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The final piece of the Penguins offseason puzzle is complete. Brandon Sutter has re-signed with the Penguins on a two year deal worth 6.6 million dollars.

Sutter will be given the opportunity to show what he can do with better linemates than he had last year. The two year deal buys time for the Penguins to make an evaluation about Sutter as a player. A one year deal would have put Sutter in a position to test unrestricted free agency in July of 2015.

The Penguins were wise and did not sign Sutter long term. I had concerns that they would extend him for four or five years ~4M per season.

Sutter's contract comes without a no trade clause and his 3.3M cap hit could potentially be attractive to another team that is looking for a center upgrade.

I won't put a grade on Rutherford's offseason but the Penguins are a better team now than they were in May. The team has better depth and because of that depth they have options to make trades. Signing Christian Ehrhoff and re-signing Marcel Goc gives Pittsburgh the option of shopping Paul Martin and/or Brandon Sutter. They don't have to, but they can because of the depth behind them.

The best thing a general manager can do is give himself options, Rutherford/Botterill have done that.

With this contract extension out of the way it is probably going to be really slow news wise until training camp.

Thanks for reading!

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