Many of us here said a while back that 2016-2017 was our best chance to win to a cup...before JR went into beast mode and expedited things. Next offseason could be interesting...but so many things happen during the course of a season. Any of our UFAs could be signed mid season....players could be traded that open up cap space (cough Fleury)...I wouldn't worry too much about it.
- YouMeAndDupuis9

Hopefully Pens learned from their mistakes and don't resign any of those guys to big or long term deals. 87/71/58/81 then fill in

Crazy question for you guys:

Would you trade Pouliot to the Flyers for Laughton? Both were taken in the first round of the same draft class, both had great junior careers, and both have had trouble staking down full-time jobs at the NHL level.

With Cullen/Fehr going, Laughton could fill the 3C/4C spot, has the wheels to keep up, and is still on his ELC. Pouliot would probably be given top-6 minutes no questions asked on the Flyers this upcoming year.

Will never happen, but just wanted to know what you think of it.
- jmatchett383

No, because defensemen, on average, take longer to develop than forwards. Also, defensemen with Pouliot's skill set don't grow on trees (I admittedly don't know much about Laughton's skill set, but I would take a mid-pairing PMD over a 2C every day of the week, just to throw out a hypothetical ceiling for both players). And I could be wrong about this, but isn't the bust rate among highly touted forwards a lot higher than it is for highly touted defensemen? I know there are twice as many forwards as defensemen on a roster which might skew the perception, but overall it seems that the risk would be much more on the Pens side in this trade, so I would want something added (maybe a 2nd and/or a B level defensive prospect). Which brings up another point - Pens are set at center for a while but thin on defense, both on the roster and in the minors.

Yohe reporting Rutherford has told him he thinks he can fit both Cullen and Schultz "at their number" Other than Minnesota and Cullen, they don't know who else is interested in them, and their situations do not impact each other.

Yohe reporting Rutherford has told him he thinks he can fit both Cullen and Schultz "at their number" Other than Minnesota and Cullen, they don't know who else is interested in them, and their situations do not impact each other.
- Tojo.

Love hearing this...hopefully its true.

Yohe reporting Rutherford has told him he thinks he can fit both Cullen and Schultz "at their number" Other than Minnesota and Cullen, they don't know who else is interested in them, and their situations do not impact each other.
- Tojo.

Let Cullen walk, Sunds is ready as 4C and should be in. I like Cullen but not when it is blocking a younger player

Would you rather have:

Fleury
Kunitz
Cullen

or

Enroth
Hudler
Schultz
Cullen
+ ~$2M

Would you rather have:

Fleury
Kunitz
Cullen

or

Enroth
Hudler
Schultz
Cullen
+ ~$2M
- T-Train

I'm not interested in moving Kunitz

you WON'T be able to move him without taking some sort of salary back, so it's not like you can dump him for nothing and just sign Hudler

He's a positive possession player, a "+" player, decent speed. Even if he doesn't score 25-30 anymore, 15-18 goals, with good underlying stats, ability to move up/down the lineup and retain the chemistry he has with players already on the team is ok, even if its not great value

Beyond this year I'd be happy to keep him on a year to year basis around the 1.5 million mark

Would you rather have:

Fleury
Kunitz
Cullen

or

Enroth
Hudler
Schultz
Cullen
+ ~$2M
- T-Train

Kunitz and Fleury take up 9.5 million in capspace, so if its gonna take 7.5 million to sign Enroth/Hudler and Schultz, then no thanks

I'm not interested in moving Kunitz

you WON'T be able to move him without taking some sort of salary back, so it's not like you can dump him for nothing and just sign Hudler

He's a positive possession player, a "+" player, decent speed. Even if he doesn't score 25-30 anymore, 15-18 goals, with good underlying stats, ability to move up/down the lineup and retain the chemistry he has with players already on the team is ok, even if its not great value

Beyond this year I'd be happy to keep him on a year to year basis around the 1.5 million mark
- TheGame316

I would agree with all of that except for not being able to move him with no salary coming back. There are plenty of teams with more than $3.85M under the cap to accommodate Kunitz with only a draft pick and/or prospect coming back.

Yohe reporting Rutherford has told him he thinks he can fit both Cullen and Schultz "at their number" Other than Minnesota and Cullen, they don't know who else is interested in them, and their situations do not impact each other.
- Tojo.

I saw that an found it very interesting considering that just about a week ago Rutherford told Yohe that they only had around 1M in space to work with. Wonder what changed that all the sudden he's backtracking from his original statement and now has more room to work with?

Would you rather have:

Fleury
Kunitz
Cullen

or

Enroth
Hudler
Schultz
Cullen
+ ~$2M
- T-Train

Fleury/Kunitz/Cullen and it's not even close. I'll always take the know over the unknown and Kunitz & Fleury are known assets to the team whereas Enroth & Hudler are unknown assets and could easily be a net downgrade from Fleury/Kunitz. I like Shultz(more than Pouliot actually) but I'm not risking potential downgrades at 2 different positions just to retain him.

Kunitz and Fleury take up 9.5 million in capspace, so if its gonna take 7.5 million to sign Enroth/Hudler and Schultz, then no thanks
- TheGame316

Fleury/Kunitz/Cullen and it's not even close. I'll always take the know over the unknown and Kunitz & Fleury are known assets to the team whereas Enroth & Hudler are unknown assets and could easily be a net downgrade from Fleury/Kunitz. I like Shultz(more than Pouliot actually) but I'm not risking potential downgrades at 2 different positions just to retain him.
- jaydogg1974

Here's the argument against:

Something NEEDS to be done with Fleury prior to the expansion draft. Enroth is more than capable (numbers similar to Fleury without the concussion issues or the notorious playoff meltdowns) and could be exposed to protect Murray.

Hudler is a younger, faster, and higher scoring player than Kunitz. Remember, the Pens have ONE legit scoring winger. We have an entire lineup of Kunitz type role players. Yes, we just won the Cup with that model, but there was a lot of luck involved (puck luck, caught lightning in a bottle with some WBS players who might not be able to repeat those performances, relatively injury-free, etc.). Think of how vastly we outplayed teams and how many of those ended up being one goal games because we couldn't put the puck in the net.

Having Schultz vs. not having Schultz is pretty huge in terms of depth and potential. Relying on Pouliot to perform as a starter with almost no depth behind him is a very tenuous situation, especially given the injury histories of Letang and Maatta.

Finally, having a couple mil for flexibility to sign a needed player could end up being very valuable.

I saw that an found it very interesting considering that just about a week ago Rutherford told Yohe that they only had around 1M in space to work with. Wonder what changed that all the sudden he's backtracking from his original statement and now has more room to work with?
- jaydogg1974

he has more than 1 mil to work with... yohe must have misprinted

Yohe reporting Rutherford has told him he thinks he can fit both Cullen and Schultz "at their number" Other than Minnesota and Cullen, they don't know who else is interested in them, and their situations do not impact each other.
- Tojo.

You need to reread the article, his statement was "at OUR number" not "at THEIR number". Makes a big difference in the likelihood of either being re-signed.

he has more than 1 mil to work with... yohe must have misprinted
- martox

Jim Rutherford said during the NHL Draft that he only had around $1 million to spend in free agency, but that number seems to be expanding.

Two unrestricted free agents the Penguins would like to welcome back, Matt Cullen and Justin Schultz, are still undecided about their plans for next season, and Rutherford said Wednesday morning that signing both remains a possibility.

I asked if he could squeeze both players under the salary cap.

“At our number,” he said, “we can.”

That was the exact quote from the article and as I pointed out earlier, they only have around 1.4M-1.7M in usable space depending on the cushion they want for in-season moves, a 1M cushion only gives them 1.4M in space which is pretty much in line with what GMJR said when he said "around 1M".

new blog

Here's the argument against:

Something NEEDS to be done with Fleury prior to the expansion draft. Enroth is more than capable (numbers similar to Fleury without the concussion issues or the notorious playoff meltdowns) and could be exposed to protect Murray.

Hudler is a younger, faster, and higher scoring player than Kunitz. Remember, the Pens have ONE legit scoring winger. We have an entire lineup of Kunitz type role players. Yes, we just won the Cup with that model, but there was a lot of luck involved (puck luck, caught lightning in a bottle with some WBS players who might not be able to repeat those performances, relatively injury-free, etc.). Think of how vastly we outplayed teams and how many of those ended up being one goal games because we couldn't put the puck in the net.

Having Schultz vs. not having Schultz is pretty huge in terms of depth and potential. Relying on Pouliot to perform as a starter with almost no depth behind him is a very tenuous situation, especially given the injury histories of Letang and Maatta.

Finally, having a couple mil for flexibility to sign a needed player could end up being very valuable.
- T-Train

How is Enroth in any way comparable to Fleury? Enroth has never played more than 37 games in a season and the season he played 37 he horrible posting a 3.27gaa and .903sv%, there is just nothing to suggest that Enroth can carry any type of expanded load if Murray struggles or gets injury. Of course Enroth doesn't have a history or notorious playoff meltowns(Fleury's are way overblown), you can't have a playoff meltdown when you've never played in the playoffs. Something does need done before the expansion draft but there's plenty of time to do something.

Hurdler is 4 years younger than Kunitz but there isn't a huge speed difference and in no way, shape or form is Hudler a higher scoring player than Kunitz, Hurdler's career numbers are .24g/gm & .62pts/gm and Kunitz's are .30g/gm & .67pts/gm. last year Hudler had 16g-46pts and Kunitz had 17g-40pts. They're actually pretty even players so why go to a guy whose fit & chemistry are a complete unknown when you have the exact same player who you already know fits the team perfectly?

As far as the depth, while Shultz would definitely help he's still a very unproven player that had his fair share of struggles even after joining the Pens so assuming he would be more security than Pouliot at this point is a complete unknown. Having the extra depth would be awesome but it really isn't much of a blow if they don't have him and I surely would want to potentially downgrade at 2 different position just to have Shultz who may or may not help the team.

You need to reread the article, his statement was "at OUR number" not "at THEIR number". Makes a big difference in the likelihood of either being re-signed.
- jaydogg1974

My bad, that's what I meant to write.