Official Pittsburgh Penguins thread

[3074326]

Originally Posted by bukIpower

Well it was in typical style that we blew a late 2 goal lead today but survived long enough to atleast get one point.

I dunno bout any of you but I want to see Kunitz back with Staal. He's been pretty invisible of late.

Say this more often!

[bukIpower]

hahaha yeah really... ummm yeah




YOU SUCK KUNITZ YOU DONT PRODUCE WITH SID!

[3074326]

Another goal for Kunitz.

[daveeb]

Geno is back to normal.

[3074326]

I like when there are four players with 2+ points. 9 players with a point. Nice game, looks like everyone got involved.

[bukIpower]

KUNITZ YOU SUCK WITH SIDNEY...Haha, gata keep him on a roll ya know..

[daveeb]

Let's get a bit of a change of pace and talk about the future of this team.

First of all, there is a great deal of discussion regarding the salary cap for 2009-2010. It may go down from $56mil to $55mil due to the economy, and the player's union may demand a 5% raise (Which would raise it to $58.8mil).

So far, this is what the Pens have penciled in for 2009-2010 (Salary info is here)

Kunitz-Crosby-???
???-Malkin-???
Cooke-Staal-Kennedy
Dupuis-Talbot-Godard

Sarge-Orpik
Letang-Eaton
???-???

Fleury
???

Cap hit: $47,335,000

Players we are losing:

Guerin ($4.5 mil)
Satan ($3.5 mil)
Sykora ($2.5 mil)
Fedotenko ($2.25 mil)
Boucher ($2.5 mil)
Hall Gill ($2.075 mil)
Scuderi ($713k)
Garon ($1.1 mil)

Restricted Free Agents:
Goligoski ($984K)
Bill Thomas, Abritration Eligible ($525K)

So, the Pens need to fill in three top-6 forwards, a bottom pair of defensemen, and a goalie in with only $8.665mil if the cap stays static or $7.665 mil if the cap goes down. That's a pain in the butt.

So, what do we do?

1. Re-signing Sykora for RW on Malkin's line: Sykora wants 3 years, $3mil a year with a NTC. He can get $4mil on the open market. I really want him to stay, and I know Malkin does too (Malkin has apparently really opened up since Sykora has come on to the team).

2. As far as the left wing on Malkin's line goes, Luca Caputi may be ready for the NHL by next season physically. However, there are a great deal of mental questions regarding Caputi. He is a legit power forward, but he still needs to pack on some weight. He's 6'2" to 6'3", but he is only 185 pounds.

--- Staal had a similar problem when he came into the league. As a rookie, he was 6'4" 200 lbs and fast. As a sophomore, Staal packed on 20 lbs and slowed down a great deal. However, this year, he's the total package.

--- But back to Caputi. He has 16 goals and 25 assists for W-BS this year in 58 games with a +3. However, it should be noted that he went down to Wheeling for a disciplinary issue, meaning that he may not be mature enough for the NHL in terms of mind and possibly body (2 goals and 1 assist in 3 games for Wheeling). He was called up to the NHL for a 5 game stint this year, scoring a goal on his first shift on the 4th line. Hence, he is the only player in history to score a goal at the NHL, AHL, and ECHL history to play on all three levels. Wheeling Nailers fans will always remember how he helped beat rival Johnstown and hated every minute of it.

YouTube - Luca Caputi First NHL Goal (HQ)

3. If Caputi doesn't work out, Eric Tangradi may. Eric Tangradi was acquired by Ray Shero in the Ryan Whitney deal and he also has the skillset to be a power forward at the NHL level. Measuring in at 6'4" 221 pounds, Tangradi is (Or was, the last time I checked) 2nd in the OHL scoring race with 38 goals and 50 assist in 55 games, behind only soon-to-be-2009 #1 overall draft choice John Tavares.

However, you can tell he's from Philly. Tangradi was suspended just a while ago for throwing a water bottle at a referee. And, there was also this incident at the WJC (Say hello to the afore mentioned Tavares)...

YouTube - Tavares Scores A Beauty, Tangradi Clips...

Shero has stated that he believes Tangradi will be ready for the NHL next season.

4. As for defensive pairings at the bottom, one can expect that Hal Gill will not be re-signed. Boucher should be gone too. Scuderi will probably be asking for $1.5mil (+15 this year), so who knows how that will go. Goligoski should be re-signed and put at the third pairing with either Scuderi or...

5. Ben Lovejoy. The diamond in the rough defensive player, much like Scuderi was. Played two games for Pittsburgh this year. Measures in at 6'2", 214lbs. 7 goals, 21 assists, and an insane +41 rating in 65 games at W-BS this year. With his ability, he would easily be able to play as a bottom pairing guy for the Pens if Scuderi wants a lot of money.

6. As for Fleury's backup, either John Curry (Set the W-BS wins record, 2-10 with a 2.40GAA this year in Pittsburgh, dominating the AHL) or another guy under $1mil should work.

7. As for Crosby's RW, it's gonna get messy. The prospects are a year away, so we only need a one year fill-in there. Guerin would work if he comes in at a low price. But, he may ask for a tad bit more than we can pay. However, if he takes a pay cut, I'd rather keep Guerin that try and find someone through free agency and get stuck with a Satan situation again.

--- By the way, Satan had 1 goal and 3 assists in his first game at W-BS.

Overall, the cap situation is going to be very messy. If the cap goes up by 5%, we should be safe, able to re-sign Scuderi, and able to re-sign Guerin as well (If he comes in at, like, Sykora's $3mil price for one year). If the cap stays static, Shero will manage it and we'll be fine. If the cap goes down, expect a lot of problems.

[Brutus1]

Don't celebrate by your opponents bench. He ran right into Tangradi's stick, dickhead.

I imagine one among Tangradi, CPZ, Veilleux and Caputi will earn a spot next season.(CPZ and Veilleux are C's)

No problem with Curry as MAF's backup.

I think Guerin re-signs for a much lower contract.

[bukIpower]

Well since I can't predict who we may trade I'll assume all the player's that are signed will return.

Screw paying Sykora 3 million a year after he just made 2.5 million for the past 2 years. He got older, not younger and unless he takes a pay cut I don't want any part of his contract for 3 mil per. He's just so hit or miss it seems, and he's IMO not as physical as needed.

Kunitz-Crosby-2 mil player (Maybe Geurin takes a paycut)
Tangradi(0.8)-Malkin-2 mil Player
Cooke-Staal-Kennedy
Dupuis-Talbot-Goddard

Orpik-Gonchar
Eaton-Letang
Scuderi (1.25)-Gogoloski (1.25)

Fluery
Curry

I have that being right around 55mil.


Ok so Tangradi on the 2nd line could be a reach but With his size and net presence why not? After all he's on the heals of Tavares who will most likely be a top 6 forward next year. Not to mention his small cap hit for the next 2-3 years. Also think how effective Malone was with Malkin so I see reason.

Whats funny about this team though IMO is that we need DEFENSE, and once again it'll be about what we do with the offense. We're in the top 10 in goals I believe so if we can just give up less goals it won't matter WHO we throw out there with Malkin/Crosby.

As for what I'd personally like...

I would like to see us trade Jordan Staal for a winger signed for a couple years (much like Kunitz). Not because I dislike Jordans game (because I love his game) but because paying our 3rd line center 4 mil is taking away from what we can pay our top two lines as well as our defense.

Same thing with Dupuis also. I absolutely LOVE Dupuis game to be honest. I know he doesn't score a lot however I feel he makes up for in other aspects. Hustle, hitting, grit, and more hustle makes Dupuis worth his money. However he's a possible move because A)he's unhappy being on the 4th line, and B) his salary is sorta high for a 4th liner.

Kunitz-Crosby-2mil
Tangradi-Malkin-3mil
Cooke-2mil-Kennedy
Caputi-Talbot-Goddard

Gonchar-Orpik
Letang-2.5mil dman
Gogo-Eaton

With that lineup I have it costing around 54 million. We're still gonna score a ton of goals, and with an improved defense maybe we can be even tougher in our own end. HOwever, I still see my first model the most likely considering they feel Staal is untouchable, which I agree to an extent. His talent level is gonna be great, but the 4 mil could be better used divided amongst the open positions.

Possible people taking pay cuts to stay though are Fedetenko and Sykora. So if they can cut us some slack (say 1.7 for fedex, and 2 for Sykora) I would love to see them back...

[jimotis4heisman]

Originally Posted by daveeb

Let's get a bit of a change of pace and talk about the future of this team.

First of all, there is a great deal of discussion regarding the salary cap for 2009-2010. It may go down from $56mil to $55mil due to the economy, and the player's union may demand a 5% raise (Which would raise it to $58.8mil).

its tied to revenues. some say flat (optimistic) some say as much as a 5m decrease. the union cant demand a 5% increase mid cba...

So far, this is what the Pens have penciled in for 2009-2010 (Salary info is here)

Kunitz-Crosby-???
???-Malkin-???
Cooke-Staal-Kennedy
Dupuis-Talbot-Godard
what you see here is two 8.7m Cs playing with 2m wingers. and staal and his 4m contract playing with sub 2m players.
Sarge-Orpik
Letang-Eaton
???-???

Fleury
???

Cap hit: $47,335,000

Players we are losing:

Guerin ($4.5 mil)
Satan ($3.5 mil)
Sykora ($2.5 mil)
Fedotenko ($2.25 mil)
Boucher ($2.5 mil)
Hall Gill ($2.075 mil)
Scuderi ($713k)
Garon ($1.1 mil)

Restricted Free Agents:
Goligoski ($984K)
Bill Thomas, Abritration Eligible ($525K)

So, the Pens need to fill in three top-6 forwards, a bottom pair of defensemen, and a goalie in with only $8.665mil if the cap stays static or $7.665 mil if the cap goes down. That's a pain in the butt.

So, what do we do?

1. Re-signing Sykora for RW on Malkin's line: Sykora wants 3 years, $3mil a year with a NTC. He can get $4mil on the open market. I really want him to stay, and I know Malkin does too (Malkin has apparently really opened up since Sykora has come on to the team).

2. As far as the left wing on Malkin's line goes, Luca Caputi may be ready for the NHL by next season physically. However, there are a great deal of mental questions regarding Caputi. He is a legit power forward, but he still needs to pack on some weight. He's 6'2" to 6'3", but he is only 185 pounds.

he doesnt pack much power into his frame. ready maybe, as a pure f1 power forward, not at this point.

--- Staal had a similar problem when he came into the league. As a rookie, he was 6'4" 200 lbs and fast. As a sophomore, Staal packed on 20 lbs and slowed down a great deal. However, this year, he's the total package.

lets be frank, staal last year played on the pp, the pk and played against the top line every night. that should be taken into consideration. the situations may have been a little to "rich" for jordan.

--- But back to Caputi. He has 16 goals and 25 assists for W-BS this year in 58 games with a +3. However, it should be noted that he went down to Wheeling for a disciplinary issue, meaning that he may not be mature enough for the NHL in terms of mind and possibly body (2 goals and 1 assist in 3 games for Wheeling). He was called up to the NHL for a 5 game stint this year, scoring a goal on his first shift on the 4th line. Hence, he is the only player in history to score a goal at the NHL, AHL, and ECHL history to play on all three levels. Wheeling Nailers fans will always remember how he helped beat rival Johnstown and hated every minute of it.

YouTube - Luca Caputi First NHL Goal (HQ)

3. If Caputi doesn't work out, Eric Tangradi may. Eric Tangradi was acquired by Ray Shero in the Ryan Whitney deal and he also has the skillset to be a power forward at the NHL level. Measuring in at 6'4" 221 pounds, Tangradi is (Or was, the last time I checked) 2nd in the OHL scoring race with 38 goals and 50 assist in 55 games, behind only soon-to-be-2009 #1 overall draft choice John Tavares.

However, you can tell he's from Philly. Tangradi was suspended just a while ago for throwing a water bottle at a referee. And, there was also this incident at the WJC (Say hello to the afore mentioned Tavares)...

YouTube - Tavares Scores A Beauty, Tangradi Clips DiDomenico from Bench, Della Rovere hits JVR

Shero has stated that he believes Tangradi will be ready for the NHL next season.

tangardi is a big body, im not sure if he is "nhl ready" for next year. i dont have youtube at work but im 99.9% sure i know the incident. the one when jt and crew skate by the bench after jts highlight reel goal? what was jt doing skating by the bench like that? dumb move. granted classless hack job by tangardi in flipping his stick out at the eyes and some epic acting with the injury(what was it a sniper)? and then jvr gets slammed into the stancion. this is one issue i have with no fighting, that bs doesnt fly if they are allowed to drop the gloves, jt and crew dont cruise the us bench post goal celebration and tangardi (likely doesnt) throw his cheap shot.

4. As for defensive pairings at the bottom, one can expect that Hal Gill will not be re-signed. Boucher should be gone too. Scuderi will probably be asking for $1.5mil (+15 this year), so who knows how that will go. Goligoski should be re-signed and put at the third pairing with either Scuderi or...

plenty of 6/7 type dmen are available, that shouldnt be a hard pick up. the key will be what type of 6/7s they want.

5. Ben Lovejoy. The diamond in the rough defensive player, much like Scuderi was. Played two games for Pittsburgh this year. Measures in at 6'2", 214lbs. 7 goals, 21 assists, and an insane +41 rating in 65 games at W-BS this year. With his ability, he would easily be able to play as a bottom pairing guy for the Pens if Scuderi wants a lot of money.

6. As for Fleury's backup, either John Curry (Set the W-BS wins record, 2-10 with a 2.40GAA this year in Pittsburgh, dominating the AHL) or another guy under $1mil should work.

7. As for Crosby's RW, it's gonna get messy. The prospects are a year away, so we only need a one year fill-in there. Guerin would work if he comes in at a low price. But, he may ask for a tad bit more than we can pay. However, if he takes a pay cut, I'd rather keep Guerin that try and find someone through free agency and get stuck with a Satan situation again.

like is said those wings likely will have to be filled with 2m type palyers due to cap issues. matching that guy/youngster with sid will be interesting.

--- By the way, Satan had 1 goal and 3 assists in his first game at W-BS.

Overall, the cap situation is going to be very messy. If the cap goes up by 5%, we should be safe, able to re-sign Scuderi, and able to re-sign Guerin as well (If he comes in at, like, Sykora's $3mil price for one year). If the cap stays static, Shero will manage it and we'll be fine. If the cap goes down, expect a lot of problems.

the pens are ripe for a trade. shipping out some salary picking up bottom pairing dmen and some youngsters id think. but who knows. well get a better idea once the cap numbers are nailed down post playoffs.

Originally Posted by bukIpower

Well since I can't predict who we may trade I'll assume all the player's that are signed will return.

Screw paying Sykora 3 million a year after he just made 2.5 million for the past 2 years. He got older, not younger and unless he takes a pay cut I don't want any part of his contract for 3 mil per. He's just so hit or miss it seems, and he's IMO not as physical as needed.

Kunitz-Crosby-2 mil player (Maybe Geurin takes a paycut)
Tangradi(0.8)-Malkin-2 mil Player
Cooke-Staal-Kennedy
Dupuis-Talbot-Goddard

Orpik-Gonchar
Eaton-Letang
Scuderi (1.25)-Gogoloski (1.25)

Fluery
Curry

I have that being right around 55mil.


Ok so Tangradi on the 2nd line could be a reach but With his size and net presence why not? After all he's on the heals of Tavares who will most likely be a top 6 forward next year. Not to mention his small cap hit for the next 2-3 years. Also think how effective Malone was with Malkin so I see reason.
tangardi finnished 8th with 38/50/88 in 55 games. jt was 58/46/104 in 56 games.

ahead of tangardi is eillis and hall of the spitfires, caria, cody hodgson, dibenedetto, terry and jt (the whalers have terry and caria currently).

jt will be on a crap team (islanders, etc) and wont be expected to help win. you expect tangardi to play 15 mins, play specialty teams on a playoff caliber team, no tthe same thing.

Whats funny about this team though IMO is that we need DEFENSE, and once again it'll be about what we do with the offense. We're in the top 10 in goals I believe so if we can just give up less goals it won't matter WHO we throw out there with Malkin/Crosby.

As for what I'd personally like...

I would like to see us trade Jordan Staal for a winger signed for a couple years (much like Kunitz). Not because I dislike Jordans game (because I love his game) but because paying our 3rd line center 4 mil is taking away from what we can pay our top two lines as well as our defense.

Same thing with Dupuis also. I absolutely LOVE Dupuis game to be honest. I know he doesn't score a lot however I feel he makes up for in other aspects. Hustle, hitting, grit, and more hustle makes Dupuis worth his money. However he's a possible move because A)he's unhappy being on the 4th line, and B) his salary is sorta high for a 4th liner.

Kunitz-Crosby-2mil
Tangradi-Malkin-3mil
Cooke-2mil-Kennedy
Caputi-Talbot-Goddard

Gonchar-Orpik
Letang-2.5mil dman
Gogo-Eaton

With that lineup I have it costing around 54 million. We're still gonna score a ton of goals, and with an improved defense maybe we can be even tougher in our own end. HOwever, I still see my first model the most likely considering they feel Staal is untouchable, which I agree to an extent. His talent level is gonna be great, but the 4 mil could be better used divided amongst the open positions.

Possible people taking pay cuts to stay though are Fedetenko and Sykora. So if they can cut us some slack (say 1.7 for fedex, and 2 for Sykora) I would love to see them back...

bolded some stuff.

[Brutus1]

Very good time to be playing so well on both ends of the ice. They beat
Marty like a rented mule tonight.

Oh, [censored] the Flyers, too.

[bukIpower]

The only team that IMO we need to beat the rest of the schedule is Florida....Hopefully we can come outta florida with 2 points, and in the likely hood a secure playoff spot

[Brutus1]

I'm an idiot.

Just win out and face the Flyers in round 1. The great thin g about the NHL Playoffs is that
every series is a ball buster.

[Brutus1]

Originally Posted by jimotis4heisman

bolded some stuff.

I just saw the stick. I was looking at the wrong one.

[h0bb3s]

2 Big games coming this weekend. Carolina and Florida, it will fun to see how the Pens matchup vs Carolina who has been just as hot as the Pens have been. I think a split of this weekend's games will secure a playoff spot.