The Penguins are supposedly not going to be major players today as free agency opens. It makes sense. After signing Sam Lafferty to a one-way deal worth 750k they now have 3.968M of cap space. They have the third fewest amount of money to spend in the league at the moment. Jim Rutherford is on the record stating they will be monitoring the fallout from today. Given that information and the fact they desperately need to improve the third line here are some of those players who may be part of the fallout and should fit within the budget Jesper Fast
I think the Penguins will probably have interest in Fast. He is coming off a contract that pays 1.85M and had 12 goals and 29 points last year in 69 games played. His strengths are defensive, but strangely not on the penalty kill
He isn’t afraid to go to the net front and he is a right winger so perhaps they feel they can replace a sliver of what Hornqvist did in that regard. This video is nine minutes long but I have started it where you can get two net front goals from Fast
Nick Cousins The former Flyer, Coyote, Canadien, and most recently Golden Knight is a decent play driver. His underlying numbers as far as expected goals have been strong the past two years. Like Fast, he doesn’t excel offensively and would be another good defensive player for the Penguins
As you can see he is great defensively and does bring with him some physicality. There isn’t much in the way of penalty killing. I think Cousins is a good depth player, but probably not the proper fit because of the offensive limitations while playing easy minutes. He is also a left wing and the Penguins should probably focus on a Hornqvist replacement or find a good center for McCann to bump over to the left wing.
Alex Wennberg
Alex Wennberg has had a rough go of it. He was recently bought out by Columbus. Hopes were high for Wennberg after he had a 13 goal and 59 point season in 2016-17. The totals were buoyed by his 23 points on the power play which is something he has never been able to come close to repeating and would not being a left-handed player on the Penguins. His other five seasons combined he had 32 points on the power play. His high water mark seems an exception to the rule. Since those 13 goals he has yet to hit double digits on the goal front. He has combined for seven goals the last two years.
I personally wouldn’t take a chance here. There’s just so much evidence of underperforming and his big offensive season seems like fool’s gold. Perhaps he finds his game again, but I’d rather somebody else roll the dice.
Bobby Ryan
The much deserved Masterton Trophy winner was bought out by the Ottawa Senators and is now free to choose his destination. Weirdly enough his strengths in Ottawa the past few seasons weren’t on the offensive end, they were on the defensive end. The days of Ryan being an offensive force are probably over. Here are his last four seasons courtesy of Hockeyviz
https://hockeyviz.com/fixedImg/magnus2EVCareer/ryanxbo87/
I think you’ll have a few teams paying for his past offensive performance even though it has been in the rear view mirror for a while.
If you are thinking about Ryan being right-handed and able to help the power play. Wow, maybe don’t
All the best to Bobby Ryan, but I don’t think he is a cost effective option for the Penguins.
Erik Haula He’s been bitten by the injury bug after a monster 2017-18 season in Vegas where he has 29 goals and 55 points in 76 games. He hasn’t been able to register much playing time since with only 63 games played. For those interested in taking a chance on Wennberg I think taking a chance on Haula is the better bet. He had 17 even strength goals in that 55 point season which is only two fewer than Wennberg has had the last four years which includes Wennberg’s big season. Haula’s knee injury should be good to go and his missed time should push his cost down. He and McCann both have the ability to play left wing and center so there might be some flexibility there.
His chart is not flattering, but the bet here would be the bounce back closer to his 2017-18 form. Beggars can’t be choosers at the Penguins price point.
Mikael Granlund
Granlund plays on the wing mostly these days after moonlighting as a center earlier in his career. He is left handed, but plays the right wing. He probably has the best offensive sample out of the bunch over the course of his career consistently putting up 69, 66, and 54 points the three years prior to this season. This year he only had 30 in Nashville in 63 games. I do think there is potential for a change of scenery bounce back
Granlund is the most intriguing to me from an offensive standpoint and you can see he’s really good defensively like many of the other options on here. I imagine he still has some pull on the open market and he would be one of those players you could see signed today before the Penguins even get to contemplate a deal for him.
Craig Smith
The best of the bunch, but the reason I didn’t lead with him is because it isn’t very realistic. He is going to command some interest on the open market and the with the Predators buying out Kyle Turris and moving Nick Bonino’s contract you have to think the Predators are still in the running for his services. He made his linemates better and he is very good offensively. His most common linemates were Bonino and Rocco Grimaldi and those two were not the same away from Smith.
With Smith Bonino had an xGF% of 57.04 and Grimaldi it was 56.56. Without smith Bonino fell to 44.48 and Grimaldi 46.41. Smith remained in the mid-fifties when he was away from each of those players.
The Penguins would need to shift around some cap space to make this happen and it would really boost the production of the third line
You never know when Rutherford will make a trade, but it might be a quiet first day of free agency for the Penguins.
Thanks for reading!