Pittsburgh Penguins Free Agency – Pens Weighing Options, Monitoring the Market
By Mike Necciai
The past two or three weeks has been a roller coaster of emotions for the Pittsburgh Penguins faithful. Are they acquiring T.J. Oshie? Will they sell the farm for Phil Kessel? Are they really considering a one-year contract for Sergei Gonchar? What about targeting Michael Frolik?
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The Pittsburgh Penguins are always a team reportedly in the running for whatever top names are available, whether it’s free agency or the trade deadline. The reason for that is simple, the Pens are always searching for top-tier talent to provide Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin with an appropriate supporting cast.
Well, that part of the offseason is done. They landed Phil Kessel, only unloaded Nick Spaling from their current NHL roster, and also left themselves a little wiggle room under the cap. The key word there is “little”.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are at a point where they have a few big decisions to make. Despite the lack of big news and constant rumors, this is no time to sit back and observe what you’ve done. It’s time to consider how you’ll polish the rest of your roster, and that’s exactly what Jim Rutherford and company are doing right now.
Here’s what we know. The Pens don’t want Rob Scuderi on this roster in 2015-16, but they weren’t willing to eat dead money in order to rid themselves of him. That said, if he is still here, they’re ok with that and think that he can be useful in some regard, whether it’s a seventh defenseman or bottom-pairing blue liner that plays mostly on the penalty kill.
We also know that Rutherford and the Pittsburgh Penguins are still looking to sign a fourth line center, and they have to finalize contracts with Beau Bennett and Brian Dumoulin.
According to NHLNumbers.Com, the Pens currently have $6.1 million in cap space. Bennett will likely come in at roughly $975,000 when you consider the mandatory raise for restricted free agents. I’d assume that Dumoulin will be somewhere between $1 and $1.2 million. We’ll estimate that the two of them will cost $2.2 million, the same cap hit that Nick Spaling carried.
That leaves the Pittsburgh Penguins with roughly $3.9 million in available cap.
The first order of business is finding a market for Rob Scuderi. In order to unload him in a salary dump, you’ll likely need a team that’s looking to hit the cap floor.
The Arizona Coyotes and New Jersey Devils are both still under the cap floor, and the Buffalo Sabres are roughly $5 million over but only have four defensemen under contract on their NHL roster. Something that isn’t mentioned often is that despite Scuderi’s $3.375 million cap hit, he’s only owed $3 million this season and $2.5 million in 2016-17. So, for a team like Arizona that needs the cap hit but isn’t a big spender, it makes sense.
Scuderi will need to approve a trade due to his limited no traded clause, but I believe that there is a market out there for him. We may not see him moved until later in the offseason though. I’d expect teams to visit whether they’ll take on his contract once the dust settles and they know where they stand for next season.
If the Pens aren’t able to unload Scuderi, I’d prefer they stand pat. Experiment with a mixture of Conor Sheary, Bobby Farnham, Oskar Sundqvist, and Scott Wilson on the fourth line and see where it takes you. In that case, you’re leaving yourself a safety net of a few million.
The Pittsburgh Penguins, however, are set on adding a fourth line center. So, who’s available?
I’ve discussed Mike Santorelli a few times, and I still believe that he is the best fit for the Pens right now. He’s a creative bottom-six player that produces at third line rates in most categories, including shot suppression and generation. He’s strongest at center, but has the versatility to play either wing as well.
Shawn Matthias is another option that the Pens will likely look into. At 6’4 and 223 lbs. he’s a big body that can contribute offensively. He also maintains possession numbers relative to third line production in most categories. Matthias has a good hockey IQ and is also versatile, but not quite to the extent of Santorelli.
Eric Fehr seems to be undervalued in a big way this offseason. There’s very little discussion about him, and he’s still without a home. I would peg Fehr as a must-have for the Pittsburgh Penguins if Brandon Sutter was traded this summer, but that’s looking more and more unlikely since they were already able to get Phil Kessel.
I’ve gone into detail about Fehr’s performance previously, and while I can’t imagine he’s knocking down the door to play fourth line center, if he remains unsigned and the possibility exists it needs to happen. My personal preference would be to sign Fehr for third line center and bump Sutter down.
The action will slow tremendously from now until camp opens. But, we always keep the conversation going here at PensLabyrinth. Give me a follow on Twitter at @Michael29Angelo and keep it here through the offseason for more opinions, analysis, and news.
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