You are the GM

[Idoit40fans]

There's zero chance we lose Geno, relax everyone. Current cap hit is $8.7M, they're not going to lose him over a small increase in salary. There's nothing to suggest otherwise.

I feel like the concern is whether theyll be crippled if they do sign him.

[rickyaustin]

i'm far more curious about Letang's contract. I'm sure on the open market he'd bring $7M in a bidding war. If that's the case, does Shero make Martin (barring an amazing season) a compliance buyout — and essentially give a chunk of his money to Letang, and then we start letting our young defensemen play?

I'd love to get Letang for $5.5/yr — but have a bad feeling it's going to creep over $6M.

He's solid, and has potential to be a great player, but I don't think he's worth it today.

[jimreb]

McIntyre, Zatkoff, and Thiessen put on waivers.

[Fire0nice228]

If you add up Sids actual money per year the first 8 years of his contract, each year is over 8.7 mil, the only reason his cap hit is 8.7 is because of the trailer years. If you pay Malkin the same in actual money per year for 8 years (instead of 12 that crosby got with the last 4 pulling his cap hit down) malkins cap hit is over 10 million.

you all think Geno will get paid less in real money than Sid just because the went down for a few seasons until it comes back up as revenues grow? If so I disagree with that notion.

So yes, I'm saying (assuming)he'll get the same money as sid did (in real life dollars which has nothing to do with cap in this instance)for the first 8 years of Sids contract, but since geno cant have the trailer years thrown on to lower his hit, his cap hit will be higher. Same as Pensct said on the last page.

Oh wait we're talking real life dollars?

Are you really this dense or are you jagging me?

[BurghersAndDogsSports]

There's zero chance we lose Geno, relax everyone. Current cap hit is $8.7M, they're not going to lose him over a small increase in salary. There's nothing to suggest otherwise.

I feel like the concern is whether theyll be crippled if they do sign him.

Majo concern.

[penny lane]

i don't think gm shero will wait to see if Sidney makes it through this season healthy and whole before signing Evgeni.
Letang ? we'll see.

[malksby8771]

i'm far more curious about Letang's contract. I'm sure on the open market he'd bring $7M in a bidding war. If that's the case, does Shero make Martin (barring an amazing season) a compliance buyout — and essentially give a chunk of his money to Letang, and then we start letting our young defensemen play?

I'd love to get Letang for $5.5/yr — but have a bad feeling it's going to creep over $6M.

He's solid, and has potential to be a great player, but I don't think he's worth it today.

Good points. You could make the strong case for a Martin compliance buyout as it allows us to give malkin, letang, and even dupuis raises going forward. In the next year or two hopefully one of our prospects could fill Martin's shoes and maybe we could add a serviceable veteran for far less of a cap hit.

[Beveridge]

i don't think gm shero will wait to see if Sidney makes it through this season healthy and whole before signing Evgeni.
Letang ? we'll see.

I bet he does since he can't do anything with them until July 5.

[pcm]

I think Letang will be well worth $6+ m by the time the 14-15 season comes around (when that contract would kick in).

[pens_CT]

I think Letang will be well worth $6+ m by the time the 14-15 season comes around (when that contract would kick in).

Assuming he picks up his offensive game (~60 pts/year or so) I would agree. I think if you are making 6+ mil as a defenseman you better be contibuting both on offense and defense.

[DesertPenguin]

i'm far more curious about Letang's contract. I'm sure on the open market he'd bring $7M in a bidding war. If that's the case, does Shero make Martin (barring an amazing season) a compliance buyout — and essentially give a chunk of his money to Letang, and then we start letting our young defensemen play?

I'd love to get Letang for $5.5/yr — but have a bad feeling it's going to creep over $6M.

He's solid, and has potential to be a great player, but I don't think he's worth it today.

Good points. You could make the strong case for a Martin compliance buyout as it allows us to give malkin, letang, and even dupuis raises going forward. In the next year or two hopefully one of our prospects could fill Martin's shoes and maybe we could add a serviceable veteran for far less of a cap hit.

I don't think we will need to buy out Martin. If we need to shed his cap hit, I feel confident we can find a trade partner to deal for him this offseason. What kind of return we get will depend on his play this season, but even if he repeats last year's performance we should still be able to trade him for a bag of pucks instead of paying him for two more years to not play hockey for us. Shero had people calling about Martin at the draft, but Ray only wanted to dump one defenseman, and he chose Michalek.

Remember, buying a player out clears them from your cap hit, but the team still has to pay him his money. The Pens aren't the kind of team to wildly spend cash if they don't have to, especially with Sid's salary (not cap number) going up, and pending raises for Malkin and Letang looming as well. They have the cash flow to spend to the cap, but they aren't rolling in dough like some franchises.

[pcm]

It's a good point about trading him, though this summer probably wouldn't be the best time to get max value for him. I bet he stays around until the deadline next season. He'll have to become more valuable than Orpik to stick around beyond that.

[DesertPenguin]

It's a good point about trading him, though this summer probably wouldn't be the best time to get max value for him. I bet he stays around until the deadline next season. He'll have to become more valuable than Orpik to stick around beyond that.

True, there is no immediate need to trade him this offseason either, unless we have a free agent we want to bring in and need that cap space. Even when Malkin and Letang sign new (presumably bigger) contracts this offseason, they will still have to play out the final year of their existing deals. Their higher cap hits won't be in affect until the 2014-2015 season.

In any case, I don't think the Pens use any of their buyouts. If Paul Martin is the worst contract on your payroll, you're doing very well comparatively.

[pcm]

And unless the Pens bring in another top 6 winger on contract, I don't see them needing to shed salary to get under the cap next season. This summer will be all about the change of guard for the support forwards. Cooke, Adams, Dupuis, Kennedy are all free agents. Not sure which, or how many will be brought back.

It'd be nice if we had a few more guys in WBS ready to compete for those spots. That's who I'd trade one of our surplus D prospects for...

[bhaw]

McIntyre, Zatkoff, and Thiessen put on waivers.

Seems odd given Zatkoff is being looked at fairly highly in terms of goalie prospects. Not like top 5 high, but I've seen him in the middle to lower part of top 25 lists of prospect goalies. Unless they have to put him on waivers (this is the one piece I'm always bad at understanding).

[mikey287]

They have to to send him down...

[bhaw]

Dave Molinari
With so many teams seeking blue-line depth, Shero should have a good chance to get something for 1 or 2 of his 9 waivers-eligible defensemen

[DesertPenguin]

Shero's talk with the media today is up on the Pens website.

http://penguins.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=650151&navid=DL|PIT|home#shero

A few tidbits:

- The cap will never go below 64.3m. That is news to me. I thought the artificial floor for next year was a one year thing, but it appears it will always be at least 64.3m, the 2011-2012 salary cap.

- In regards to our logjam of defensemen, Shero is open to the possibility of starting the year with 8, but specifically said we will not have 9. It's obvious they wouldn't carry 9 defensemen, but the fact he specifically said that is telling. It shows Simon Despres has a legitimate shot of making this team, and Ray is willing to move a guy (or two) from the waiver eligible list to make it happen.

- In that same response, he also specifically mentioned Despres does not need waivers, and Strait, Bortuzzo and Lovejoy do need waivers. Again, we all knew that, but I think the fact he mentioned those 4 specifically tells me its down to those 4 for 2 or maybe three spots. The fact that Engo wasn't mentioned by name tells me Shero has written his name in ink on the final roster.

- Ray also seemed very pleased with Beau Bennett and believes he is ahead of the curve on his development, especially considering his injury issues at Denver limited his game time.

- He specifically mentioned Jeffrey's time in Europe as a good thing for him to get a lot of playing time to hopefully get back to where he was before the injury

[pens_CT]

Dave Molinari
With so many teams seeking blue-line depth, Shero should have a good chance to get something for 1 or 2 of his 9 waivers-eligible defensemen

I think most GM's will try to grab guys off the waiver wire rather than part with an asset. I doubt we get anything for these excess d-men.

[Bioshock]

There's zero chance we lose Geno, relax everyone. Current cap hit is $8.7M, they're not going to lose him over a small increase in salary. There's nothing to suggest otherwise.

I feel like the concern is whether theyll be crippled if they do sign him.

Majo concern.

Don't see why. Malkin's caps hit will go up minimally and Letang's contract will simply take the place of Martin's or Orpik. Maybe a combination of other players as well.

Just saying i think Shero has long since thought this through and has the team set up to sign both players. Now, with two buyouts as well? That gives even more flexibility to manipulate the cap.

If Shero had a history of screwing up the future by being too shortsighted, then i would feel worried. But.... nah, he's good.

[MRandall25]

If the cap won't go below 64.3, I really don't think we need to worry about whether or not we can keep certain players.

[Bioshock]

If the cap won't go below 64.3, I really don't think we need to worry about whether or not we can keep certain players.

Pretty much. This whole situation sets up nicely for the Pens to sign whoever they want on their roster.

[columbia]

I wish it had gone down further, every team in the league dealt with a few kicks in the balls for a year or two (over losing players) and the leage was set up for a sane financial situation.
But that's a conversation for another thread, I guess.

[BurghersAndDogsSports]

There's zero chance we lose Geno, relax everyone. Current cap hit is $8.7M, they're not going to lose him over a small increase in salary. There's nothing to suggest otherwise.

I feel like the concern is whether theyll be crippled if they do sign him.

Majo concern.

Don't see why. Malkin's caps hit will go up minimally and Letang's contract will simply take the place of Martin's or Orpik. Maybe a combination of other players as well.

Just saying i think Shero has long since thought this through and has the team set up to sign both players. Now, with two buyouts as well? That gives even more flexibility to manipulate the cap.

If Shero had a history of screwing up the future by being too shortsighted, then i would feel worried. But.... nah, he's good.

Sure, when I made the comment I was thinking the cap would go to around $60, but either way it is still not that simple, we have proven to be top heavy and not leaving much room for any mistakes with signings, especially having to go the UFA route to fill out our forwards in 2 years, and Sutter with a raise, and no matter how deep our d prospects are we are going to need some umph.

Letang will replace say Martins contract but we will still need some $3 million dollars dmen at some point.

I also am not sure the pens can buy anyone out. It's not about the cap, it's about the pens being n the hook for $75 million cash per year, not sure I see it happening.

Not trying to be doom and gloom and we were at th cap the past two years and had major holes, adding some salary and filling out a roster I just think is going to be tougher than Shero has this figured out that's all.

[Bioshock]

There's zero chance we lose Geno, relax everyone. Current cap hit is $8.7M, they're not going to lose him over a small increase in salary. There's nothing to suggest otherwise.

I feel like the concern is whether theyll be crippled if they do sign him.

Majo concern.

Don't see why. Malkin's caps hit will go up minimally and Letang's contract will simply take the place of Martin's or Orpik. Maybe a combination of other players as well.

Just saying i think Shero has long since thought this through and has the team set up to sign both players. Now, with two buyouts as well? That gives even more flexibility to manipulate the cap.

If Shero had a history of screwing up the future by being too shortsighted, then i would feel worried. But.... nah, he's good.

Sure, when I made the comment I was thinking the cap would go to around $60, but either way it is still not that simple, we have proven to be top heavy and not leaving much room for any mistakes with signings, especially having to go the UFA route to fill out our forwards in 2 years, and Sutter with a raise, and no matter how deep our d prospects are we are going to need some umph.

Letang will replace say Martins contract but we will still need some $3 million dollars dmen at some point.

I also am not sure the pens can buy anyone out. It's not about the cap, it's about the pens being n the hook for $75 million cash per year, not sure I see it happening.

Not trying to be doom and gloom and we were at th cap the past two years and had major holes, adding some salary and filling out a roster I just think is going to be tougher than Shero has this figured out that's all.

Look at it this way. It will be REALLY fun to watch and see what happens. I can't wait!