Puck-Lurker wrote: Tue Apr 15, 2025 12:41 pm
Using draft capital should be for long term investments, not short term gains.
Like acquiring a young top4 LHD or two, or someone for 2C down the road. Something that matters.
Ditching bad contracts for the sake of getting rid of them does nothing in isolation. Clearing out either Karlsson or Letang - for a return, like a 1st and or good prospect or young player - I can get behind. It would have a bunch of moving parts, like a 2nd rounder going out, but at the core would be shipping out the right now and not particularly useful for us (Letang/Karlsson) for futures (pick/prospect/player) in some configuration. But the invested picks should be there to facilitate the return, the return can't be salary dump.
If it were one bad contract, I'd say you are correct. But essentially, the Penguins have 4 bad contracts that will make it difficult for them to maneuver....Graves, Karlsson, Jarry, Letang, in that order for me.
With the cap going up, it sucks to have dead money, but I'd start looking at buying out Graves. Again, with multiple bad contracts, and 3 of the 4 on defense, just carrying him on the roster all year to do nothing isn't very viable. Graves actually got worse this year. Went from a +10 to a -11, from 14 points to 4 points, and the defense was just as bad as season 1. Bite the bullet, take the cap hit for the next 8 years. With the amount of youth that SHOULD be filtering in and out of this lineup, the first 4 years of 2.4M, 3.4M, 3.4M, and 3.6M won't be that hard to work around, and 4 more years of 695k won't kill them either. Minnesota dealt with several years of 12M-14M in dead cap from Parise and Suter, and they're still making the playoffs. Dubas needs to make it work.
I keep hearing that Karlsson has value in the trade market as long as the Penguins retain. I think they need to pull the trigger on this. Rumor I heard is that Dubas would retain up to 3.5M, and that at 6.5M there would be teams interested. I'll believe it when I see it, and I would not expect it to happen until after his July 1st bonus is paid by the Penguins.
Jarry, I think there could potentially be someone that takes a risk on him. Not banking on it, but with salary retained or a bad contract coming back, I think there is a possibility he's dealt. I also think there is a possibility he's on the opening night roster next season.
Letang is no longer a #1 d-man. That's the big issue. I didn't see much of the game against Boston, but looking at TOI stats, Letang was 4th among the d-men in TOI with just over 17 minutes. That's the first game I think Sully has done that. I'd like to see him do that for the last game as well. Problem is, if Karlsson's moved and Letang isn't a #1 anymore, who is #1 for the Penguins? Can they get someone like Byram and pair him with Timmins and have that work as a first pairing? Don't know what the options are here.
