The Pittsburgh Penguins announced that defenseman Kris Letang was signed for four more years and seriously it’s about time Ray Shero started shoring up the Penguins defense for the future or for next year which ever comes first. The Sergei Gonchar vs Ray Shero signing has taken center stage and because of that there hasn’t been much talk about how the Pens could lose not just their core defense, but also their main prospects next year. All 8 of the players that have seen time on defense in a Pittsburgh Penguins uniform are unrestricted free agents next year.
With the signing of Letang, the Pens now have 3 defensemen signed for next year, Orpik, Goligoski and Letang. It has been reported that Kris Letang got $3.5 million a year by ESPN. Rob Scuderi got a contract last year with LA for $13.6 million for four years and he was an average defenseman, which they are finding out about now with his no goals 10 assists. Though Letang is less experienced than Scuderi, I would take him for $14 mil for four years ahead of Scuderi any day of the week
Here is the players salaries and next years status:
Here are the Pittsburgh Penguins defensive stats so far this year:
| GP | G | A | PTS | +/-“ | PM | |
| Sergei Gonchar | 57 | 10 | 34 | 44 | -7 | 49 |
| Alex Goligoski | 63 | 7 | 24 | 31 | 5 | 22 |
| Kris Letang | 67 | 3 | 24 | 27 | 3 | 47 |
| Brooks Orpik | 68 | 1 | 23 | 24 | 9 | 62 |
| Mark Eaton | 73 | 3 | 11 | 14 | 4 | 26 |
| Jay McKee | 59 | 1 | 9 | 10 | 6 | 54 |
| Jordan Leopold | 14 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 2 |
| Ben Lovejoy | 12 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 2 |
| Deryk Engelland | 9 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -2 | 17 |
| Nathan Guenin | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 0 |
Additional Reading:
Penguins Sign Defenseman Kris Letang to Four-Year Contract
It’s time to start shoring up the Pittsburgh Penguins Defense
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Hopefully this settles Letang down and let his shots get zeroed in on net or at least the same zip code. I like the signing and Gonchar is a big question-mark as to if he’ll be back. Don’t write him off that quick.
It’s Fluery, Malkin, Staal, Orpik, Fluery all giving the “home town” discount. Possibly Gonchar settles for something less than the $5 million – 4 year that gets rumored around or we’ve for certain seen the end to his stay here. Shero is going to be looking for wingers every year to fill in the blanks. As much as some people bitch about that I kind of like it. We’ve got Despres, Samuelsson and Velischek and Bortuzzo who are another year minimum away but Strait maybe be ready for prime time next season.
This sure beats thinking draft lottery doesn’t it.
Signing Letang for that much most likely signifies the end run for Gonchar will be this playoff session. There are just too many guys to sign and there is not near enough cap money to do so. It will probably be time to bring up Lovejoy for good and Mckee won’t be available at that low of a price. If the team has another good playoff run then I’m sure some players will give the “hometown” discount you talk of.