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Trade imminent

November 10, 2018, 11:26 AM ET [92 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Anybody else have that feeling they were going to wake up this morning to a Daniel Sprong trade ala David Perron to the Ducks to Carl Hagelin?

Daniel Sprong is going somewhere else. There’s really no other way to read the room. They feel like he hasn’t done enough and there isn’t a spot for him. Whether he got enough of a chance is irrelevant at this point. Will Jim Rutherford dump him off like Derrick Pouliot or will he combine Sprong with something like the Penguins first round pick? Or does he really try for something like Olli Maatta or Bryan Rust with the first round pick and Daniel Sprong.

As far as asset management is concerned the Penguins are past the point of no return. Any first round pick they actually use won’t be ready in time to help out this Cup window by any rationale projection. You might as well keep trading them. The key is going to be what the gets you in return. Trading first round picks for veteran players can work, but not if you don’t have cap space. The cap space earned by shipping off Conor Sheary and Matt Hunwick was wasted on the fallacy that Jack Johnson would be a different player than he is. Can’t do that as a cap ceiling team. Ask the Blackhawks or Kings how things are going.

The other issue at the moment is depth scoring.




He fell down a lot. He also is better at putting up offense at even-strenth than Patric Hornqvist who just got a raise. Here are the stats since the 2015-16 season.



Yeah, but Sheary got to play with Sid…

Part of the reason the Penguins aren’t scoring with their depth is because Sheary was an incredibly useful even-strength player for the cost. He’s just one part of the issue. The other is that the defensemen can’t get the forwards the puck at all. Sheary’s cap space replacement is a part of that problem. The Penguins got worse in one area to intentionally get worse in another. Guess what? They got worse.

Going all in on a Stanley Cup window with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin isn’t an issue. You have to at this point. The problem is the team has no more ELC values to call up and make a difference like they used to. They don’t have those players because Rutherford’s drafting hasn’t been good enough, even without the first round picks. When you screw up the depth contracts and have minimal ELC talent you are turning in to the Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings.

Cap management aside what do the Penguins need?

They need scoring depth, but adding another forward via trade only works if the defensemen can get the forwards the puck. As of right now that seems to be a struggle other than one pairing, who was recently broken up. They are in a situation where they don’t really have a position of strength to shore up a position of weakness. They are going to have to get worse in an area to get better in another. This kind of give and take is difficult to get right and they already got it wrong over the past summer. Daniel Sprong flaming out really compromised their roster flexibility with on-ice product and trades.

It won’t be long until we find out what the Penguins have in mind.

Thanks for reading!
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