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Pens -- SUMMER 2022

COOL MAN

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Jun 19, 2001
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Might as well do something around here as we approach the Draft and FA, even though this (like most everything else I post) doesn't mean much.

Saw that DeSmith re-signed today. I'm not at all surprised about that; but what does surprise me is that he earned a 50% raise. Now, $1.8 million for a reasonably-established veteran goaltender (who only needs to play every 3rd game) surely isn't crazy money. But his continuing inability to deliver physically when the team has really needed him made me question how much new ownership would want anything to do with him.

Guess it indicates that both Hexy and Burkey were pretty solidly behind him. I also think it indicates how little interest they had in the current FA availables in goal.
 
So, Letang signs for $8.0, $8.0, $6.2 then $4.8 x 3.....obviously, a reasonable AAV, but an miserable term. Decide for yourself how much the team will be regretting this deal in 2025-26 (if not sooner).

He's going to collect every single dollar of the deal until/unless he retires; so even the $1 million+ reduction versus his current AAV is hardly a screw job. Unfortunately, the Team is on the cap hook for the salary through the entire term whether he plays or not (and as a 35+ year old signee, a buyout doesn't provide them relief).

The team simply has to be figuring the cap is going up substantially in the next few years......a new/revised Collectve Bargaining Agreement will somehow rescue them.....or they can palm off the last couple years of the deal to some bottom-dweller with cap space (though he's said to have a full NMC for at least 4 years).

But with this kind of deal in place, I have no clue where the team will find the long term dollars to come even close to pay Malkin. To me, it sounds today as though Geno is not (and has never been) part of their plans
 
I'm honestly shocked this Malkin testing FA is as big a story as its being made out to be. But hey, when the hockey media at large has a chance to hang the Penguins out to dry, they never pass the opportunity by.

While I'll admit I'd like the guy to be re-signed, I have no trouble with Hextall drawing a line in the sand with him for whatever reason(s) he chooses. OTOH, while he may very well end up in Washington or NY or who knows where else.....and is perfectly entitled to go wherever he chooses.....I'm more than sick of all his moaning in the local press.

Of course, I assume most (if not all) of it has been/is being choreographed by his agent......who gets paid to do just that. Still, I find it hard to believe he's willing to go to Washington to be second banana to 8......or, for that matter, Kuznetsov. But he's going to sign the best/highest offer no matter from where it comes.
 
Penguins need to look to the future and stop living in the past. The Penguins don't have a Stanley cup core and all there doing is wasting money on guys that aren't going to get them any closure to that goal. They should have moved on from both Malkin and Letang and started the youth movement. They are just prolonging the amount of time it will take to get back in contention. It looks like they are constructing their roster for an old timers game instead of the modern NHL.
 
Penguins need to look to the future and stop living in the past. The Penguins don't have a Stanley cup core and all there doing is wasting money on guys that aren't going to get them any closure to that goal. They should have moved on from both Malkin and Letang and started the youth movement. They are just prolonging the amount of time it will take to get back in contention. It looks like they are constructing their roster for an old timers game instead of the modern NHL.
I think it's pretty apparent the Letang and (especially) Malkin deals are all about placating Crosby......and maybe they do owe him that.

Meanwhile, I'm getting less and less concerned about the cap hits later in the two new contracts; because by then, the team will/should (finally) be in the midst of the rebuild, and likely will have more than enough room to carry the dead money.....at least for a year or two.....before FSG starts throwing around FA money.

Now, how they sell tickets at that point to an otherwise horribly-spoiled Penguins fanbase is something I can't figure out here in 2022.
 
I think it's pretty apparent the Letang and (especially) Malkin deals are all about placating Crosby......and maybe they do owe him that.

Meanwhile, I'm getting less and less concerned about the cap hits later in the two new contracts; because by then, the team will/should (finally) be in the midst of the rebuild, and likely will have more than enough room to carry the dead money.....at least for a year or two.....before FSG starts throwing around FA money.

Now, how they sell tickets at that point to an otherwise horribly-spoiled Penguins fanbase is something I can't figure out here in 2022.
I don't think it should be about placating anyone. A franchise will always be there but players come and go. If you hold on to the past you end up like the Chicago Blackhawks. Regardless of when the cap rises it still doesn't change the fact that you have money tied up that could be better spent.
 
I don't think it should be about placating anyone.
I happen to agree with you in the abstract; but I think ......at least from the outside looking in......it naive to believe that Sid wasn't intimately involved (on all sides) in getting the two contracts done.
 
Saw something interesting a few minutes ago........our ol' pal Zach Aston-Reese is a FA (and hasn't, I don't think, signed a new deal with anyone as yet). With Evan Rodrigues and Danton Heinen presumably signing with someone else at some point, the team needs bottom 6 forwards.

And while I don't know what Hexy thinks about him.....other then the fact he traded him earlier this year.......I wonder if he'd consider returning to the Pens for something closer to the $1 million/season he played for before his $1.725 million/year deal for 2021/22 kicked in.
 
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