Ryan Wilson: Penguins hoping Matheson's skating and size translate better in Pittsburgh Penguins hoping Matheson's skating and size translate better in Pittsburgh

https://twitter.com/thech.../1309491899074580482?s=21

Does Rutherford seriously just not look at the cap when he makes trades? This isn’t the first time where he’s acted shocked about a cap fall out following a move. What is Karmanos doing?
- Victoro311

Is it at all possible Rutherford is playing dumb to not give away future moves?

I'm actually interested to see if Matheson brings a different element to the team. Some reports have him as a player who clears the front of the net, hits well, and also can get under opponents skin. Kinda sounds like what Petry and Weber were trying to do during the playoffs. Wonder if he gets a crack at the PP with his hard slap shot.

The Pens should take advantage of the bargains out there: Kovalchuk and Ryan. The two of them flanking McCann could be a very good 3rd line.

Like I said on the last blog, I've kind of talked myself into Matheson being an interesting pick up from an on ice product perspective. The trickledown from tying up all that cap on a bottom pairing D man when we already have so much cap tied up in bottom four defensemen is going to be a huge problem. Is the Matheson acquisition is what it takes for Rutherford to finally justify getting rid of Johnson, then great. Our on ice product is improved significantly. But we're going to have a bad time with the McCann unit because we don't have any cap or assets to add anyone that can bring that unit together. Not having a bottom 6 line that can contribute to scoring is a really bad problem to have when Crosby and Malkin are in their mid 30s.

The Pens should take advantage of the bargains out there: Kovalchuk and Ryan. The two of them flanking McCann could be a very good 3rd line.
- Rinosaur

Cant tell if this is a joke or not.

I agree with taking a look at Bobby Ryan. Putting him on a 3rd line with McCann would be a massive upgrade to anything they had last year.

I think that would be a great 3rd. This is probably the most positive blog I’ve seen from RW in a while. This move sucks while also being acceptable. Horny was great at stirring it up and getting goalies pissed. However I can’t help to think about the injuries adding up with him. Maybe that’s the real reason JR got rid of him, also why the insurance thing was a sticking point. I mean behind the scenes GMJR could have been really smart with this trade. Dump a player one concussion away from hanging them up and he does trade JJ 🤞 then this is a win for us. I look at the posts on here by everyone and I have to say most people on here do look at things like what he should have done vs what he was probably capable of. Also we don’t really know what players have asked for too. I’m pretty sure I saw Kahun asked for a trade because he said he didn’t like the style we were asking him to play. (Maybe my opinion on that). If I’m an opposing GM I’m going to only offer him my garbage because he is so into trading he might just do it to make a change. So JR might only ever see the garbage other teams have and had no better options.

I think that would be a great 3rd. This is probably the most positive blog I’ve seen from RW in a while. This move sucks while also being acceptable. Horny was great at stirring it up and getting goalies pissed. However I can’t help to think about the injuries adding up with him. Maybe that’s the real reason JR got rid of him, also why the insurance thing was a sticking point. I mean behind the scenes GMJR could have been really smart with this trade. Dump a player one concussion away from hanging them up and he does trade JJ 🤞 then this is a win for us. I look at the posts on here by everyone and I have to say most people on here do look at things like what he should have done vs what he was probably capable of. Also we don’t really know what players have asked for too. I’m pretty sure I saw Kahun asked for a trade because he said he didn’t like the style we were asking him to play. (Maybe my opinion on that). If I’m an opposing GM I’m going to only offer him my garbage because he is so into trading he might just do it to make a change. So JR might only ever see the garbage other teams have and had no better options.
- Chuck-Norris

Starting off at near 5 mil on the 3rd pairing as his assumed talent ceiling here is bad...

No, he apparently was not even aware of the total cap implications of the trade. Can't be smart if you cannot do addition.

The alleged JJ trade would not make this a smart trade. Trading JJ away is still not a 'smart' trade. It was a required trade after a beyond moronic signing. This is still an extremely bad value trade.

Zero evidence of Kahun asking for a trade, fake news, EK 5 level poop. There IS evidence of him not seeing the trade coming and liking it here.

Is it at all possible Rutherford is playing dumb to not give away future moves?
- Rinosaur

Maybe a trade coming for Laine?? Would fit nice on the left side of the PP and WPG is in need of D - which we are loaded up on at this point. Maybe???

Maybe a trade coming for Laine?? Would fit nice on the left side of the PP and WPG is in need of D - which we are loaded up on at this point. Maybe???
- pier6687

Lol with what assets?

Like I said on the last blog, I've kind of talked myself into Matheson being an interesting pick up from an on ice product perspective. The trickledown from tying up all that cap on a bottom pairing D man when we already have so much cap tied up in bottom four defensemen is going to be a huge problem. Is the Matheson acquisition is what it takes for Rutherford to finally justify getting rid of Johnson, then great. Our on ice product is improved significantly. But we're going to have a bad time with the McCann unit because we don't have any cap or assets to add anyone that can bring that unit together. Not having a bottom 6 line that can contribute to scoring is a really bad problem to have when Crosby and Malkin are in their mid 30s.
- Victoro311

By interesting do you mean the 5-10% chance Matheson is okay or the 5-10% chance that JJ is gone?

I think that would be a great 3rd. This is probably the most positive blog I’ve seen from RW in a while. This move sucks while also being acceptable. Horny was great at stirring it up and getting goalies pissed. However I can’t help to think about the injuries adding up with him. Maybe that’s the real reason JR got rid of him, also why the insurance thing was a sticking point. I mean behind the scenes GMJR could have been really smart with this trade. Dump a player one concussion away from hanging them up and he does trade JJ 🤞 then this is a win for us. I look at the posts on here by everyone and I have to say most people on here do look at things like what he should have done vs what he was probably capable of. Also we don’t really know what players have asked for too. I’m pretty sure I saw Kahun asked for a trade because he said he didn’t like the style we were asking him to play. (Maybe my opinion on that). If I’m an opposing GM I’m going to only offer him my garbage because he is so into trading he might just do it to make a change. So JR might only ever see the garbage other teams have and had no better options.
- Chuck-Norris

Lol

By interesting do you mean the 5-10% chance Matheson is okay or the 5-10% chance that JJ is gone?
- Feds91Stammer

Per Dom's tweet, his micro stats suggest that he should be better at driving play than he actually is. His relative stats were bad in Florida, but nothing out of the ordinary for a bottom pairing defenseman being played out of his depth in a primary defensive assignment. I think there's a chance that on a better team trying to play more to his strengths and give him sheltered deployment he could mesh into the system and improve. With Dumtang and Pettrino being solid two way pairings, there's no need to ask the bottom pairing to go out there and eat defensive assignments.

Or he could just have absolutely no hockey IQ and be terrible like he's shown up to now. It's probably the latter, but in theory there's a chance this ends up ok and his strengths intrigue me as a bottom pairing defenseman. That doesn't mean I don't still think this is a horrendous trade for reasons I've already stated.

Starting off at near 5 mil on the 3rd pairing as his assumed talent ceiling here is bad...

No, he apparently was not even aware of the total cap implications of the trade. Can't be smart if you cannot do addition.

The alleged JJ trade would not make this a smart trade. Trading JJ away is still not a 'smart' trade. It was a required trade after a beyond moronic signing. This is still an extremely bad value trade.

Zero evidence of Kahun asking for a trade, fake news, EK 5 level poop. There IS evidence of him not seeing the trade coming and liking it here.
- Guile

"The system in Pittsburgh, for me, was a little bit – obviously, I had to do other stuff," Kahun said earlier this month. "Here, the hockey is more fun for me again. Obviously I want to win more games with Buffalo, but just to play my game, play with the puck and make plays. That’s for sure more fun for me right now."
Trading JJ right now for anything isn’t a smart trade? I disagree. it was a mistake to sign him for sure but I think we can all agree moving him is in our best interest.
All I’m saying is the man wants to make trades so bad other gm’s know that and throw their junk at him. You would be lying if you said you would offer a gm like Chiarelli anything of value. We are in a bad place right now cap wise for sure, however my point is you don’t know anything about that is going on in the GM world right now.

Cant tell if this is a joke or not.
- Murphy_Dump

Not a joke. The Pens have very little cap space and as of right now it appears as Scevior is slated for 3RW. Ryan and Kovy shouldn’t cost more than $1-$1.5M each and still produce at a 3rd line scoring rate.

Ennis is one of the only other options I can see fitting the Pens budget, but he may cost upwards of $2.5.

So unless JR finds a way to dump JJ’s contract, these are the type of players that fit their budget.

In the first video, the so-called "Great shift by #FlaPanthers Mike Matheson" is crazy risky, he almost created bad turnovers at least twice on that shift. Lucky he got to the net...

MM is not too old and can probably improve a bit, he does bring in speed and is an upgrade over JJ (everybody is), but unless JR finds a way to unload JJ, the Pens aren't significantly better than they were before the trade. I still don't think trading Hornqvist was a good idea. He was still effective on the PP and while stat gurus hate this, his drive and leadership were important on that team.

In the first video, the so-called "Great shift by #FlaPanthers Mike Matheson" is crazy risky, he almost created bad turnovers at least twice on that shift. Lucky he got to the net...

MM is not too old and can probably improve a bit, he does bring in speed and is an upgrade over JJ (everybody is), but unless JR finds a way to unload JJ, the Pens aren't significantly better than they were before the trade. I still don't think trading Hornqvist was a good idea. He was still effective on the PP and while stat gurus hate this, his drive and leadership were important on that team.
- Douchetacular

If we don't unload JJ then Matheson and off side JJ will be a pairing and we're going to be actively worse. That pairing is going to be so much worse than JJ-Shcultz which was already one of if not the worst pairing to regularly get minutes in the NHL.

Wilson rags constantly about how he hates "defensive defenseman" (ie Tanev, Gudbransson, Scuderi) who don't move the needle offensively

And here we get a guy who can hit, skate, win puck battles, get zone entries and move the needle but also has a few warts, and we got him in essentially a cap neutral move on a guy who we didn't have a use for anymore

Stop calling Hornqvist an effective middle 6. He has zero effectiveness in the BOTTOM 6 where the Penguins would have used him. Geno and Sid DO NOT WANT to play with him in the top 6

Plenty of upside on this move. Younger, Less injury prone, Defenseman (premium position) and the contract length is ZERO issue as it could be 100 years long and it wouldn't effect the next 3 years of window

Matheson can play the point on the powerplay and we can keep Letang minutes (who can't shoot to save his life) for 5v5 play win/win

Wilson rags constantly about how he hates "defensive defenseman" (ie Tanev, Gudbransson, Scuderi) who don't move the needle offensively

And here we get a guy who can hit, skate, win puck battles, get zone entries and move the needle but also has a few warts, and we got him in essentially a cap neutral move on a guy who we didn't have a use for anymore

Stop calling Hornqvist an effective middle 6. He has zero effectiveness in the BOTTOM 6 where the Penguins would have used him. Geno and Sid DO NOT WANT to play with him in the top 6

Plenty of upside on this move. Younger, Less injury prone, Defenseman (premium position) and the contract length is ZERO issue as it could be 100 years long and it wouldn't effect the next 3 years of window

Matheson can play the point on the powerplay and we can keep Letang minutes (who can't shoot to save his life) for 5v5 play win/win
- TheGame316

You do realize Matheson doesn’t move the needle offensively right? He just produces some individual scoring.

You do realize Matheson doesn’t move the needle offensively right? He just produces some individual scoring.
- Feds91Stammer

Does he move it more then Chris Tanev, Rob Scuderi or Eric Gudbransson?

Does he move it more then Chris Tanev, Rob Scuderi or Eric Gudbransson?
- TheGame316

Yes in the sense that he can do something with the puck other than chip it off the glass.

Is anyone besides Kingerski reporting Hornqvist tossed all his Penguins gear out on the driveway to show how angry he was about this trade and how it went down.
- Tojo.

Looks like there's photo evidence. Hockeybuzz is blocking me from embedding the tweet for some reason, but here's the link:

https://twitter.com/grung.../1309711338424459264?s=20

Or he's airing it out before a move.

Yes in the sense that he can do something with the puck other than chip it off the glass.
- Feds91Stammer

I'm just saying last week Wilson was lamenting a potential trade of Bryan Rust so we could sign Chris Tanev

Instead we moved Patrick Hornqvist and got Mike Matheson

Relatively speaking, he should be relieved and take it as a positive

Looks like there's photo evidence. Hockeybuzz is blocking me from embedding the tweet for some reason, but here's the link:

https://twitter.com/grung.../1309711338424459264?s=20

Or he's airing it out before a move.
- Victoro311

What a baby... Good Riddance