2024-2025 Season Random Penguins Fodder

[Victor]

WBS signed some guys from NCAA.

https://x.com/WBSPenguins/status/1909315236517359994

[Pens4Life]

David Breazeale is big defensive defenseman (6'4, LHD), I always cheer for guys like him to make it to NHL, especially for 3rd pair physical shutdown D.. he was captain of Maine last two seasons,so he has more maturity at his age compared to others maybe.

[FLPensFan]

https://x.com/penguins/status/1909599701365666258 (not sure why, but my Twitter links have stopped showing properly on the board)

[Victor]

Not sure if anyone posted this. If the translation is correct, Hållander SHL's team said "thank you for your time".

https://x.com/timra_ik/status/1907802557751169040

I was reading about him to refresh my memory. He was drafted in the 2nd round in 2018, #58 overall. And was part of two questionable trades, to say the least, one by Rutherford, one by Hextall.

In 2020, he was traded to Toronto with Evan Rodrigues, David Warsofsky and the #15 pick in the 2020 Draft for Kasperi Kapanen, Jesper Lindgren and Pontus Åberg.

In 2021, Hållander was traded by Toronto back to Pittsburgh with a 7th rounder in 2023 for Jared McCann, right before Seattle's expansion draft.

[Victor]

https://x.com/penguins/status/1909599701365666258 (not sure why, but my Twitter links have stopped showing properly on the board)

Not only yours. April fools' is still upon us

[Puck-Lurker]

Thinking the Twitter module is borked. A shame, I really liked it

[KG]

Matt Vensel
@mattvensel
Penguins lines at the skate:

McGroarty-Crosby-Rust
Koivunen-Geno-Rakell
Dewar-Hayes-Heinen
Nieto-Koppanen-Acciari

Grzelcyk-Letang
Timmins-Karlsson
Other three D rotating

[Admin]

Thinking the Twitter module is borked. A shame, I really liked it

I just updated the extension. Let me know if that fixes it.

[Puck-Lurker]

Edit: odd, it did work in a PM only moments ago.
Edit: and now it does, wouldnt work on the phone for whatever reason.

[Puck-Lurker]

Matt Vensel
@mattvensel
Penguins lines at the skate:

McGroarty-Crosby-Rust
Koivunen-Geno-Rakell
Dewar-Hayes-Heinen
Nieto-Koppanen-Acciari

Grzelcyk-Letang
Timmins-Karlsson
Other three D rotating

Woofff... From the third pair down...

[Victor]

Expanding a bit on a search for LDs that might become available:

- Pavel Mintyukov, ELC for one more year
- Olen Zellweger, ELC for one more year
Lacombe is having a breakout year, I don't think Anaheium would trade them. They have Mintyukov and Zellweger as LDs and might be open to trading one to give the other more icetime. Both Mintyukov and Zellweger are 21. Anaheim have no defensemen signed past next season, so they might want to keep their young players for one more year.

- Bowen Byram, RFA this summer with arbitration rights
Bufallo has Dahlin and Power signed long-term. Byram is 23.

- Jayden Struble, RFA this summer with arbitration rights
- Mike Matheson, 4.875M AAV, signed for one more season
Montreal extended Guhle. Hutson still has a year on his ELC. They also have Xhekaj for the bottom pair, Engström in the AHL. Struble is 23, Matheson is 31. Both Matheson and Struble are Hutson's most frequent pairs this season.

- Nic Hague, RFA this summer with arbitration rights
Vegas has Hanifin, Theodore and McNabb signed for at least 3 more years. Pietrangelo and Whitecloud signed as RD, Hutton and Korczak as spares. Hague is 26.

Dubas might pull off a reverse Hextall with RD for LD trade to trade Karlsson somewhere else. Not sure if Karlsson would waive his NTC to go to any of these places. Maybe Montreal, as they could use another RD as Savard is an UFA this summer. If they decide to play Matheson as RD, they likely don't want to move Struble if they're able to extend him. Anaheim has Trouba and Gudas signed for one more season. Even though I think Byram would be an instant upgrade over every LD we have now, who wants to go to Bufallo? Vegas would need something different as they don't have room for someone like #65.

[dark_forces]

Expanding a bit on a search for LDs that might become available:

- Pavel Mintyukov, ELC for one more year
- Olen Zellweger, ELC for one more year
Lacombe is having a breakout year, I don't think Anaheium would trade them. They have Mintyukov and Zellweger as LDs and might be open to trading one to give the other more icetime. Both Mintyukov and Zellweger are 21. Anaheim have no defensemen signed past next season, so they might want to keep their young players for one more year.

- Bowen Byram, RFA this summer with arbitration rights
Bufallo has Dahlin and Power signed long-term. Byram is 23.

- Jayden Struble, RFA this summer with arbitration rights
- Mike Matheson, 4.875M AAV, signed for one more season
Montreal extended Guhle. Hutson still has a year on his ELC. They also have Xhekaj for the bottom pair, Engström in the AHL. Struble is 23, Matheson is 31. Both Matheson and Struble are Hutson's most frequent pairs this season.

- Nic Hague, RFA this summer with arbitration rights
Vegas has Hanifin, Theodore and McNabb signed for at least 3 more years. Pietrangelo and Whitecloud signed as RD, Hutton and Korczak as spares. Hague is 26.

Dubas might pull off a reverse Hextall with RD for LD trade to trade Karlsson somewhere else. Not sure if Karlsson would waive his NTC to go to any of these places. Maybe Montreal, as they could use another RD as Savard is an UFA this summer. If they decide to play Matheson as RD, they likely don't want to move Struble if they're able to extend him. Anaheim has Trouba and Gudas signed for one more season. Even though I think Byram would be an instant upgrade over every LD we have now, who wants to go to Bufallo? Vegas would need something different as they don't have room for someone like #65.

This is an interesting take. I would be open (obtaining Karlsson would be a very Montreal type of thing to do) to dealing Karlsson with maybe 2 mil. retained for Matheson and some type of pick or B level prospect. At the least, Karlsson and Matheson would be the principles in the deal and other pieces would be assembled around them. I like the concept. With all of our draft capital, we could also toss in a draft pick sweetener and return a better prospect. Along with Savard, Dvorak and Armia are also off the books.
Matheson came a long way in Pittsburgh and can still really skate and pass the puck. He could play top pairing minutes.

[Victor]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/625864 ... offseason/

According to this article, the assessment from the Blue Jackets' front office for Elvis Merzlikins is that is contract is untradetable as he makes too much money and his play declined significantly. Something very similar to what we have with Jarry. Wadell is considering buying out Merzlikins in the offseason.

Their stats this season:
Merzlikins 52GP, 25-21-5, .891 SV%, 3.20 GAA, 1 SO
Jarry 32GP, 14-11-6, .888 SV%, 3.26 GAA, 1 SO

Last season:
Merzlikins 41GP, 13-17-8, .897 SV%, 3.45 GAA, 1 SO
Jarry 51GP, 19-25-5, .903 SV%, 2.91 GAA, 6 SO

If part of the plan is to be just as bad next season, or even worse, I'd would consider a Jarry-Merzlikins swap if we could also move Ned to make room for Blomqvist/larsson. Both players could benefit from a change of scenery. Play Merzlikins as backup or send him to the AHL if he continues to play poorly. Merzlikins' AAV is 5.4M, pretty much the same as Jarry's 5.375M. He has two years remaining on his contract, one less than Jarry. There would be a window to buy him out after one season in Pittsburgh if needed, 2.6M cap hit in year 1, 1.4M in year 2.

The article also mentions they might move from Tarasov, who is a RFA this summer. It will likely be Jet Greaves' net next year in Columbus with an UFA coming as backup or 1B if Merzlikins is moved or bought out.

[FLPensFan]

Expanding a bit on a search for LDs that might become available:

- Pavel Mintyukov, ELC for one more year
- Olen Zellweger, ELC for one more year
Lacombe is having a breakout year, I don't think Anaheium would trade them. They have Mintyukov and Zellweger as LDs and might be open to trading one to give the other more icetime. Both Mintyukov and Zellweger are 21. Anaheim have no defensemen signed past next season, so they might want to keep their young players for one more year.

- Bowen Byram, RFA this summer with arbitration rights
Bufallo has Dahlin and Power signed long-term. Byram is 23.

- Jayden Struble, RFA this summer with arbitration rights
- Mike Matheson, 4.875M AAV, signed for one more season
Montreal extended Guhle. Hutson still has a year on his ELC. They also have Xhekaj for the bottom pair, Engström in the AHL. Struble is 23, Matheson is 31. Both Matheson and Struble are Hutson's most frequent pairs this season.

- Nic Hague, RFA this summer with arbitration rights
Vegas has Hanifin, Theodore and McNabb signed for at least 3 more years. Pietrangelo and Whitecloud signed as RD, Hutton and Korczak as spares. Hague is 26.

Dubas might pull off a reverse Hextall with RD for LD trade to trade Karlsson somewhere else. Not sure if Karlsson would waive his NTC to go to any of these places. Maybe Montreal, as they could use another RD as Savard is an UFA this summer. If they decide to play Matheson as RD, they likely don't want to move Struble if they're able to extend him. Anaheim has Trouba and Gudas signed for one more season. Even though I think Byram would be an instant upgrade over every LD we have now, who wants to go to Bufallo? Vegas would need something different as they don't have room for someone like #65.

This is an interesting take. I would be open (obtaining Karlsson would be a very Montreal type of thing to do) to dealing Karlsson with maybe 2 mil. retained for Matheson and some type of pick or B level prospect. At the least, Karlsson and Matheson would be the principles in the deal and other pieces would be assembled around them. I like the concept. With all of our draft capital, we could also toss in a draft pick sweetener and return a better prospect. Along with Savard, Dvorak and Armia are also off the books.
Matheson came a long way in Pittsburgh and can still really skate and pass the puck. He could play top pairing minutes.

I believe there were some rumors of the Penguins interest in Mintyukov earlier in the season, before they picked up Kolyachonok. I could see them potentially going back to this.

There have also been rumors of Pittsburgh and Buffalo making a trade, and besides someone like Peterka, Byram is a name that comes up frequently. Concussions early on in his career were a major concern, as they were for Conor Timmins...and Letang. Something to be cautious about.

I never thought they should have dumped Matheson for Petry, but, there is no way to have Matheson here with both Letang and Karlsson here too. Over the past 4 seasons, NHL defensemen giveaways, Karlsson is 1st, Letang is 4th, Matheson is 9th. (and Provorov is 5th for those wanting to add him)

[Victor]

This is an interesting take. I would be open (obtaining Karlsson would be a very Montreal type of thing to do) to dealing Karlsson with maybe 2 mil. retained for Matheson and some type of pick or B level prospect. At the least, Karlsson and Matheson would be the principles in the deal and other pieces would be assembled around them. I like the concept. With all of our draft capital, we could also toss in a draft pick sweetener and return a better prospect. Along with Savard, Dvorak and Armia are also off the books.
Matheson came a long way in Pittsburgh and can still really skate and pass the puck. He could play top pairing minutes.

I believe there were some rumors of the Penguins interest in Mintyukov earlier in the season, before they picked up Kolyachonok. I could see them potentially going back to this.

There have also been rumors of Pittsburgh and Buffalo making a trade, and besides someone like Peterka, Byram is a name that comes up frequently. Concussions early on in his career were a major concern, as they were for Conor Timmins...and Letang. Something to be cautious about.

I never thought they should have dumped Matheson for Petry, but, there is no way to have Matheson here with both Letang and Karlsson here too. Over the past 4 seasons, NHL defensemen giveaways, Karlsson is 1st, Letang is 4th, Matheson is 9th. (and Provorov is 5th for those wanting to add him)

I wonder if Anaheim would be interested in one of our young forwards in the AHL and a pick for Mintyukov. His ceiling looks to be higher than Pickering's and they're about the same age.

The Petry-Matheson trade was... not clever from the start. Another Hextall special. Even though I agree that all of Karlsson, Letang and Matheson are giveaway machines, looking at the absolute number for such a long time get the number easily skewed with ice time. 3 minutes difference of ice time per game add up to almost 4 extra games over 82 games played. If you look at giveaways per 60 minutes with minimum of 75 games played over the past 4 seasons, Karlsson is 12th (3.12), Struble is 17th (2.96), Zellweger is 22nd (2.84), Timmins is 25th (2.78), Matheson is 32nd (2.69), Letang is 34th (2.65), Provorov is 44th (2.55), Mintyukov is 132nd (2.04), Byram is 187th (1.79). As a comparable from a different post mentioning other UFA LDs, Lindgren is 234th (1.48) and Gavrikov is 239th (1.44) out of 269 players.

[KG]

Sully in his afternoon media scrum today was asked about Nieto. I always chuckle when I hear Sully wax poetic about Nieto. He was calling him a great pro blah blah. Crazy how some coaches latch on so tight to veteran bottom six fodder.

[Pens4Life]

Yeah, Lindgren is one of my top LHD targets in offseason, but he wont be cheap.. god damn Graves contract, what a waste of money

[Victor]

Yeah, Lindgren is one of my top LHD targets in offseason, but he wont be cheap.. god damn Graves contract, what a waste of money

If they could add one top 4 LD via UFA and another one via trade, and also send Karlsson to a contender, it would be a significant makeover for the defense already.

[Victor]

Rangers' pick is currently 13th and at this point it's unlikely to move to 14th or further. Rangers is 5 points behind Utah with 5 games remaining.

There's a higher possibility that it could move up to 10th. Rangers, Red Wings, Islanders, and Blue Jackets are all tied with 79 points. Rangers hold the tie breaker with 32 RW - Detroit has 28, NYI 27 and Columbus 25. All teams involved have 77 games played and they're all 8 points behind Montréal for the last wild card spot.

[Victor]

Jets's prospect Chaz Lucius retires from playing professional hockey. Pretty much every season since his draft year was cut short because of injuries related to EDS. A shame on all fronts.

Pens hold the rights for his brother Cruz, acquired from Carolina in the Guentzel deal.

[KG]

With OV breaking the goal scoring record, there has been a lot of Mount Rushmore discussion.

DK did his own. On his pod he said his would be Mario, Orr, Hasek and if Crosby has one more big thing happen in Pittsburgh then he would put him on over Gretzky. He sighted the amount of hall of famers Gretzky played with.

I’m sorry DK but any Mount Rushmore that doesn’t have 99 firmly on there is garbage. The man has more assists than anyone else has career points!

To me the list is Gretzky, Lemieux, Orr and Sid (over Howe).

[ahawk9]

I think I agree with your list. Yes, Ovi has the goals record, which is great, but has 1 Cup and zero Olympic/World Cup, etc. trophies. It's hard to argue against Howe, though, simply because so much of the game evolved around his long career. How about Mount Rushmore with 5 faces? Gretzky, Lemieux, Orr, Howe, Crosby? I like that.

I've said before, too, that it's unreal to speculate because of all the time Mario lost to injury/cancer. He definitely would have the goals record, and he'd probably have been right up there in the mid-2000s point wise. And it also would be fun if there was a way to simulate if he and Gretzky played with each other's team. What if Mario came out in 1984 with Kurri on his wing instead of Terry Ruskowski - no offense to Rusko... ha!

[FLPensFan]

Jets's prospect Chaz Lucius retires from playing professional hockey. Pretty much every season since his draft year was cut short because of injuries related to EDS. A shame on all fronts.

Pens hold the rights for his brother Cruz, acquired from Carolina in the Guentzel deal.

I tried posting this yesterday but got frustrated with the X links still not working. This might be something the Penguins have to keep an eye on with Cruz, or see if there are any tests that can be run to identify, because the condition is hereditary.

[Sigwolf]

Jets's prospect Chaz Lucius retires from playing professional hockey. Pretty much every season since his draft year was cut short because of injuries related to EDS. A shame on all fronts.

Pens hold the rights for his brother Cruz, acquired from Carolina in the Guentzel deal.

That really sucks for Chaz, and is disconcerting where Cruz is concerned, since EDS can be hereditary. I don't think Cruz has had too much of an injury history up to this point, but he did miss nearly all the first half of this season with a shoulder injury. His stats are also down considerably compared to his first two years at Wisconsin, but that is a pretty small sample size at Arizona State.

edit... took too long to post, and FLP beat me to it.

[FLPensFan]

With OV breaking the goal scoring record, there has been a lot of Mount Rushmore discussion.

DK did his own. On his pod he said his would be Mario, Orr, Hasek and if Crosby has one more big thing happen in Pittsburgh then he would put him on over Gretzky. He sighted the amount of hall of famers Gretzky played with.

I’m sorry DK but any Mount Rushmore that doesn’t have 99 firmly on there is garbage. The man has more assists than anyone else has career points!

To me the list is Gretzky, Lemieux, Orr and Sid (over Howe).

I think I agree with a post below that for a hockey Mount Rushmore, you really need 5. I think you need a d-man, which is Orr, a goalie, which is debatable, and then forwards. I think Gretzky and Lemieux are a given, but then it is a toss up between Howe, Crosby, and Ovechkin. And I probably need to give the 3rd spot to Crosby simply because of the Cups, the points, the PPG record, and the international success. Ovechkin has the goal record, which is nothing small to overlook, but only 1 Cup and while he has some World Junior championship gold, nothing in the Olympics. Howe won 4 Cups in a time where there were only 6 teams. It's really close between Crosby and Howe, but I'd give the slight edge to Crosby.