Rumors are going to start to swirl heavily now that the draft is one day away. Matt Murray is certainly going to be a part of those rumors, but I wanted to focus on a different one I saw from last night.
The Tampa Bay Lightning deservingly won the Stanley Cup and have been a great team for a long time. They are not unlike other champions like the Penguins, Blackhawks, and Kings where they have to start paying their players more money. The Lightning have a good chunk of players who are due raises and they are looking to cut money in other places. One of those players, despite a full no-trade clause, is Tyler Johnson
Hearing that Tampa Bay has talked to Tyler Johnson’s camp about working together on a possible move. Johnson has a full no-trade clause. Let’s see where this goes.
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) October 5, 2020
It remains to be seen if Tampa can even work out a deal he accepts a trade to, but the concept of Tyler Johnson being available is frustrating from my perspective as it pertains to the Penguins. He is exactly the type of player I would want the Penguins targeting to fill their never ending 3C void. He is offensively minded and would help create a third scoring line. Unfortunately, even if he is available the Penguins cannot pursue something like this at the present moment even with today’s buyout.
Tyler Johnson makes 5.0M and he will for the next four years. He is 30 years old and is coming off a season where he had 31 points in 65 games. I agree that the 5.0M cap hit is a bit much. I also think it is OK to overpay to fill a huge void on the roster. The problem is the Penguins have used up their cap space overpaying third pairing defenseman and 4th line caliber forwards. They are not in position to take a run at players like Tyler Johnson at the moment and it is too bad because the roster needs help. In context overpaying Tyler Johnson 1M seems a hell of a lot better than overpaying Jack Johnson 3.25M like they did for two years. Overpaying Tyler Johnson 1M is better than overpaying Brandon Tanev, too.
Tyler Johnson is still a good offensive player. I don’t need a defensive third line center and make no mistake Tyler Johnson is not good defensively. I need another offensive line and to have one I need an offensive center.
This is good enough production for what I would want in the third line center spot.
If the Penguins are going to stick with the shutdown 4th line concept they need three scoring lines. The current makeup of the 4th line is not going to provide any meaningful scoring depth. It’s fine as long as you have the other three lines consistently capable of providing offense in concert with one another. Right now they don’t have that.
This is where adding Mike Matheson’s 4.5M, Brandon Tanev’s 3.5M, and to a lesser extent Colton Sceviour’s 1.2M hurts and limits the team’s ability to fill necessary holes. Rutherford has invested in luxury bottom depth pieces. Nick Bjugstad’s 2.05M salary retention also comes into play here. Per Cap Friendly the Penguins currently have 4.71M in cap space. Matt Murray will get a qualifying offer, but it shouldn’t be a factor because he will be traded. Sam Lafferty is getting a qualifying offer as well. I think the best chance the Penguins have to acquire a difference maker is to lose Tanev’s 3.5M cap hit.
The Penguins have been chasing a third line center for quite some time after they walked away from Nick Bonino. They are still chasing that void in the lineup. Their cap situation at the moment doesn’t lend itself to filling that void or being able to explore legit options until another move is made. The draft is tomorrow. There’s no better time than then to make something happen.
Thanks for reading!