yes if he was 25 yrs old not 34-35 who is a 3rd liner...
- nh4442

A 25 year old who can do that costs more. And to say he's a 3rd liner is wrong when he has put up top 6 numbers the past few years, even when Crosby was out.

Scuderi and Ference are not happening now. Both will be looking for in the mid 3.5-4M range.
- cap1681

I was always dubious on those reports. The young defensemen need to play...BOTH Despres and Bortuzzo, who I think is quite capable of playing in the bottom pair.

Are you his brother?
Because the guy is a pretty bad hockey player.
- nbartley9

Yeah, Niskanen is ok, but the Pens will get the same production out of a player making under a mil. In this tight cap, the difference of 1.4-1.7M is another bottom 6 player.

I was always dubious on those reports. The young defensemen need to play...BOTH Despres and Bortuzzo, who I think is quite capable of playing in the bottom pair.
- Emperor Filonius

Yeah, i just hope they let Despres play with Letang and get that experience. Letang looked his best when paired up with Horse last season, and they could be a dynamic pairing.

It doesn't bother me when people don't like Bylsma, but statements like this are just idiotic. The Penguins goals against average per game in the regular season was a very respectable 12th last year, better than teams with ballyhooed coaches with better "systems" and popularized defensive prowess like Montreal (Therrien) and Phoenix (Tippet). Their 5 on 5 play in terms of goal differential was second only to Chicago.

Bylsma is certainly far from beyond reproach, but if you are going to say he's a joke because they don't play defense in the regular season, that's simply not true.
- Emperor Filonius

OK your right playing D the last 20 games of the season because Sid wasn't there during a shortened season proves to me that Bylsma is a great defensive mind. "we lost 50% of our offence so lets play a little D now AA-HUCK". That sure got us ready to get routed in the playoffs again, because the second Sid came back we turned into the no defense "let Sid do it we don't have too" type of crap team that is an all-star laughing stock of the NHL.

Yeah, i just hope they let Despres play with Letang and get that experience. Letang looked his best when paired up with Horse last season, and they could be a dynamic pairing.
- cap1681

Agreed. I think Despres has the tools to be a Letang/Martin hybrid, but more physical.

yes if he was 25 yrs old not 34-35 who is a 3rd liner...
- nh4442

Stop with the 3rd liner bit, it makes you sound delusional. He's a top 6 winger for at least the next couple of seasons.

Good signings by Shero/Botterill. Both Letang and Dupuis came in a little higher than I thought/wanted, but after seeing what numbers other teams are tossing around, I feel better about them.

Teams must really be confident that the cap is going to rise pretty quickly.

OK your right playing D the last 20 games of the season because Sid wasn't there during a shortened season proves to me that Bylsma is a great defensive mind. "we lost 50% of our offence so lets play a little D now AA-HUCK". That sure got us ready to get routed in the playoffs again, because the second Sid came back we turned into the no defense "let Sid do it we don't have too" type of crap team that is an all-star laughing stock of the NHL.
- nbartley9

Take game 2 of the Boston series out, and the Pens played pretty solid defense over their last two rounds.

Wow, this board is in mid-season form. NH bashing anything dealing with Dupuis being a top 6 forward, and Bartley bashing Blysma.

OK your right playing D the last 20 games of the season because Sid wasn't there during a shortened season proves to me that Bylsma is a great defensive mind. "we lost 50% of our offence so lets play a little D now AA-HUCK". That sure got us ready to get routed in the playoffs again, because the second Sid came back we turned into the no defense "let Sid do it we don't have too" type of crap team that is an all-star laughing stock of the NHL.
- nbartley9

Don't try to dismiss the statistics because they don't support your argument and then change the subject. They are what they are. The Penguins were fine defensively this year in the playoffs. It doesn't matter how much defense you play when you score 2 goals in 4 games in the conference finals. What I'm hearing is that you want the Penguins to play a strict defensive system/trap...sorry but that doesn't work with the stable of players they have. Were you around for the Constantine era? If you want the Penguins to play a defensively oriented trap, then you should be calling for Shero to trade Malkin, Neal, and Letang and build a defensively oriented team that does nothing but trap. That's not what this team is, for better or worse.

Like I said, Bylsma has faults. He needs to be better, but the failure of this team last year is MOSTLY on the heads of the star players and their failure to produce against Boston.

Sid, Geno, Letang ZERO POINTS. MAF on the Bench. How are their failures to score and MAF's failure to stop pucks Bylsma's fault?

Wow, this board is in mid-season form. NH bashing anything dealing with Dupuis being a top 6 forward, and Bartley bashing Blysma.
- cap1681

Some things never change.

To think, we still have 2-3 months of this before meaningful hockey starts again. I predict we will talk about trading everyone on the team at least a few time this summer.

Stop with the 3rd liner bit, it makes you sound delusional. He's a top 6 winger for at least the next couple of seasons.

Good signings by Shero/Botterill. Both Letang and Dupuis came in a little higher than I thought/wanted, but after seeing what numbers other teams are tossing around, I feel better about them.

Teams must really be confident that the cap is going to rise pretty quickly.
- rival22

Considering most people thought Duper would go somewhere else for $4.5-$5 million, its a great signing. Its nice to see a really likeable guy improve himself and be succesful, but realize that this is the place where he can continue that success.

Take game 2 of the Boston series out, and the Pens played pretty solid defense over their last two rounds.
- rival22

The Sens were like playing a high school team, we were a sad display of hockey against the Isles if it wasn't for Vokoun; Bylsma would have been fired after round one, and by the time we decided that Boston was a class better than those 2 teams we were already morally destroyed and down 2-0.

Don't try to dismiss the statistics because they don't support your argument and then change the subject. They are what they are. The Penguins were fine defensively this year in the playoffs. It doesn't matter how much defense you play when you score 2 goals in 4 games in the conference finals. What I'm hearing is that you want the Penguins to play a strict defensive system/trap...sorry but that doesn't work with the stable of players they have. Were you around for the Constantine era? If you want the Penguins to play a defensively oriented trap, then you should be calling for Shero to trade Malkin, Neal, and Letang and build a defensively oriented team that does nothing but trap. That's not what this team is, for better or worse.

Like I said, Bylsma has faults. He needs to be better, but the failure of this team last year is MOSTLY on the heads of the star players and their failure to produce against Boston.

Sid, Geno, Letang ZERO POINTS. MAF on the Bench. How are their failures to score and MAF's failure to stop pucks Bylsma's fault?
- Emperor Filonius

WOW if it wasn't for Vokoun we lose in 6 to the Isles, but ok.

If setting up a trap is the way to shut down another teams blinding neutral zone speed that's what you do, I don't care if you have Sid and Geno on your team or if you have Mario and Jags on your team.

Agreed. I think Despres has the tools to be a Letang/Martin hybrid, but more physical.
- Emperor Filonius

Despres is going to be a very, very good defenseman. His body positioning along the boards is unbelievably good for how young he is. Every other part of his game is already good. Just needs some more experience.

Wow, this board is in mid-season form. NH bashing anything dealing with Dupuis being a top 6 forward, and Bartley bashing Blysma.
- cap1681

I said I wanted to keeping him and let him play 3rd line and pk but that deal was way too much, and it was a bad decision.. if he doesn't put up those numbers for the next 4 yrs everyone is going to be calling for his head... now for 4 yrs they have no option of bringing in a true top 6 winger....

3.75/4yrs was way too much.. he is a 2.5-3mil price range player and anywhere else he would not put up those numbers...

I said I wanted to keeping him and let him play 3rd line and pk but that deal was way too much, and it was a bad decision.. if he doesn't put up those numbers for the next 4 yrs everyone is going to be calling for his head... now for 4 yrs they have no option of bringing in a true top 6 winger....

3.75/4yrs was way too much.. he is a 2.5-3mil price range player and anywhere else he would not put up those numbers...
- nh4442

I gotta chart that will be up in a little bit that says otherwise.

Despres is going to be a very, very good defenseman. His body positioning along the boards is unbelievably good for how young he is. Every other part of his game is already good. Just needs some more experience.
- Deadstar

if DB plays him in top 4! just like Bennett will be a great top 6 winger if he plays next to Sid, but DB wont do that he will put him with Geno instead... bc they cant break up that line...

WOW if it wasn't for Vokoun we lose in 6 to the Isles, but ok.

If setting up a trap is the way to shut down another teams blinding neutral zone speed that's what you do, I don't care if you have Sid and Geno on your team or if you have Mario and Jags on your team.
- nbartley9

Ifs and buts....

IF MAF doesn't sh*t the bed against the Flyers last year they win that series in 6. We can does this all day. The reason Vokoun was playing was because MAF wasn't getting it done, AGAIN. All I'm saying is you are going to rip Bylsma, you need to rip the players even more. Bylsma would have been hired in about 5 minutes if the Pens had fired him. I don't think he's the second coming of Scotty Bowman, but he's not the reason this team got bounced either.

Glad to see you have hit the step of acceptance with this. haha

Few items that comes to mind when reading through all of these bi-polar comments. Everyone always seem to focus on a individual that needs traded. First was staal, then martin, tang, geno for little while and now its Nisk. Beginning of last year Crosby said that he thought Nisk would be the surprise of the year. Grant it, he had a horrible playoff but his regular season wasn't bad. Someone mentioned trading him and now everyone jumped on that train just for the sake of complaining when it doesn't happen.
- kgrpitt

Nisk was awesome the first 25 games of the year, then he got hurt and was never the same after that, so I am not sure what Nisk we will get next season. Pre injury or post injury, I dont think it will take Shero long to make up his mind.

I gotta chart that will be up in a little bit that says otherwise.
- Ryan_Wilson

its not always about numbers and comparing them to other players....

Ifs and buts....

IF MAF doesn't sh*t the bed against the Flyers last year they win that series in 6. We can does this all day. The reason Vokoun was playing was because MAF wasn't getting it done, AGAIN. All I'm saying is you are going to rip Bylsma, you need to rip the players even more. Bylsma would have been hired in about 5 minutes if the Pens had fired him. I don't think he's the second coming of Scotty Bowman, but he's not the reason this team got bounced either.
- Emperor Filonius

I disagree with that. MAF was bad, the 5 players in front of him were worse...

I said I wanted to keeping him and let him play 3rd line and pk but that deal was way too much, and it was a bad decision.. if he doesn't put up those numbers for the next 4 yrs everyone is going to be calling for his head... now for 4 yrs they have no option of bringing in a true top 6 winger....

3.75/4yrs was way too much.. he is a 2.5-3mil price range player and anywhere else he would not put up those numbers...
- nh4442

Do you believe Kunitz is worth that money??

if DB plays him in top 4! just like Bennett will be a great top 6 winger if he plays next to Sid, but DB wont do that he will put him with Geno instead... bc they cant break up that line...
- nh4442

Despres will play more minutes this year. Bennett should probably play with Malkin and Neal. He's a passer, not a finisher. Honestly it really shouldnt matter. Bennett has such a high hockey IQ for his age he could play with either and I wont complain.

its not always about numbers and comparing them to other players....
- nh4442

It absolutely is when talking about value.