Pens Free Agency Recap

You know how in movies characters often proclaim things like, “Great! How can this possibly get any worse?” and then moments later something does? Well, that was the feeling many Penguins fans justifiably had when the machine-like Detroit Red Wings clobbered the then on-the-rise Penguins in the Stanley Cup finals last season in a best-of-seven formality.

As the puck floated over and just wide of the goal-line off the blade of Marianne Hossa (spelling error deliberate), just as time expired on the Penguins’ season, Penguins fans thought, “Great! How can this possibly get any worse?” Enter the off-season. Players like the aforementioned and contemporary Benedict Arnold, Hossa, and Ryan Malone and Gary Roberts and Jarkko Ruutu and Ty Conklin and Adam Hall and Georges Laraque all up for unrestricted free agency, it was no secret that the team many pundits labeled on-the-rise might take a free fall to the bottom of the standings the following year.

It was almost the case.

Indeed, the Pens lost many important players after July 1, 2008 kicked in and were forced to scramble until the next season’s trade deadline. We know what happened next, but the scent of the oh-so-pleasant Stanley Cup perfume was threatened by yet another July 1.

Ruslan Fedotenko, who established himself as a legitimate top-six forward (especially on a team like the Penguins, as they lack scoring on the wings); Sid’s line-mate Bill Guerin; defensemen Rob Scuderi and Hal Gill, and other players like Petr Sykora, Miroslav Satan, Philippe Boucher, Matthieu Garon, Mike Zigomanis and Craig Adams were the new batch of UFAs. Not only that, but after having just won the Cup, they were all due for some serious upgrades in pay. “Great! How can this possibly get any worse?”

It didn’t.

While management elected to part ways with the “shutdown D-pair” in Scuderi and Gill, as well as most other players, guys like Fedotenko, Guerin and Adams decided to stay on board. Moreover, all three reportedly passed on more lucrative deals for another chance to compete for a Stanley Cup. With gritty forward Mike Rupp brought on by Shero, and also the recent signing of backup goaltender Brent Johnson, the Penguins will be a solid bunch heading into training camp and beyond.

Now how can that get any worse?