It’s Time For A Cruel Change For Our Penguins

Can YOU Handle the Truth?
For our Penguins, trading away a player or 2 (or more) is a must, not an option.

Yes, I know, I said Evgeni Malkin shouldn’t be traded unless he wants to go and I stick by that statement. However, we have a problem right here in the city of Pittsburgh with our Penguins. Some seriously mismanaged finances have our Penguins with their tails to the wall.

Glance at the bottom line and you will see that our Penguins are projecting to spend $79,083,333 for next Season. At present (unless the league increases the Cap), teams are only allowed to spend $79,500,000. Our favorite flightless fowl have almost reached that limit.

To make matters worse, look a little closer and you will see that the Penguins only have 9 Forwards on the roster (below). Even if they play with no 4th line at all they could exceed the Cap.

	Player	Po	Salary
1	Evgeni Malkin	C	$ 9,500,000	NMC
2	Sidney Crosby	C	$ 8,700,000	NMC
3	Phil Kessel	RW	$ 6,800,000	M-NTC-NMC
4	Jake Guentzel	LW	$ 6,000,000
5	Patric Hornqvist	RW	$ 5,300,000	NTC
6	Nick Bjugstad	C, RW	$ 4,100,000
7	Bryan Rust	W	$ 3,500,000
8	Jared McCann	F	$ 1,250,000
9	Dominik Simon	W	$ 750,000
1	Kris Letang	RD	$ 7,250,000	M-NTC-NMC
2	Justin Schultz	RD	$ 5,500,000	M-NTC
3	Brian Dumoulin	LD	$ 4,100,000
4	Olli Määttä	LD	$ 4,083,333
5	Erik Grudbranson	RD	$4,000,000
6	Jack Johnson	LD	$ 3,250,000
1	Matt Murray	G	$ 3,750,000
2	Casey DeSmith	G	$ 1,250,000
	Total		$ 79,083,333

^{NMC – No Movement Clause (No Trade, No Waive, No Demotion to the minors, NTC – No Trade Clause, M-NTC – Modified No Trade Clause}

Zach Aston-Reese, Teddy Blueger and Marcus Pettersson are not on the list above. All three players are Restricted Free Agents (RFA). Adam Johnson, Joseph Blandisi, and Juuso Riikola, (who also spent time sporting a Penguins’ uniform last year) also do not appear on that list and are RFA. Even more players, Matt Cullen, Garett Wilson, Zach Trotman, and Chad Ruhwedel are Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA) and as such are not counted in that nearly $80 million salary. We haven’t even talked about Tristan Jarry, who is under contract for 1 more season but unable to play alongside this the list of Penguins next season due to too much money against the Cap.

I recall just a few years ago, the team was only able to carry 17 skaters on their roster for a couple of games at the end of the season because of Cap issues. Unless the team can pare about $3 million from their roster soon, they won’t be able to carry even 15 skaters and 2 goalies come opening night.

Right after the season ended, there was talk about Nick Bjugstad being on the trading block, and that may be what happens, but he will only open up $4.1 million and drop the number of Forwards to 11. Our tuxedo attired aquatic avians will then have about $4.5 million to divvy up between 4 forwards to bring them up to 18 skaters, or about $1.1 million each…or they could drop down and get maybe 5-6 players at $800,000, in order to carry a reserve in case of injury on road trips.

The problem with this plan — the Penguins’ “cupboard” is rather bare when it comes to prospects making in the $800,000 range that might contribute at the NHL level. The team’s stars are going to have to shoulder an even heavier load next season.

Given all the signs and their recent history of making bad off-season moves (so I doubt the Penguins will do this), but my first thought would be to trade Kris Letang. That would free up $7.25 million minus what the team got in return. More importantly it would remove the player most directly responsible for the team’s early exit over these last 2 playoff years and let’s be reminded that they won their last Cup without him.

To whom would I trade Letang?

Dallas comes to mind. Dallas complained of a lack of an offensive punch, they will have $18 million in Cap space and the only Defenseman they have under contract right now for next year (that is close to Letang in salary) is assistant captain John Klingberg.

Who/What would I ask for?

Dallas’ 1st round pick and Jamie Oleksiak back. Oleksiak is by no means the 2nd coming of Bobby Orr, but he was bread-and-butter with Justin Schultz when he first came here, and the team is currently very weak on the left side of the Defense. Oleksiak would only cost a little over $2.1 million, saving 5 million to be spent elsewhere.

Low end, I would take Oleksiak and flip 1st round picks to trade up in the draft and free up that $5 million.

If I can’t make that trade, I would talk to San Jose, particularly if San Jose doesn’t win the Cup. San Jose is about to lose Erik Karlsson to UFA. San Jose will have $20+ million going into next year with all of the salaries clearing their books and Letang would only represent an increase of $600,000 over what Karlsson is making now. I would also jog the San Jose memory of what Letang did to them only 4 years ago. I am not sure what to ask for since San Jose doesn’t really have any picks until 2021 and they have a lot of aging UFAs. But as I mentioned recently, to clear $7.25 million I would be willing to not get equal value (equal value in terms of some Penguins’ fans).

Next I would trade Olli Määttä.

Toronto may be losing Jake Gardiner, Ron Hainsey, and Martin Marincin to UFA; all Left Handed Defensemen (LHD). Määttä could be what the doctor ordered for Toronto and he may recover his game up there. The Maple Leafs don’t have that much room to maneuver with all of their FAs including Mitch Marner, but I would love to get the RFA rights to Kasperi Kapanen back. Maybe if the Penguins picked up Patrick Marleau’s salary for the last year of his contract and gave Toronto Dominik Simon (a cheap Corsi attractive forward)… The Penguins would lose about $2 million of the $5 million that they freed up in the Letang trade but they would be up to 10 forwards, if they then could sign RFA Kapanen. Not a bad deal.

If they did have to take on Marleau’s salary to free up enough money for Toronto to sign Marner, to make a trade palatable it would clear the books next year and they would have that cap space back the next season for contract extensions and signings. It would also make trading Bjugstad less of an impact. Marleau can play Center or Left Wing. Trading Bjugstad could then help open back up some of the $2 million lost in taking on Marleau’s salary.

Signing Kapanen would free the team up to trade Right Wings Patric Hornqvist or Bryan Rust. It would be hard to part with a guy with Hornqvist’s heart and attitude but signing the 32 year old smallish hard working winger to that $5.3 million per year, 5 year contract was one of those questionable financial decisions made last off season. But our Penguins now must make hard decisions. It would also be hard to part with Hornqvist because of that contract, most teams will be skeptical of taking that contract on.

Another of those off season signings last year that is now looking like a burden was Jack Johnson. He is the lowest paid signed Defenseman but that $3.25 million could be better spent elsewhere. Trading away Letang and Määttä could make keeping Johnson less of a problem, at least until the trade dead line since there really wouldn’t be much of a market for him until then.

Vancouver, however, would be a another trade partner, as they have over $26 million in Cap space so we could shed Määttä’s salary for a draft pick. I doubt Vancouver would give up a 1st round pick, even though Määttä is a former 1st round pick, but I would try for as high of a pick as I could get, hopefully a 2nd but I would settle for a 3rd. At this point, with Määttä’s $4.083 plus the $5+ million freed up from the Letang deal, the Penguins might acquire Artemi Panarin before Florida does.

However, trading Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel make the least sense. They were the only 2 veteran forwards that did show up for the playoffs this year. Despite the Coach and GM crying about these 2 players they did try to make a series of it. They weren’t the problem.

Unfortunately, the reality of Cap era hockey means that our seafaring Sphenisciformes may be in seriously deep water with some savage seals seeking to sink their teeth into them if they don’t sacrifice some of their higher paid but more problematic players. “It is time for a cruel change.” to paraphrase a Little River Band tune. Hopefully the ownership will step up and have the courage to change but keep the team from parting ways with their better players and not just the ones the coach doesn’t get along with.