Penguins: To Market, to Market……. (Part II)

I originally planned on writing a piece on the Penguins’ Developmental Camp before continuing on with this series on the Free Agent (FA) and Trade Markets. There are a couple of players attending that camp that interest me. However, after a very quite Entry Draft, there was a flurry of activity and rumored near future activity swirling around our Penguins.

Jim Rutherford appeared to be doing his level best to steal my thunder for this series I am trying to write. What is worse, as I quipped at the height of yesterday’s activity, to our own Phil Krundel, Rutherford was doing so many things that I agreed with (and planned on writing about) or at least was okay with that I would have nothing to complain about.

Sheary and Hunwick
The flurry kicked off with the announcement that Rutherford had off-loaded the contracts of Conor Sheary and Matt Hunwick to the Buffalo Sabres for a conditional draft pick (3rd or 4th round depending on conditions being met). It looks like Mr. Rutherford is getting his Mojo back. I would have bet that at least Hunwick was unmovable. This trade may not have been as improbable as the Scuderi – Daley trade; after all Sheary could be dressed up to look somewhat attractive, especially to a team at the bottom of the league looking to climb back into relevance. Furthermore, a 3rd round pick is a real gamble with a fairly high probability of being nothing more than a bag of pucks while Daley was actually a good player in exchange for what became a millstone contract.

I do wish both players, Sheary and Hunwick well and their new the Buffalo Sabres, but as Rutherford pointed out, in the modern Cap era of hockey, decisions have to be made for the good of the team.

The Sheary – Hunwick deal opened up $5.25 million in Cap space for the Penguins to sign and resign players.

Jack Johnson
The next news that came out involved Jack Johnson. The old saying, “don’t count your chickens before they are hatched” would suggest we hold off too much excitement or whatever emotion you may be having until July 1st (Opening day of FA), however, reports are saying that the Penguins came to terms with left handed, free agent defensemen Jack Johnson for what appears to be a 5 year deal at $3.3 million per year.

A lot of people are really happy about this signing citing Johnson’s size (6′-1″, 227lbs) and his 82 game average of 121 hits and 131 blocks, as well as his perceived offensive skills.

I have read some people, including national media sources questioning the wisdom of this signing citing his age 31 (turning 32 during the season) and length of contract (5 years), Johnson’s negative +/- (-109 for his career and only being a on the plus side of that stat only 1 time during 12 seasons.) and his sub 50% CORSI stats at even strength (47.2% for his career, only season over 50%). The media sources also imply that that Johnson’s offensive talent is over-rated and that he has never fulfilled expectations.

However, I am okay with this deal for now. No, I don’t like the length of the contract. Johnson will be 37 when the contract expires. However, I can understand the idea behind the length of the contract. The Penguins were able to sign Johnson for a very reasonable $3.3 million per year (according to reports). Most sources I was reading was suggesting that he would be asking $6 million per year. After all, he was making $5 million last year.

Although I am a stat kind of person, I am not all that concerned over the stats for and against Johnson, for now. I have never followed Columbus or Los Angeles close enough to understand his stats in terms of the systems he played under and the competition he faced. I say this because I started to look at the numbers behind the numbers and saw that Columbus has only had 2 season where their team CORSI stat was 50% or higher over the years Johnson was there.

Furthermore, Hunwick never fit in, cost the team only a little less ($2.25 million) and was not an option, so I am more than willing to wait and see how Johnson fits in. My only real concern over the Penguins’ defense at the moment is that Rutherford’s language would seem to indicate that the team really doesn’t want to acknowledge that Kris Letang is a problem and needs to be moved while a team like Edmonton may be in the market for a one dimensional Power Play Quarterback and willing to put up with a defensive liability to get it. Outside of coaches, Letang was the player most responsible for the teams early exit from the playoffs

Riley Sheahan
After the Johnson story leaked, it was announced the the Penguins used some of the Cap space saved from the Sheary – Hunwick trade to sign Riley Sheahan to a 1 year deal for $2.1 million. Sheahan was a beast in the Face Off circle (56.3% at even strength and 54.2% over all). Sheahan also started to show offensive flashes during the stretch run as the Penguins’ 3 line Center, at least until the Penguins brought in Derick Brassard. Interestingly enough Sheahan had climbed back into the 3rd line Center role during the playoffs and was often employed as Sidney Crosby’s Left Wing late in games to provide for a secondary face off option during those critical minutes.

Sheahan joins Bryan Rust, Daniel Sprong and Dominik Simon as Restricted FA (RFA) resigning with the team.

According to Cap Friendly, this morning, the Penguins still have $8.1 million in Cap space (about $5 million if the report of Johnson turns out to be true) to try and resign Jamie Oleksiak and maybe even one more player.

Teddy Bleuger, Ethan Prow, Andrey Pedan, Thomas DiPauli, and Tristan Jarry remain as unsigned RFAs. However, right now, signing these players will not impact the Penguins’ Cap since they are non roster players.

If you are still looking to keep me from complaining Mr Rutherford, at least resign Bleuger, Prow, Pedan (find a way to keep him here and get him an NHL look), and Jarry.

There are still a couple of moves I would like to talk about but that can wait for another time. After yesterdays activity all I can say is;

Go Pens!