(Official) Free Agent and Offseason Discussion Thread

[Froggy]

I hated when players signed minor league deals during the lockout. Yeah, 45 year millionaire needs to take some 26 year old career minor leaguer's job because he wants to stay fresh. Boo

[mikey287]

I hated when players signed minor league deals during the lockout. Yeah, 45 year millionaire needs to take some 26 year old career minor leaguer's job because he wants to stay fresh. Boo

Elimination of jobs. 30 x 23 jobs eliminated.

Young or marginal players effected all over the globe. Joe Thornton or Rick Nash playing in Switzerland pushes X amount of players down to the "B" level or holds them in the junior level for X amount of time. Sometimes a player will benefit, though, from having the new talent on his line/team, becomes a career turning point. Case by case basis...

[Hugo Stiglitz]

You can't lower the cap and not lower salaries. That's unpossible.

I don't think anyone was suggesting that wouldn't happen, but the issue will be with existing salaries which seems to be some of the sticking points they're trying to hammer out. Players want teams to be able to have some of their existing contracts be "forgiven" in a sense and will not count 100% against the cap. Chances are the Penguins wouldn't have to move anyone.

In fact, depending on how it all gets structured the Penguins could wind up a little room to spare...maybe not enough to go out and sign Doan or someone of that nature, but enough to have a little breathing room at the trade deadline.

One thing is for sure: there are quite a few teams in major trouble if this cap really goes to $58M. The Penguins should consider themselves not only lucky to have everything they need shored up, but lucky that we have a GM like Shero who was really smart about his spending. While money was obviously not the main issue and Shero could have obviously looked to move Michalek and Martin to free up the money to keep him, the Staal trade is looking a hell of a lot better now. Being able to have someone like Brandon Sutter as our 3rd line center has his price is going to be bigger than most thought when you compare how other teams are going to have to restructure.

Minnesota and Boston are seriously EFFED in the A. I actually feel bad for Minnesota. They had a lot of issues with injuries last year after getting off to a serious start and were a solid team on paper before Parise and Sutter got there, but they're going to have shed A LOT of space now. You can bet that Heatley is probably going bye-bye. They obviously have other contract they could shed, but that mean selling off their depth.

Vancouver and Philly will also be profoundly effected even with some cap forgiveness...they will both likely have to move at least one decent mid-level player.

After all the rumors all these years with Lecavalier, we could finally see him moved, but probably more likely Malone will get moved.

Either way, it's going to be really interesting to see how things play out. Lower tier teams will get a chance to trade for excellent players with giving up very little and again, the Penguins should consider themselves very lucky. They're one of the few contenders that will lose much of their power.

[DesertPenguin]

You can't lower the cap and not lower salaries. That's unpossible.

I don't think anyone was suggesting that wouldn't happen, but the issue will be with existing salaries which seems to be some of the sticking points they're trying to hammer out. Players want teams to be able to have some of their existing contracts be "forgiven" in a sense and will not count 100% against the cap. Chances are the Penguins wouldn't have to move anyone.

In fact, depending on how it all gets structured the Penguins could wind up a little room to spare...maybe not enough to go out and sign Doan or someone of that nature, but enough to have a little breathing room at the trade deadline.

One thing is for sure: there are quite a few teams in major trouble if this cap really goes to $58M. The Penguins should consider themselves not only lucky to have everything they need shored up, but lucky that we have a GM like Shero who was really smart about his spending. While money was obviously not the main issue and Shero could have obviously looked to move Michalek and Martin to free up the money to keep him, the Staal trade is looking a hell of a lot better now. Being able to have someone like Brandon Sutter as our 3rd line center has his price is going to be bigger than most thought when you compare how other teams are going to have to restructure.

Minnesota and Boston are seriously EFFED in the A. I actually feel bad for Minnesota. They had a lot of issues with injuries last year after getting off to a serious start and were a solid team on paper before Parise and Sutter got there, but they're going to have shed A LOT of space now. You can bet that Heatley is probably going bye-bye. They obviously have other contract they could shed, but that mean selling off their depth.

Vancouver and Philly will also be profoundly effected even with some cap forgiveness...they will both likely have to move at least one decent mid-level player.

After all the rumors all these years with Lecavalier, we could finally see him moved, but probably more likely Malone will get moved.

Either way, it's going to be really interesting to see how things play out. Lower tier teams will get a chance to trade for excellent players with giving up very little and again, the Penguins should consider themselves very lucky. They're one of the few contenders that will lose much of their power.

If you could get Malone without giving up a major asset because the Bolts are trying to shed salary, would you? Let him rekindle that magic with Malkin, move Kunitz back to Sid's line and suddenly I feel better about the forward group. Plus we finally have that net front guy again.

Although I guess for the Bolts to need to do that, it would be because the cap has dropped so low the Pens would be out of room anyway.

[Froggy]

No. No to Malone.

[bhaw]

I don't gamble on Malone because he has years left on his deal. If he doesn't magically become better again, you're stuck with a (or another, depending on how you view Martin) very expensive anchor.

[Hugo Stiglitz]

If you could get Malone without giving up a major asset because the Bolts are trying to shed salary, would you? Let him rekindle that magic with Malkin, move Kunitz back to Sid's line and suddenly I feel better about the forward group. Plus we finally have that net front guy again.

Although I guess for the Bolts to need to do that, it would be because the cap has dropped so low the Pens would be out of room anyway.

The Penguins will not have enough room for Malone unless they move a big piece to get him. That being said, I wouldn't want Malone here at his price-tag.

My point was not showing what players the Pens could go after, but rather how other teams are going to be hit a lot harder than the Pens.

[Hugo Stiglitz]

What I'd really like to see the Penguins do is make a small move for one or two better role players. On Paper the bottom-six looks pretty good(Kennedy, Cooke, Sutter, Vitale, Jeffrey, Glass, Adams and Tangradi), but it's missing something.

I like Vitale and Adams, but I think we can do better even if it's only marginal. We need more of a stand-out. I'd trade one or two of those guys and target the FA market: Darche or Betts comes to mind. I just think they bring a little more verve.

What I'd really like to see is the Pens bring in Dominic Moore for fourth line duty, face-offs and PK. Having him gives us pretty serious depth down the middle.

***This is obviously all dependent upon what happens with the Cap and if teams will be given a little slack on how previous larger contracts will affect it. ***

I think $1M for Dominic Moore to play the fourth would be a small but profound addition.

[MRandall25]

Dominic Moore isn't sure if he'll play because his wife has a serious medical condition...

[mikey287]

Former Penguin (for about 25 minutes) Marc Cheverie signs an AHL deal with Binghamton...

[offsides]

I know this is a bleacher report, so take it however you like. To me, Philly and Subban would be a perfect fit for each other.

http://bleacherreport.com/tb/d8rKn?utm_ ... mpaign=nhl

[shmenguin]

i saw that yesterday...i don't give it much credence, but "ugh" none the less. i don't enjoy hating philly. not at all. when they shipped out richards, i finally thought it was going to be a team i could tolerate. but then giroux became a d-nozzle, their coaching staff became insufferable, hartnell got his mojo back, we learned what kind of human brayden schenn is and rinaldo became a member of the NHLPA somehow. i would not enjoy the pk subban era in philly whatsoever. it's not good to have that much hate in my life.

[columbia]

I would love to see Subban as a Flyer.
More hate, please.

[Luckybreak]

i saw that yesterday...i don't give it much credence, but "ugh" none the less. i don't enjoy hating philly. not at all. when they shipped out richards, i finally thought it was going to be a team i could tolerate. but then giroux became a d-nozzle, their coaching staff became insufferable, hartnell got his mojo back, we learned what kind of human brayden schenn is and rinaldo became a member of the NHLPA somehow. i would not enjoy the pk subban era in philly whatsoever. it's not good to have that much hate in my life.

As much as seeing *insert Penguin player* send Subban+Flyers jersey through the glass/pound him into the ice, the rage at seeing him slap the game winner past Flower or decapitate Sid with his skate would be Hulk-esque in magnitude. My TV/fists would certainly become horrific casualties of the 'PK Flyers era'.

[MRandall25]

I'd probably have an aneurysm from the sheer amount of anger PK Slewban would cause if he were on the Flyers.

[the wicked child]

I can't think of many things worse than PK Scissorfoot getting 2+ more games a year to try to injure our players... I might have a meltdown if that ever happened.

[bhaw]

Doan watch is over

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=6414 ... NHL%7Chome

[columbia]

Does he have an out, for when they move to P_G's home town?

[the wicked child]

I am shocked. shocked I tell you!

[mikey287]

Housekeeping: Philippe Dupuis, Dylan Reese, Trevor Smith, Alex Grant, Riley Holzapfel, Warren Peters and Benn Ferriero on waivers today from Pittsburgh...they represent 7 of the 63 (I think) on waivers today...over 100 in the past two days I believe...

Other notables in the past three days: Garnet Exelby, Christian Hanson, Michael Caruso, James Wright, J.F. Jacques, Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers, Toby Petersen, Danny Syvret, Taylor Chorney, Derek Joslin, Zach Hamill, Paul Byron, Zach Boychuk, Justin Peters, Marc-Andre Gragnani, Bobby Sanguinetti, Alex Plante, Yann Danis, Bobby Butler, T.J. Hensick...

All should clear...though someone might try to take a stab at Zach Boychuk, but I believe that's frowned upon...

[shmenguin]

lucic re-ups. 3 years, 6 mill per.

with the uncertainty of the CBA, some people think boston is in trouble being so close to the cap for such a long term...which is stupid. the owners aren't going to approve of a deal that makes them fire sale assets to squeeze under a new cap. that guy harrison mooney on puck daddy writes with the sophistication of a 4th grader who won an essay contest to be published on a blog.

[Malkamaniac]

I enjoy that the league, wants players to take pay cuts, all the while giving these players these contracts.

[DelPen]

I enjoy that the league, wants players to take pay cuts, all the while giving these players these contracts.

If the teams weren't giving out comparable salaries the NHLPA would complain and call it collusion by the owners to keep salaries artifically lower.