The Penguins have to navigate two really important dates before they get to free agency. They have the expansion and entry drafts creeping up. It doesn’t mean you can’t look ahead and see who is going to be potentially available in unrestricted free agency this year. There are going to be a number of notable players and some of them can definitely help the Penguins even if a slight overpay is necessary. One of these players we’ve heard about what seems like forever. He is a native of the Pittsburgh area and a two-time Stanley Cup Champion. He is Brandon Saad of the Colorado Avalanche.

There is a very real chance Saad hits the market and not because Colorado wants him to. The Avalanche have 25M in cap space this offseason at the moment. The problem is they also have Cale Makar, Gabriel Landeskog, and Philipp Grubauer all free agents at the moment. You can also see the sweetheart Nate MacKinnon deal’s expiration coming up in a couple of years. They have to be mindful about how they spend their money and how their mid-tier contracts overlap with when MacKinnon’s deal expires. Saad could very well be a cap casualty for them. If he is what are we looking at?

Saad remains a competent producer of offense at even strength who plays predominately on the left side, but is listed on multiple sites as both a left and right wing. He is not dependent on power play time to earn his points which is good considering the Penguins left-handed player situation on the power play.







Saad fits the bill as being a player who can play big and play physical which should be appealing to the current front office regime. Ownership would like the fact he is from the area for marketing purposes. He is a player who I think would do well with either Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin. Finding a spot for him in the lineup would allow Jared McCann to push down and stay with Jeff Carter creating a third capable scoring line. If Saad is a capable right wing player it opens up the possibility to bump Kapanen down. He is 28 years old which comes with the territory of being an unrestricted free agency. It is what it is. Saad would definitely contribute to the Penguins need for depth scoring. He checks a lot of boxes.

What about cost? While I don’t think him being from Pittsburgh will have any impact on his willingness to take a “discount” I do however think it could come into play if the Penguins were to put a competitive offer out there. You are likely looking at a four-ish year deal in the 5-6M range. I think this is doable with the understanding you have to look to cut money elsewhere ie: Zucker, Pettersson, Matheson, and Tanev. It could be as simple as moving out Zucker for draft picks and slotting Zucker's cap hit over to Saad. There is a path for this kind of acquisition.

For the Penguins to be competitive for a Cup they are either going to have to trade for an impact player (they have minimal assets) or slightly overpay in free agency. I don’t think they can rely on prospects at the moment. They could do a lot worse than Brandon Saad.

Thanks for reading!

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