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The Pittsburgh Penguins will play their last game before the Olympic break tonight vs division rival New York Rangers. It will be the last time to see the Penguins in action until February 27th when they take on the Montreal Canadiens.
For us Americans who follow the Penguins this will be the last time for a few weeks that Crosby, Malkin, Kunitz, Maatta, and Jokinen will be playing for the “good guys….
Perhaps more important is the fact that the NHL’s Olympic trade deadline takes affect at 3 PM today. After 3 PM today there will be no trades in the NHL until 12 midnight on February 24th.
Its not secret the Penguins will have to make some kind of move to shore up their forward depth, will Ray Shero make a move today before the deadline?
There are some interesting names on the market and some make more sense for the Penguins than others but here are some of the rumored names:
Thomas Vanek, Ryan Callahan, PA Parenteau, Sam Gagner, Martin Erat, Matt Moulson, Steve Ott, Brad Boyes, Marcel Goc, Lee Stempniak, Ales Hemsky, and many other options not listed here.
Something to remember about making a trade before today’s 3 PM deadline is that the Penguins would be responsible for the cap hit that gets added in during the Olympic break. The Penguins don’t have a ton of legit cap space this year so waiting until after the Olympic break might make more sense. Shero has LTIR cap space at the moment because of the Vokoun and Dupuis injuries, but if Vokoun comes back a lot of that space goes away.
Further complicating Ray Shero’s job is the dynamic of the Beau Bennett injury. Bennett’s injury has put Ray Shero in a very tough position. With Bennett not returning until after the Olympic break this limits the amount of time that Shero can properly evaluate his team and what the Penguins actual needs are. If Shero wants to wait to see how Bennet plays when he comes back from injury it will come with risk. Making trades right before the March trade deadline will most likely come at a higher cost.
Does Shero make a trade today with the confidence that Beau Bennett can be the long term answer this season for the Crosby line? Does Shero assume that Bennett is not that answer and go for the fences on a high profile rental? There just isn’t a large enough sample size from Bennett to have a clear and confident answer. Whether Shero makes a deal today or in March, for a top 6 winger or a 3rd liner, a big part of the decision will be guess work. Not ideal when talking about the potential assets it takes to make trades this time of year.
The reason I say significant move is because Ray Shero did make a trade yesterday with the Columbus Blue Jackets
NEWS ALERT: the #Pens have acquired forward Spencer Machacek from the Columbus Blue Jackets for Paul Thompson. More: http://t.co/zDynzYRkHw
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 6, 2014This is a very minor trade and does not really have an impact on the NHL product.
In non related news I really like what the Bruins did with Zdeno Chara. Allowing him to miss a Bruins game to walk Slovakia’s flag in the Sochi Opening Ceromony is a class move and one that should be applauded. A once in a lifetime honor like that for Chara is so much more important in the grand scheme of things than some lame regular season NHL game in February. Chara has given so much to the Boston Bruins, it was nice for the Bruins to give back to him. Good job Bruins.
Chara "honoured" to be Slovakian flag-bearer: "It’s something you don’t get to do or experience for many athletes in their whole careers."
— Jonas Siegel (@jonasTSN1050) February 7, 2014With the Penguins not in action during Sochi I will still be writing about hockey. I will turn my attention to breaking down some of the Penguins play this year as well as the Olympic tournament itself, so be on the lookout for that.
Thanks for reading!
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