Pittsburgh Penguins Trade Chatter: Pens Need to Act Now and Trade Sutter and Scuderi
Brandon Sutter and Rob Scuderi have to go. Both are not terrible players and Sutter is actually a serviceable third line center, but both of them have to be traded for salary cap flexibility.
Sutter is overpaid for his production, even after coming off of his career year in 2014-2015. More importantly, he is an unrestricted free agent next year and surprise, he will want a raise. It is pretty safe to say the Pittsburgh Penguins will not resign him. He isn’t even worth what he makes now in my opinion.
Jan 13, 2015; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Penguins center Brandon Sutter (16) moves the puck up ice against the Minnesota Wild during the second period at the CONSOL Energy Center. The Penguins won 7-2. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Jim Rutherford needs to lower his asking price to something like a 3rd round pick for Sutter because he will leave next year for nothing AND viable 3rd line centers are still available on free agency as we speak. Eric Fehr wants a multi-year deal? Great – sign him for three years at $2.5 million per year. His stats are eerily similar to Sutter’s, but he is more physical and will come at a much cheaper price without the Sutter name. If this trade happened, the Pittsburgh Penguins would have a third line center set for the next three years (with a known price), a draft pick and at least $500k in cap relief compared to their current state.
The Pittsburgh Penguins should then package this newly acquired 3rd round pick with Scuderi to rid his salary from the team. I would think a team in the NHL should take this deal – Scuderi was not that bad last year. He just doesn’t make sense for a team with a youth movement on defense and extreme salary cap sensitivity.
Feb 6, 2015; Calgary, Alberta, CAN; Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Rob Scuderi (4) skates during the warmup period against the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome. Pittsburgh Penguins won 4-0. Mandatory Credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
In my previous article, I talked about signing Cody Franson to strengthen the defense if there was “new found” Scuderi money. The cap flexibility could instead be spent to strengthen the fourth line, if desired. Derek Roy, for instance, would be a nice addition on the fourth line. There are a few routes the Pittsburgh Penguins could go if they made these trades, but one thing that’s for certain is that they cannot pay their 6th/7th defenseman $3.3 million per year for the next two years considering their salary cap situation.
The trades listed above would not cost the Pittsburgh Penguins anything outside of Scuderi and Sutter. Furthermore, it would free up $6.5 million in cap space and provide salary cap flexibility that is currently unavailable. Perhaps the Penguins have to eat $1 million to get rid of Scuderi and if that is the case so be it, but now is the time to trade these players because of the valuable assets still left in the free agency market.
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Unrestricted free agents are free in the sense that signing them only costs money not draft picks. I can envision the Pittsburgh Penguins trading for an Eric Fehr or Cody Franson type player at the 2016 trade deadline, but it surely won’t be just money they are paying to acquire them, it will be early round draft picks as well. Pittsburgh cannot afford to be buyers at the trade deadline as it has cost them dearly in draft picks over the past seven years or so.
For this reason, Rutherford has to have urgency to find cap flexibility now by trading Sutter and Scuderi, which will in turn provide roster depth and eliminate the need to make major moves at the trade deadline. In a recent interview with Sportsnet.ca, Rutherford said Sutter is not currently being shopped. Hopefully, this was just semantics.
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