Penguins: Give Me 3 Steps, Give Me 3 Steps Mister

The curtain is about to go up on the opening act of the 2018-2019 season, the NHL Entry Draft. Considering that the Capitals won the Stanley Cup tells me our Penguins didn’t miss a 3peat by much and that is a good thing. Not only is it a good thing in its own right, it is a good thing because, once again our Penguins have traded away their 1st round Draft pick. While the fans of the other 30 odd teams in the league are having visions of young guns breathing life into their organization, we Penguins’ fans must look past the draft and hope GM Jim Rutherford regains his trade mojo or can pluck the right plum from the Free Agent (FA) market.

As I have said, I don’t think the Penguins missed by much. They can gain a bit of a bounce from a little addition by subtraction, the pathetic media shutting its pie hole and allowing bruised egos to heal, and the coach learning from last years experience.

Addition by Subtraction:
The Penguins can improve the team greatly simply by removing 3 players from their roster. There may be a couple other players the team could lose without be hurt all that much but jettisoning 3 players is necessary; Kris Letang, Conor Sheary, and Matt Hunwick.

I do not want to be misunderstood, I do appreciate what at least 2 of them have done for the Penguins (Letang and Sheary) but their usefulness has passed.

Kris Letang
To all of the Letang apologists, he has always been a great offensive talent and had his bounce back in that department. He is once again playing great offensively. His skill in that department is unquestionable, consummate, and irrefutable. However, his ability to read defensive plays and make smart decisions in his own defensive zone have always been diametrically opposite. Of the 19 goals the Capitals scored against the Penguins last playoff series occurred with Letang on the ice. In his youth, Letang had the speed to get back into many of those plays, now, longer in the tooth, he doesn’t have what it takes to get back into the play. Taylor Hall and players like him exploited Letang’s misreads and slowed step to blow past him to the net in a deluge of break aways and odd man breaks of unprecedented proportions. It is not going to get better. It is past time to move on.

Some have said it is impossible to trade him due to his fragile health, high priced contract, lack of defensive skill, limited no trade – no movement clause contract, and age. They may be right. Had the Penguins not traded both their 1st round pick in this years draft and Filip Gustavsson, perhaps they could have put a package together to try and swap Letang for either Erik Karlsson or the Kings Drew Doughty. I have seen articles suggesting that Karlsson may be shipped to Vegas; perhaps Ottawa may still be in the mood to deal. Unfortunately the Penguins have little to offer.

Maybe they could still deal for Doughty. If reports are true, the Kings are looking to sign Doughty to a contract extension. However, if they can’t, they may be willing to take a risk on Letang who is still under contract for several more years.

A more likely trade partner may be Carolina (if they are not one of the teams on Letang’s no trade list). I would have much preferred Doughty or Karlsson, but Justin Faulk could be a trade up as well and if Carolina is in a panic to get back into the playoffs, then maybe they could be fooled into taking Letang.

Conor Sheary
For the second straight year Sheary was a no show come play-off time. With all the ado made by Mike Sullivan to wrongly blame Phil Kessel for the Penguins lack of secondary scoring, Sheary’s complate lack of compete is getting whitewashed. Perhaps that is why Sullivan made his statement to obfuscate the empty number 43 Black and Gold Sweater.

Not only was Sheary a pathetic nonfactor in the playoffs again last year during the regular season he went from January 21 to March 6 without scoring a single goal and only picking up 3 assists.

I did read some discussion questioning whether Sheary just experienced a let down after signing his big contract last summer – What? Sheary only signed for $3 million, in today’s day and age that is only about a moderate contract, not a big contract. It only looks big in the light of Sheary’s lack of production and weakness on the puck (The draft of a player skating past being enough to disrupt his shot or knock him off the puck completely.

I read an article a couple of weeks back where some talking head tried to extol the virtue of Sheary’s metrics giving me hope of trading him, however, I would be happy with a bag of pucks at this point, getting a 3rd or 4th round pick for him would be a bonus.

Matt Hunwick
What can I say here? What a bad signing he was last year, especially considering that the Penguins could have signed Dan Girardi and Andrei Markov, instead. Girardi only signed for $3 million, just $750,000 more than Hunwick and Markov had 33 points in 55 games for Kazan Ak-Bars of the KHL last season and was a +7 (I say this because I wanted Rutherford to go after at least one of these FAs last year).

Trade him if you can but buy him out or bury him in the minors is you can’t trade him.

Give it a rest Media
Phil Kessel is one of the best Wingers in the League. The Penguins didn’t win the Cup without him, but won back to back Cups with him and could have won a third if Sullivan would made better decisions in the Capitals’ series. Sullivan cut his nose off to spite his face in a testosterone contest with Kessel last year. Sullivan tried to blame Kessel for the Penguins’ lack of scoring and repeated a tired refrain of wanting secondary scoring. Had he sat Sheary, put Daniel Sprong on that third line and moved Kessel back up with Evgeni Malkin he probably would have more secondary and tertiary offense that any team could have handled. But then again Sullivan would seem to not like Sprong either.

The pressure to win a 3peat was more than likely the origin of what is now a rift. The loss to the Capitals no doubt contributed a little to widening the gap between Kessel and Sullivan. However, the incessant stupidity of the media to keep fanning the fires is making it very difficult for these two important pieces of the Penguins’ puzzle from coming back together. I am now reading Kessel is wanting out.

Hopefully the media will get a clue and shut up (doubtful). In my mind all players are trade able, at the right price, so I wouldn’t be upset if the Penguins traded Kessel but got equal value back, but that is the problem. Without a talent like Kessel, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, (John Tavares if the Penguins could sign him), or Derick Brassard, will have no one to whom they can pass the puck. Therefore, there will not be any of that secondary scoring that Sullivan said the team needs.

However, having said all of this, I did hear someone say that Tampa Bay was not looking to resign Nikita Kucherov. He will be a Restricted FA (RFA) at the end of the season. I would think the Penguins would have to sweeten the pot a little, since there is an age difference but Tampa Bay would get a reasonably priced goal scorer for several years.. Who knows, maybe Rutherford could dress up the sows ear (Sheary) in silk purse to make the deal, but I would suspect they may have to cede next years 1st round pick.

If they could work the deal and sign Kucherov to an extension then it may be worth the pick – and if Tampa Bay is really not looking to sign Kucherov.

Sullivan learn from last years experience
No one is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. Sullivan made several last year. He ran Ian Cole out of town, he over-played Kris Letang and Conor Sheary, and he refused to reunite Kessel with Malkin and insert Daniel Sprong to get his secondary scoring when Sheary and the line combinations played themselves out, all to show his dominance over Kessel.

The coach has to be the final authority, but a coach, like the players has to be able to handle the pressures and not let personality interfere with what is best for the team. He has to be able to be strong enough within himself to be able to give a star what they want, particularly when it benefits the team.

With no first round pick, the Penguins will have to generate excitement for the new season in other ways at this years draft. In the end, they need to make sure what they choose to do actually helps the team or at least doesn’t hurt the team. They weren’t that far off last year and after 3 steps could be a serious, serious threat to go the distance again this year.

Let’s Go Pens!