The Penguins and Drew O’Connor have successfully avoided an arbitration hearing, as he has signed with the team for the next two years.
The Penguins have re-signed forward Drew O’Connor to a two-year contract.
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) August 2, 2023
The deal runs through the 2024.25 campaign and carries an average annual value of $925,000.
A competent bottom-six forward coming in at under a million dollars per year, this is a pretty straightforward and standard deal.
Over his 78-game career he carries an xGF% of 55.67, and has put up eight goals and 17 points. At 25 years old he is not a prospect, so there might be room for a little growth, but we aren’t talking about a prospect here. He should be a minute filler who isn’t a liability and there is a spot for that when filling out a roster. Coming in at his cap hit makes it palatable.
The other important part of this news is starting on Saturday the second buyout window will open for 48 hours. Because Drew O’Connor applied for an arbitration hearing the second window became a possibility. I think this new buyout window puts a clock on the Erik Karlsson trade. This is a great opportunity for the Penguins to create space and uncomplicate a potential deal to acquire Karlsson.
Without buying out Granlund you’d have to find a trade partner for Petry (he has a NTC and doesn’t want to be on west coast) and one for an overpriced and underachieving Granlund. A buyout takes out a tricky variable and saves 4M this season. If the Penguins really want to make a Karlsson deal happen they have the ability to buyout Granlund now. I know this wasn’t an option Dubas wanted to go down, but beggars can’t be choosers and the impact of gaining Karlsson far outweighs the negative consequences of a Granlund buyout.
I have a feeling we’ll start to hear more about Karlsson after a pretty non-eventful two weeks or so.
Thanks for reading!