Some of you may have already read this, but over the last couple of days a rumor has surfaced in both the local and national media. The rumor to which I refer is a discussion where GM Jim Rutherford goes after and lands Unrestricted Free Agent (UFA) John Tavares.
So far, from what I have read, everyone is acknowledging that given the Penguins’ financial situation, Rutherford would have to work the same type of magic that brought us Phil Kessel and Trevor Daley, otherwise the numbers (financially) just will not work.
On the plus side, several pundits have noted Marion Hossa as an example of a player possibly signing a 1 or 2 year contract on the cheap to make a run at the Cup with a legitimate Cup contender. Those same ubiquitous they also point to how Rutherford figured out a way to trade for Kessel. So, just because linear thinking, boring, unable to think outside of the box types might think
Question 1: Do the Penguins need John Tavares?
Well, not really, they already have the 2 best Centers to play in the league over last 10 years (Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin), who are still top 3 or 4 Centers in the league right now. Furthermore, they traded an arm and leg (thanks to trade dead line hysteria and strong arm league interference) for Derick Brassard. They also have Riley Sheahan who was really coming on as a 3rd line Center until Brassard come over to the team and they have an interesting prospect Jordy Bellerive, who had a really big year last year in Jrs and was so impressive last year in training camp he earned himself a contract.
The Penguins’ problems really didn’t involve Centers this past year. It revolved around Defense or lack thereof. As interesting as Tavares may be, the Penguins need 1 if not 2 better Defensemen.
Question 2: Could Tavares help the Penguins?
That is a silly question. Of course he can. Imagine if Tavares were to play 3rd line Center for the Penguins. The quality of defensive players against him would be bottom of the barrel. Tavares should be able to put up massive numbers while the Penguins should immediately leap to odds on favorite to win the Cup in 2018-2019. So Tavares may think about signing a cheaper ($7 or $8 mil), 1 or 2 year contract (vs $10mil long term) to win the Cup and still be in a great position to ask for that long term massive deal.
Question 3: Is there a way the Penguins would be able to afford Tavares?
Possibly. The easiest way to be able to afford Tavares would be to acknowledge that Kris Letang, as a Defensemen, is no longer a viable option. Even at the top of his game he was marginal in his own zone. During his best seasons, Paul Martin cleaned up most of his mistakes. It was not coincidental that 10 of the 19 goals scored against the Penguins during the Capitals’ series came when Letang was on the ice. In a perfect scenario the Penguins could find a trade partner to unload his $7.25mil contract so they can have all of it to play with. In a worst case scenario they could buy him out, in which case they would have $4.83mil to play with.
If the Penguins were able to swing that deal they could then trade Brassard to free up even more money. Although Brassard had a tough playoff run last year he is still well thought of and with a large portion of his contract being paid by other teams he should be fairly easy to trade.
The Penguins could free up another $3mil by trading Conor Sheary. Yes, Sheary is a great feel good story, but at his size, the wear and tear of 82 regular season games and increased physicality of the playoffs cause him to fold under the weight of his opponents hits.
Another consideration that Rutherford must face is the number of UFAs and RFAs (Restricted Free Agents) on the Penguins’ roster and weeding out which ones would be worth keeping and which ones are not worth keeping. The Penguins do not necessarily need to resign all of them. They can still keep costs down. Many of the pending Penguins’ FAs really didn’t do much this post season to point to as a reason for a pay raise.
The interesting part of my above scenario to pluck Tavares from the FA tree is not only does it give the Penguins an unreal depth at Center, but it also improves the Penguins’ defense by subtraction (remove Letang improve the Defense).
In the end I am not calling for the Penguins to pursue this rumor. Although I do find the idea of Tavares joining Crosby and Malkin, intriguing (I would think everyone should), it isn’t needed. The core of this team is still arguably the best assembly in the league. The only real problems that need to be addressed is Letang and the supporting cast. The Penguins leaned too heavily on a weak defensive Defenseman and gave up/were forced to give up way too much in their pursuit of Brassard.
Letang needs to be traded, bought out, or moved to wing. As a Defensemen he hurts the team.
As for the supporting cast, the Penguins could conceivably recoup their losses of last trade deadline. They could resign both Ryan Reaves and Ian Cole. However, it is doubtful that even if the team resigned them, they would be given any ice time at all (Cole) or any significant ice time (Reaves).
The most important decisions the Penguins need come to this post season surrounds Letang and the supporting cast not Tavares.
I’m going to start here with the Tavares section….do we need him, the answer is no. Would we love him, the answer is yes! The only way I see this working is if the rumors surrounding Kessel are true and we end up shipping him and his salary off for a bunch of prospects or picks IMHO.
The MUCH larger need on this team is defense! Letang is an issue constantly with his defensive lapses, and I can only think of really one way that we may have the slimmest chance of moving him, and that would be to LA for Drew Doughty. As I have stated before in other sections; Doughty is looking to play for a winner/contender, and is going to be looking for a max value contract; which he will get/deserve with his play and his age. So if there is a way to ship Letang + Prospect not named Sprong (if we had to give him up though for Doughty I wouldn’t cry!) + Pick(s) for Doughty…I’d do it in a New York Minute and never look back!!!
Hi tOR,
I agree they don’t NEED Tavares, but I’d be lying if I said the thought of a third line with Sprong and Rust on Tavares wings didn’t intrigue me, except we’d still have a Swiss Cheese defense. They would have to move Letang to make it possible, and cap comfortable. I don’t see that happening. Some are already talking about the bounce back year he’ll have next season. I hope they’re right. I’m not about to bet on that just yet, but I hope they’re right.
The focus in the off season has to be on defense, but it’s anyone’s guess how serious they are toward that end. It feels to me that they just don’t like defensive defensemen even though the Washington series put that shortcoming center stage. They still could make a qualifying offer to Pedan, and if he goes to the KHL anyway, they could still retain his rights until he goes UFA in three years. That wouldn’t be a bad idea, especially if they are entertaining the notion of pursuing Tavares. They have a bit of wiggle room there. Which way they wiggle may provide further insight to how serious they are about playing defense next season. Their defensive cupboard is bare once you get past Pedan, Tinordi, who’s UFA, and Bengtsson (RFA). They also could make Bengtsson an offer. He was the best D man in WBS before he was hurt. Czuczman is UFA, too. There are a few others with potential, but none of them are ready for the bigs.
As for Sprong, it’s going to be play him or trade him. They won’t have the luxury of moving him up and down next year as he will have to clear waivers to go back to WBS. He obviously wouldn’t clear waivers. He’d be found money for somebody. JR says he’ll be on the team next year. We haven’t heard Sullivan’s take on it yet. Palace intrigue? Tune in for the exciting conclusion.
I’d love to see Reaves redux, too, and/or Cole, but I’m not holding my breath. I also don’t think Crosby having played every game this season was a coincidence.
It’s ancient history now, and I like Brassard. I always have thought highly of him, but I would have liked that deal a lot had it happened in November, or December. When it finally did happen, one of my first thoughts was they weren’t paying attention to what was happening on the ice. As a result, and as it came to be, they essentially traded away their chance at a third cup for a piece they no longer needed. They found their game in January, then sacrificed it in February just to rid Sullivan of Cole. I’ll never understand that, and now that I’ve said it here, for the last time (I promise), I’ll no longer bother trying to figure it out.
So, onward and upward, ay?
— 55
Hey 55,
I have heard the bounce back offal about Letang spewing from the usual suspects. The problem with that is that he already has bounced back. His offensive game is back. Defensively he has always been a liability, so for him to become a viable option defensively, he would have to venture into untrod territory for him, or the team would need to find a Defenseman like Paul Martin that knows how to cover up for Letang. Unfortunately, I doubt the team could afford that player.
I would love to see the Penguins find a way to keep Pedan. In all honesty, I haven’t really seen him play that much, so my interest is driven mainly by potentiality I see in his numbers rather than anything I have seen in his game. However, in truth, there is no way he could be worse than what we watched last season. Furthermore, if any of the scouting reports on Pedan are true, he should be a no brainer for Sullivan. Pedan is suppose to be a good skater with offensive skill.
You ask a good question, when you talk about what seems to be an aversion the team has for defensive Defensemen. I must confess I do like to have some offensive Defensemen (operative word here “SOME”). But since they are Defensemen, they also have to be able to play some defense and to make it truly work, there has to be some balance with some real defensive experts. Otherwise we end up with the turnstiles Penguins’ goalies suffer under.
As I wrote below, maybe the Penguins can work out a deal to send Letang to the KHL if for no other reason than to get out from under his contract.
You also touched on some ideas that I have for another post that I have swirling in my mind; how many of the UFAs and RFAs that the Pens have are really worth pursuing. Making qualifying offers to all of the RFAs could make some sense so that the team could get something out of them but how many of them really earned a raise?
The JR – Sullivan apparent angst is interesting too. Sullivan no doubt lost some chips when he basically forced JR to trade Cole and the team got bounced. However, in Sullivan’s case, I can see a bounce back season, unlike Letang. I would hope that he starts looking hard at his players and sitting/asking JR to trade players like Sheary and inserting players like Sprong.
However, I wouldn’t be all that upset if the Penguins were to use Sprong to improve their D.
In the end, as much as I too like the idea of the Penguins having 3 1st line Centers that may be a luxury they could ill afford and not just from a financial perspective. If this were the late 80s early 90s and Howard Baldwin could just throw as much money as he wanted to throw around then they could still buy some D-men, but this is the 2018.
Moving Tanger to wing is an interesting proposition. Would he be productive enough to justify his pay?
Hey Darth Aggie,
I really don’t know if Letang would be productive enough on Wing to justify his salary. I just offer that as an possible idea. I really don’t know if the Penguins could find a trading partner. Letang has a lot of good qualities, he does pay a lot larger than his size would suggest, he sticks up for his team mates (He was 1 of only 2 Pens willing to hold Tom Wilson accountable for aggravated – let’s face it that is what Wilson did) and he does have some offensive skill (a couple of years back he was the Pens ace in the hole in shoot outs). However, even though other teams and fans may appreciate those things they still see Letang’s weakness on D.
Furthermore, with as much as Letang has done for this team in the past, I would really hate to unceremoniously buy him out and dump him. (I would if I had to, but I wouldn’t like it) If I couldn’t trade him, I would prefer to find a way to salvage something. So that is why I would at least ask him if he would be willing to move to Wing.
Or maybe, can NHL teams trade with KHL teams? Maybe the Pens could find a trade partner over there.