With Cody Franson joining the Predators (great move by Nashville) and Marc Methot re-signing in Ottawa the number of quality defense trade targets are starting to dwindle.
The Penguins were in on the Cody Franson sweepstakes.
Montreal, Calgary and Pittsburgh were all interested in Franson, but couldn't match Nashville's offer.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) February 16, 2015
Should the Penguins even be in on something like this?
It depends.
Are they trying to bring in another top four defenseman to add to the current corp.? Or are they trying to add one so that they can perhaps move a guy like Paul Martin?
The LA Kings have had their eye on Paul Martin for some time.
Right about now the Kings are probably starting to get desperate considering their spot in the Western Conference standings.
If the Penguins were to acquire another top four defenseman they could reignite the Paul Martin for Justin Williams talks that were going on before the Olli Maatta surgery.
Assuming nothing materializes on the trade front and the Penguins don't land another top four defenseman, they are still OK.
Pittsburgh has Letang, Martin, Ehrhoff, and Despres. They are all capable of top four duty. Despres seems like the question mark here, but if he can survive with Scuderi he can certainly play well with better partners.
Derrick Pouliot is an NHL player. He needs to stay up. He has done nothing to show he is any worse than some low level rental player like Jan Hejda or Scott Hannan. Why spend assets to bring somebody in who isn't even as good as what you already have?
Simon Despres should have been playing a few years back when Ray Shero brought in Doug Murray and Mark Eaton. Beau Bennett should have been playing instead of a cornucopia of players, including Brendan Morrow who they traded for.
Don't make similar mistakes with Pouliot, just play him. Experience is one of the more overrated things.
Young players are better prepared now than they ever have been. Focus on the on-ice product. Let other teams chase bad players because of experience.
On the Bergenheim front:
Hearing there are about 5 teams w/ "serious" interest in FLA's Bergenheim, who asked for trade & is expected to be dealt in very near future
— David Pagnotta (@TheFourthPeriod) February 16, 2015
Once again, the Penguins can't really do anything on this front unless they are shipping some money out from the active roster.
About two weeks left until the deadline, things should start getting interesting around the league.
****
The Penguins played well against a really great Chicago team but were unable to come away with two points.
In most games the Penguins would have the advantage any time it heads to a shootout, but Chicago is one of the few exceptions.
Jonathan Toews is one of the best shootout players off all time and Patrick Kane is Patrick Kane.
Marc-Andre Fleury is the career leader in shootout save percentage but it wasn't to be yesterday. It was actually the first time in Fleury's long career that he went 0-3 in the shootout.
The Crosby, Kunitz, and Perron line did a marvelous job yesterday considering who their matchup was. They lined up against Toews, Hossa, and Saad for most of the day and came out on top in the possession battle. Really nice job.
Matchups from PIT@CHI this afternoon — Crosby and Kunitz were pretty strictly matched up against pic.twitter.com/NS1WCueI89
— datarink (@datarink) February 15, 2015The real story of the game for the Penguins was Beau Bennett. He had nine shots on goal by himself and his aggressive zone entry set the table for Spaling's tap in rebound goal.
Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, David Perron, and Chris Kunitz are the only other forwards on the roster who would have taken on that difficult zone entry without just bailing out and chipping it in to go chase after it..
People will point to the benching as the reason for his "inspired" play but that would be false. The benchings were moronic and unnecessary.
Bennett's larger sample size as a player in the NHL points to him consistently driving possession. Regardless of how he actually does it the fact of the matter is the puck is in the opponent's end far more often than it is in his own.
Who is that lonely blue bubble amidst a sea of red?
In the past two games Bennett has two assists and 12 shots on goal. Zach Sill has two points in his entire career and only 26 shots on goal this year.
Here's the bottom line with Bennett. Stop playing him on left wing and stop playing him with Brandon Sutter, there is no chemistry between them. There is no chemistry between any player and Sutter.
There are 11 players who have played at least 100 minutes of even strength hockey with Sutter this year. Only Beau Bennett (50.9%), Kris Letang (50.2%), and Evgeni Malkin (51.6%) have been able to float Sutter above the 50% barrier.
Doubt Bennett's durability, but to doubt his actual ability is a very good sign you don't really know what you are watching or talking about. It is as simple as that.
Thanks for reading!
Follow me on twitter Follow @GunnerStaal