DK filling in for Mark Madden just said the Pens can still buyout Scuderi...I thought it was too late for that? Also said that they are likely waiting for another team to have an injury on D and get desperate....
- YouMeAndDupuis9

I think it has something to do with arbitration ending early so there is an 48 hours to buy-out players left. I saw that somewhere yesterday, doubt I can find it again.

DK filling in for Mark Madden just said the Pens can still buyout Scuderi...I thought it was too late for that? Also said that they are likely waiting for another team to have an injury on D and get desperate....
- YouMeAndDupuis9

There is a second buy out window in early August.

DK filling in for Mark Madden just said the Pens can still buyout Scuderi...I thought it was too late for that? Also said that they are likely waiting for another team to have an injury on D and get desperate....
- YouMeAndDupuis9

There might be hope of a buyout if ML and RB sell the majority of the team. maybe. I truly several reasons he is here.
concerns over young d- the need experiance crowd
not wanting to throw away money
hope he can be moved at some point
hope he retires- gets injured
hope his "trend" continues martin style and he gets slightly better this year like he did from 2 years ago to last year

duper croz kessel
kuni malk horny

or swap kessel

perron might be better off being the "main" talent on the third.
- ChrisMS

Dupuis-Crosby-Kessel would be a ridiculously fast line. I love Duper so much I want to see him return to his top line form.

Kunitz-Malkin-Hornqvist would be some hard minutes to play against. Really physical and hard on the puck.

There is a second buy out window in early August.
- Willaged

I thought that was only if you had a player in arbitration that might push your cap over the top.

Nashville needs centers very, very badly. Ribeiro and Gaustad are in the top three along with... Mike Fisher. They need help at C.

Kunitz may be a top six on a team with no other top six wingers, such as Winnipeg. It's Ladd at LW and then... Chris Thorburn? Drew Stafford?

Keep in mind that as long, long ago as Chris Thorburn seems I hold him in the same "way too old" mental space as Tlusty and Drew Miller.
- Johnny Wrath

I thought Nashville was our best bet for a Sutter trade. Doesnt Wilson play C occassionally? I dont watch the Preds that often. If so, they could use Kunitz and let Wilson stay at C.

WPG can have Kunitz and we will take Lowry.

Probably is that Kunitz doesnt set up well for a trade. If some team has an older defenseman at $3-4M, who is expendable, and has a need for a top 9 LW, then maybe we see a basic offense for defense hockey trade. Otherwise, we're adding assets in order to return a young asset.

There is a second buy out window in early August.
- Willaged

But I thought that was only for teams that had potential arbitration cases prematurely resolved.

duper croz kessel
kuni malk horny

or swap kessel

perron might be better off being the "main" talent on the third.
- ChrisMS

Isn't the point of obtaining forwards like Plotnikov, Bonino, and Kessel to get better and younger at wing simultaneously?

Saying that Kunitz is going to have a 'bounce back' season is to say that you're expecting him to play at his current underperforming level and presumes that he would accumulate his points by forcing 87 or 71 to play with him for a full season.

Sid and Geno 'liking Kuni and Duper' is part of what lead to half a decade of failure and underachievement. I would rather see if a player like Perron can fulfil his potential than waste any time on extending the careers of players who are 35 and 36 years old.

Dupuis-Crosby-Kessel would be a ridiculously fast line. I love Duper so much I want to see him return to his top line form.

Kunitz-Malkin-Hornqvist would be some hard minutes to play against. Really physical and hard on the puck.
- jfkst1

There is a second buy out window in early August.
- Willaged

In that case, lets say we buy him out and his cap hit counts at $1.3M. So we have about $2M to work with...and if we want to save any money his replacement needs to make $1.5M or les. Can we sign another defenseman that fills a need for $1.5M or less?

Not someone better than Scuds (obvious) someone that acutally fills a need for that price?

Isn't the point of obtaining forwards like Plotnikov, Bonino, and Kessel to get better and younger at wing simultaneously?

Saying that Kunitz is going to have a 'bounce back' season is to say that you're expecting him to play at his current underperforming level and presumes that he would accumulate his points by forcing 87 or 71 to play with him for a full season.

Sid and Geno 'liking Kuni and Duper' is part of what lead to half a decade of failure and underachievement. I would rather see if a player like Perron can fulfil his potential than waste any time on extending the careers of players who are 35 and 36 years old.
- Johnny Wrath

In that case, lets say we buy him out and his cap hit counts at $1.3M. So we have about $2M to work with...and if we want to save any money his replacement needs to make $1.5M or les. Can we sign another defenseman that fills a need for $1.5M or less?

Not someone better than Scuds (obvious) someone that acutally fills a need for that price?
- YouMeAndDupuis9

No, but it gives the Penguins some flexibility either to:

a) Dress 6 defenders for all 82 games of the regular season, or

b) Make a trade without any hangups over salary retention

No, but it gives the Penguins some flexibility either to:

a) Dress 6 defenders for all 82 games of the regular season, or

b) Make a trade without any hangups over salary retention
- Johnny Wrath

Oh for sure. I'm on board. Just thinking out loud if there is any FA guy that would make sense.

Oh for sure. I'm on board. Just thinking out loud if there is any FA guy that would make sense.
- YouMeAndDupuis9

Zubrus? 6' 5, 230 pound screen?

I've talked to plenty of Nucks fans who think they got the deal of a lifetime. Bonino at absolute worst is Sutter 2.0, but makes half the money which is fine by me. He also has another year and won't need a big deal like Sutter, which he shouldn't even get a raise but will based on the goals.

Clendening is a puck moving D moving to a system that PMD's can thrive in. I don't expect him to be in the NHL next year, but maybe eventually he'll pan out. No worries if he doesn't, but I think he will.

The pick swap was just even more icing on the cake.

Jagr is on his 100th team so that really doesn't hold much weight to me. Bonino has put up some solid numbers over his career, but Sutter can't produce anything anywhere he slots in the lineup.

Most Pens fans would have been thrilled if we got Sutter for Bonino straight up. Not only do we (and most NHL fans) think Bonino is better, we also got the other 2 pieces and that move allowed us to grab Fehr.
- Pens_Burgh

You didn't see the discussion on him earlier in the week?

He has to pass through waivers, so unless he sits in the press box until someone gets injured it's unlikely he plays for the Pens. I believe he was acquired as a replacement or a piece for a trade. As it stands we have 9D + Anderson (he's on a 2 way contract though).

You didn't see the discussion on him earlier in the week?

He has to pass through waivers, so unless he sits in the press box until someone gets injured it's unlikely he plays for the Pens. I believe he was acquired as a replacement or a piece for a trade. As it stands we have 9D + Anderson (he's on a 2 way contract though).
- Aussiepenguin

Clendening is on a two way deal.

Isn't the point of obtaining forwards like Plotnikov, Bonino, and Kessel to get better and younger at wing simultaneously?

Saying that Kunitz is going to have a 'bounce back' season is to say that you're expecting him to play at his current underperforming level and presumes that he would accumulate his points by forcing 87 or 71 to play with him for a full season.

Sid and Geno 'liking Kuni and Duper' is part of what lead to half a decade of failure and underachievement. I would rather see if a player like Perron can fulfil his potential than waste any time on extending the careers of players who are 35 and 36 years old.
- Johnny Wrath

the point was to get deeper. i count on training camp to decide... why role out two lines of sprinters and one of hoverrounds? role 3 to 4 lines..

Zubrus? 6' 5, 230 pound screen?
- Johnny Wrath

Not a big fan of the fit with our current set of forwards and hes pretty close to done. 4th liner on a PTO minimum contract maybe.

- nh4442

the second those lines start to score you will be

did duper spit on your dog?

- nh4442

thumbs up for trying a unproven russian who if we are lucky is a third liner
thumbs up for trying to play bennett who has been an abysmal failure
thumbs up for bonino who could barely hold down third line duty on a poor team
thumbs up for fehr... actually... not sure
thumnbs up for hot hands perron who failed as a top six.

Zubrus? 6' 5, 230 pound screen?
- Johnny Wrath

statue? what happened to getting young?

In that case, lets say we buy him out and his cap hit counts at $1.3M. So we have about $2M to work with...and if we want to save any money his replacement needs to make $1.5M or les. Can we sign another defenseman that fills a need for $1.5M or less?

Not someone better than Scuds (obvious) someone that acutally fills a need for that price?
- YouMeAndDupuis9

If our roster is set now, we have cap flexibility due to Fehr's trip to the LTIR. If can't improve our team by signing Franson, I'm not looking to buy out Scuderi this year because then there's a Scuderi-related cap hit until 2019-2020. I'd wait to buy him out next season when we NEED the cap space and the Scuderi-related cap hit would only last until 2018-2019. Same goes for moving Kunitz. We'll have to do it eventually if we want to retain Maatta and any number of Perron, Bennett, and Plotnikov, but right now his cap hit isn't (frank)ing with us, so unless we're planning on moving him to make space for Franson, then I don't do it now and wait until next offseason. He's more valuable to us paying on the team than anything he'll net back in a trade.

thumbs up for trying a unproven russian who if we are lucky is a third liner
thumbs up for trying to play bennett who has been an abysmal failure
thumbs up for bonino who could barely hold down third line duty on a poor team
thumbs up for fehr... actually... not sure
thumnbs up for hot hands perron who failed as a top six.
- ChrisMS

I love Dupuis and Kunitz. They've been great Penguins and I think they'll be key contributors, but not trying out the new blood in Plotnikov, a younger winger who showed flashes in Perron, or a healthy (hopefully) Bennett in the top six because you want to go back to the tried and true of yester year is as big as a mistake as completely counting out Kunitz and Dupuis as top 6 forwards. We need to go with what works, regardless of what that is. If that's a Dupuis-Crosby-Fehr first line then I'll be just as happy as if it were a Hornqvist-Crosby-Kessel line like I want. It's just flat out stupid not try absolutely everything with the insane amount of options that we all of a sudden have.

Clendening is on a two way deal.
- usethe1-2-2

Well (frank) me - rambling on with HB 'facts' again. That makes a lot more sense, no one made that point the other day! Well now he can be seen as Harro's replacement - my apologies Gunner.

- nh4442

You might not like it, but one of Dupuis or Kunitz will likely be in the top 6 until one of the other options prove they can be capable in that role.