizes, he just isn’t getting the bounces he got last postseason.
I would be willing to trade Sutter away for a pending UFA that is competent. Addition by subtraction. He isn’t going to magically change. This is his seventh year in the league.
The likelihood of a Sutter trade is minimal. The organization clearly likes him as a player.
Nick Spaling is a vanilla player with a cap hit of 2.2M. If the Penguins needed to ship dollars out to complete a trade or to create room for a trade he would be a candidate to move. His possession has improved from Nashville to Pittsburgh, playing with ‘Geno the possession Machino’ will have that effect. Spaling unlike Sutter doesn’t seem to drag his linemates down as much. Much like Sutter though, I think the likelihood of him being moved is minimal.
Chris Kunitz has a 3.75M cap hit which would free up some space for the Penguins but contrary to the belief of some, he has played fine this season and is still a productive player worthy of his spot in the top six. He has a goals per game average of 0.36 and a points per game average of 0.77 this year. Based on an 82 game season that comes out to 30 goals and 63 points. In his seven years with the Penguins his 82 game average is 30 goals and 65 points. His possession is amongst the team leaders once again (FF% 54.2%). Trading Kunitz is a bad idea.
If the eye test is telling you otherwise, your eye test needs Lasik surgery.
The only change that needs to be made is putting Kunitz on Malkin’s left wing for the rest of the year so Perron can play left wing with Sid.
Perhaps my assessments are off on their willingness to move a guy like Sutter or Spaling but without moving salary out the Penguins will not be able to make another impact trade.
I think Pittsburgh desperately needs more competent bottom six help IE: Sean Bergenheim/Daniel Winnik and to a lesser extent Erik Condra.
So where does this leave the Penguins?
If everybody is healthy this is about the best they can do (this is ignoring their insistence on grit and veteran presence)
This doesn’t have Sill or Adams in the lineup, assumes Sutter will improve somehow, and has every healthy.
Who knows what will happen in the next month, some very wacky stuff can happen around the trade deadline.
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David Perron makes his return to Edmonton tonight.
Funny stat. Even since coming over from the Oilers and playing well with Crosby Perron still only has a PDO this year of 963, yikes. Edmonton killed this guy.
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ESPN, yes that ESPN has won the television rights in the United States for The World Cup of Hockey. I think this is a good thing. ESPN has treated hockey like a second rate sport, but buying up the rights to this event forces them into covering it. ESPN is the biggest cable network and has drawing power. More casual fans equals more money which potentially leads to a higher cap. For Penguins fans this should be an appealing concept.
Personally if this opens the door for play by play legend Gary Thorne to call some games with NHL players in it I am game.
I mean c’mon, remember the pipes this guy had?
(32 second mark)
@GunnerStaal he did the MN State High school tournament last year. Great stuff.
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