Pitt seems to be a good college FA destination. Not that anyone has ever became a top 6 player but I guess the way JR trades picks and prospects it’s a good way to get to the nhl without being too blocked.

I think we could of prob signed a few better FA’s to similar priced deals but all in all I do think the team is better than the last couple years.

JR also isn’t one to stand pat mid season if needed. I do think petts gets traded at some point with how JR talks about new MM, if he lives up to his expectations. Hoping also Velluci and Reirden can tweak some PP and defensive schemes more so than the ex coaches.
- 10inchTerror

They should be running the flipped version of WSHs Power Play. It makes the most sense with the personnel we have.

I think the pessimism comes from seeing what other players have signed for and the fact that we could have tried to get some really good value signings and it seems like the old “GMJR wants this guy so he’s getting this guy” kind of thing.

I don’t hate the Erod signing. He didn’t really get a fair shake in Pittsburgh so my thought is... why’s even bring him back? Why not try for a bigger fish? The Jankowski signing just seems odd. Bleuger is a decent enough 4C. I can’t look at anything Jankowski does and think legit 3C with all the names signing for bargain contracts.
- j.boyd919

In E Rod’s case I will say that by all accounts everyone really liked him. JR was really excited to get him, Sullivan was never critical of him, and the beat guys always mentioned how well he was doing in practice. We were just deep at forward last season and didn’t have a spot for him. With Simon and Hornqvist gone, he’ll definitely have a spot here.

I think he’s a fit here but he seems like a low end 3rd liner/standard bottom six caliber player so he’s not gonna do much for our depth, and that’s the real issue. This team has almost no top 9 caliber players for the bottom six, and we don’t really have any amo to get some at the deadline. After the Kapanen trade, free agency was really the only way to replenish our forward depth and I feel like we didn’t even try. Obviously don’t know who JR had conversations with, and like I said yesterday, maybe guys just don’t want to come here, but he did say before free agency that he was only going to go after low key guys that slip through the cracks, so I don’t think he went into the off season with the right strategy.

In E Rod’s case I will say that by all accounts everyone really liked him. JR was really excited to get him, Sullivan was never critical of him, and the beat guys always mentioned how well he was doing in practice. We were just deep at forward last season and didn’t have a spot for him. With Simon and Hornqvist gone, he’ll definitely have a spot here.

I think he’s a fit here but he seems like a low end 3rd liner/standard bottom six caliber player so he’s not gonna do much for our depth, and that’s the real issue. This team has almost no top 9 caliber players for the bottom six, and we don’t really have any amo to get some at the deadline. After the Kapanen trade, free agency was really the only way to replenish our forward depth and I feel like we didn’t even try. Obviously don’t know who JR had conversations with, and like I said yesterday, maybe guys just don’t want to come here, but he did say before free agency that he was only going to go after low key guys that slip through the cracks, so I don’t think he went into the off season with the right strategy.
- Victoro311

Exactly how I feel too. It seems like we didn’t even try haha.

Pitt seems to be a good college FA destination. Not that anyone has ever became a top 6 player but I guess the way JR trades picks and prospects it’s a good way to get to the nhl without being too blocked.

I think we could of prob signed a few better FA’s to similar priced deals but all in all I do think the team is better than the last couple years.

JR also isn’t one to stand pat mid season if needed. I do think petts gets traded at some point with how JR talks about new MM, if he lives up to his expectations. Hoping also Velluci and Reirden can tweak some PP and defensive schemes more so than the ex coaches.
- 10inchTerror

We gonna just totally disregard Sheary as a top 6? Ok I'll allow it.

In E Rod’s case I will say that by all accounts everyone really liked him. JR was really excited to get him, Sullivan was never critical of him, and the beat guys always mentioned how well he was doing in practice. We were just deep at forward last season and didn’t have a spot for him. With Simon and Hornqvist gone, he’ll definitely have a spot here.

I think he’s a fit here but he seems like a low end 3rd liner/standard bottom six caliber player so he’s not gonna do much for our depth, and that’s the real issue. This team has almost no top 9 caliber players for the bottom six, and we don’t really have any amo to get some at the deadline. After the Kapanen trade, free agency was really the only way to replenish our forward depth and I feel like we didn’t even try. Obviously don’t know who JR had conversations with, and like I said yesterday, maybe guys just don’t want to come here, but he did say before free agency that he was only going to go after low key guys that slip through the cracks, so I don’t think he went into the off season with the right strategy.
- Victoro311

I definitely don't think ERod is back if Simon signs. They did need someone with that flexibility so I like the signing. Really don't hate taking a shot at Jankowski. But together as 2/3 of a supposed 3rd line, it's pretty underwhelming. I'd really just play Blueger's line more if that's the case.

I think the pessimism comes from seeing what other players have signed for and the fact that we could have tried to get some really good value signings and it seems like the old “GMJR wants this guy so he’s getting this guy” kind of thing.

I don’t hate the Erod signing. He didn’t really get a fair shake in Pittsburgh so my thought is... why’s even bring him back? Why not try for a bigger fish? The Jankowski signing just seems odd. Bleuger is a decent enough 4C. I can’t look at anything Jankowski does and think legit 3C with all the names signing for bargain contracts.
- j.boyd919

Nothing has really made sense to me about this off-season so far. Obviously I’m thrilled JJ is gone, but all other choices that have been made just seem weird.

I feel as if JR thought he had to make a mad grab for these guys because he was unsure of the market instead of waiting things out. He seems to jump at players he thinks everyone else is going after when they’re really not.

Obviously just because a player I hoped JR would get, signed for cheap elsewhere doesn’t mean that player wanted to come to the Pens, but this all just seems so hasty. You look at all the trades and signings that transpired, and anyone can see the Pens could have done better.

I definitely don't think ERod is back if Simon signs. They did need someone with that flexibility so I like the signing. Really don't hate taking a shot at Jankowski. But together as 2/3 of a supposed 3rd line, it's pretty underwhelming. I'd really just play Blueger's line more if that's the case.
- Tojo.

I think the Blueger line will play more because if the third line is McCann-Jankowski-Rodrigues, I fully expect it to suck. The problem is that the Blueger line doesn't score, and its also going to miss ZAR for the first half of the season, and the defensive stats without ZAR plummet for that unit.

I think the Blueger line will play more because of the third line is McCann-Jankowski-Rodrigues, I fully expect it to suck. The problem is that the Blueger line doesn't score, and its also going to miss ZAR for the first half of the season, and the defensive stats without ZAR plummet for that unit.
- Victoro311

Is it even half of the season anymore with a January start?

Oh yeah, see all the problems, Blueger's is just a better line right now. Hopefully something changes like prospects or a late signing. Or those guys surprise as both have at least flirted with 30 points recently.

I think the pessimism comes from seeing what other players have signed for and the fact that we could have tried to get some really good value signings and it seems like the old “GMJR wants this guy so he’s getting this guy” kind of thing.

I don’t hate the Erod signing. He didn’t really get a fair shake in Pittsburgh so my thought is... why’s even bring him back? Why not try for a bigger fish? The Jankowski signing just seems odd. Bleuger is a decent enough 4C. I can’t look at anything Jankowski does and think legit 3C with all the names signing for bargain contracts.
- j.boyd919

I do get this viewpoint. I myself wish we had signed Fast or Smith which could have added something more to the 3rd line. JR listens to his team of scouts and coaches on who to go after in FA.

I believe E-Rod came to JR and asked to sign from his comments. I think he turned down other opportunities to come back to Pittsburgh.

This is such a weird free agency and is making me re-think some things. Guys like Barrie and Craig Smith are not getting massive overpayments. These guys would have once cost a pretty penny in a trade.

Kapanen deal looks worse now in hindsight...even tho there's still no guarantee we get a Toffoli or someone with that cap space.

So many interesting guys still available. I hope we find a way to make it work.

I do get this viewpoint. I myself wish we had signed Fast or Smith which could have added something more to the 3rd line. JR listens to his team of scouts and coaches on who to go after in FA.

I believe E-Rod came to JR and asked to sign from his comments. I think he turned down other opportunities to come back to Pittsburgh.
- 123Kid

Maybe. I dunno. If that was the case, I can't imagine JJ would have ever been signed. GMs fixate on players all the time regardless of what the video/data/scouts/etc. say.

It doesn't seem like there is much of a plan in place. Every off season it just seems like he's correcting his previous (frank)ups. There have been a lot of against the grain acquisitions since 2015-16. There was a formula for success when that team steam rolled everyone in the playoffs. He completely deviated against that formula when the Pens PDO'd there way to a 2nd cup and acquired a bunch of "defensive specialists." The 2015-16 Pens had 4 lines capable of scoring. Right now the Pens have 2 high powered lines and 2 lines full of defensive specialists.

Is it even half of the season anymore with a January start?

Oh yeah, see all the problems, Blueger's is just a better line right now. Hopefully something changes like prospects or a late signing. Or those guys surprise as both have at least flirted with 30 points recently.
- Tojo.

That's a good point. Maybe just a couple of weeks now.

We gonna just totally disregard Sheary as a top 6? Ok I'll allow it.
- Tojo.

Yes

Maybe. I dunno. If that was the case, I can't imagine JJ would have ever been signed. GMs fixate on players all the time regardless of what the video/data/scouts/etc. say.

It doesn't seem like there is much of a plan in place. Every off season it just seems like he's correcting his previous (frank)ups. There have been a lot of against the grain acquisitions since 2015-16. There was a formula for success when that team steam rolled everyone in the playoffs. He completely deviated against that formula when the Pens PDO'd there way to a 2nd cup and acquired a bunch of "defensive specialists." The 2015-16 Pens had 4 lines capable of scoring. Right now the Pens have 2 high powered lines and 2 lines full of defensive specialists.
- j.boyd919

It's weird that the 2016-2017 Cup cause Rutherford to puke all over himself and throw the blue print away, given that the only reason we were able to PDO ourselves to a second Cup win was because we had a lot of offensive players all clicking at the exact same time. The "defensive specialist" thing was a mostly blue line phenomenon that season, and I felt it was pretty obvious that we won despite the blue line short comings, not because of some identity that we generated by having to adjust the game plan to account for Letang's injuries. We really should have trippled down on offense after that year with the idea that an entire Spanish Armada's worth of fire power can compensate for an extreme disaster of a defense.

Yes
- 10inchTerror

We've gotten to the point that we could actually use Conor Sheary back given that our forward depth has been gutted (MadMike trigger warning).

I do get this viewpoint. I myself wish we had signed Fast or Smith which could have added something more to the 3rd line. JR listens to his team of scouts and coaches on who to go after in FA.

I believe E-Rod came to JR and asked to sign from his comments. I think he turned down other opportunities to come back to Pittsburgh.
- 123Kid

I’ll give JR the benefit of the doubt and assume players like Fast, Smith, and Namestikov simply didn’t want to sign in Pittsburgh. As a GM you’d think him and his team were reaching out to most of these FAs to ask if they were even interested in coming to Pittsburgh. If I’m a GM, I’m even calling guys like Pietrangelo and Hall to see if they have any interest

Maybe. I dunno. If that was the case, I can't imagine JJ would have ever been signed. GMs fixate on players all the time regardless of what the video/data/scouts/etc. say.

It doesn't seem like there is much of a plan in place. Every off season it just seems like he's correcting his previous (frank)ups. There have been a lot of against the grain acquisitions since 2015-16. There was a formula for success when that team steam rolled everyone in the playoffs. He completely deviated against that formula when the Pens PDO'd there way to a 2nd cup and acquired a bunch of "defensive specialists." The 2015-16 Pens had 4 lines capable of scoring. Right now the Pens have 2 high powered lines and 2 lines full of defensive specialists.
- j.boyd919

I see a plan and I like it.
The way the team was playing last year while Sid was out is the team JR wants. Players that refuse to give up, think of how many games we came back in last season, being down by 3 going into the third meant we were going to see a comeback.

It's weird that the 2016-2017 Cup cause Rutherford to puke all over himself and throw the blue print away, given that the only reason we were able to PDO ourselves to a second Cup win was because we had a lot of offensive players all clicking at the exact same time. The "defensive specialist" thing was a mostly blue line phenomenon that season, and I felt it was pretty obvious that we won despite the blue line short comings, not because of some identity that we generated by having to adjust the game plan to account for Letang's injuries. We really should have trippled down on offense after that year with the idea that an entire Spanish Armada's worth of fire power can compensate for an extreme disaster of a defense.
- Victoro311

2016-2017 Pens are not a blueprint you can replicate.
Crosby played the best hockey of his career, Malkin was still in his prime and a treat every game and HBK caught fire.

It was stars aligning, and there are no deals to be made that can align them again like that.

2016-2017 Pens are not a blueprint you can replicate.
Crosby played the best hockey of his career, Malkin was still in his prime and a treat every game and HBK caught fire.

It was stars aligning, and there are no deals to be made that can align them again like that.
- stackthepads

That's kind of the point. It took Crosby, Malkin, Kessel, and Guentzel all playing top hockey at the same time and pouring in goals to overcompensate for the state of the blue line. The response shouldn't have been let's get more defensive because the blue line did so well (it didn't). The response should have been lets fill out our roster with scoring support so we don't have to rely on the stars perfectly aligning again and so we have contingency plans when guys get injured, which, you know, would look a lot like 2015-2016. Instead we've spent each off season making the supporting cast worse with the expectation that the stars can handle all of the offense. Since then, we've even lost one of them in Phil. It's a bad plan.

Also, HBK wasn't a thing anymore in 2016-2017. That was a 2015-2016 thing, but that's not really hear or there to the point either of us are making.

That's kind of the point. It took Crosby, Malkin, Kessel, and Guentzel all playing top hockey at the same time and pouring in goals to overcompensate for the state of the blue line. The response shouldn't have been let's get more defensive because the blue line did so well (it didn't). The response should have been lets fill out our roster with scoring support so we don't have to rely on the stars perfectly aligning again and so we have contingency plans when guys get injured, which, you know, would look a lot like 2015-2016. Instead we've spent each off season making the supporting cast worse with the expectation that the stars can handle all of the offense. Since then, we've even lost one of them in Phil. It's a bad plan.

Also, HBK wasn't a thing anymore in 2016-2017. That was a 2015-2016 thing, but that's not really hear or there to the point either of us are making.
- Victoro311

I just don’t agree with you. I think we should be getting more defensive.

JR is trying to transition us into a team more in the mould of CBJ. I don’t know if it’s going to workout but I think it’s the right direction.

That's kind of the point. It took Crosby, Malkin, Kessel, and Guentzel all playing top hockey at the same time and pouring in goals to overcompensate for the state of the blue line. The response shouldn't have been let's get more defensive because the blue line did so well (it didn't). The response should have been lets fill out our roster with scoring support so we don't have to rely on the stars perfectly aligning again and so we have contingency plans when guys get injured, which, you know, would look a lot like 2015-2016. Instead we've spent each off season making the supporting cast worse with the expectation that the stars can handle all of the offense. Since then, we've even lost one of them in Phil. It's a bad plan.

Also, HBK wasn't a thing anymore in 2016-2017. That was a 2015-2016 thing, but that's not really hear or there to the point either of us are making.
- Victoro311

Agree with what you're saying. Want to also throw in that Fleury played out of his mind when we needed him and opposing goaltending, especially Holtby, was suspect. Something you again can't count on as repeatable. Also Schultz was very good.

While they lost Phil (who was aging anyways) they do seem to have a deeper top 6 with Zucker, Kapanen, and they emergence of Rust. But that bottom 6 scoring is very suspect aside from McCann and he had a rough end to the season.

I just don’t agree with you. I think we should be getting more defensive.

JR is trying to transition us into a team more in the mould of CBJ. I don’t know if it’s going to workout but I think it’s the right direction.
- stackthepads

Alright agree to disagree then I guess. Don’t really think CBJ is anything to try and emulate given their complete lack of success as a franchise. They’re annoying to play against but they never actually win anything. Pretty much every SC Champion has scoring support up and down the lineup.

I just don’t agree with you. I think we should be getting more defensive.

JR is trying to transition us into a team more in the mould of CBJ. I don’t know if it’s going to workout but I think it’s the right direction.
- stackthepads

No clue why we would try to emulate CBJ considering they haven’t done poop.

Toffoli signed to less than I expected. MTL 4x4.25M

No clue why we would try to emulate CBJ considering they haven’t done poop.
- j.boyd919

Emulate their culture of effort.