There has been a lot of talk about an immanent trade between our Pittsburgh Penguins and Colorado Avalanche but nothing has happened yet. The rumor mill has suggested that the Avalanche were willing to take much maligned blue-liner Jack Johnson with other assets.
Fellow Penguin Poop writer, Rick Buker and I were just talking about the potential trade. We both said that we have been checking to see if the shoe has dropped and Johnson was gone, every hour, but nothing.
Could this lack of movement been on the Penguins part?
Other rumors suggested that Colorado was interested in a back-up goalie and had their eyes on Tristan Jarry.
Have we been witnessing a standoff similar to the Kennedy Cuba Missle Crisis? Was Jim Rutherford and Joe Sakic channeling Kennedy and Khrushchev staring eyeball-to-eyeball waiting to see which one would blink? Was Sakic hoping to see Rutherford waive Jarry so he could get his Goalie for free? Was Rutherford waiting to see if Casey DeSmith would clear waivers, freeing him up to trade Jarry and still have a backup goalie? Just musing here.
I guess we will see, if we stay tuned.
In the meantime we are now less than 48 hours from the start of the 1st puck drop of the Penguins 2019-2020 season.
The Other Rick
IMO Johnson is not going anywhere. At the very worst he’s the 5th or 6th best
D-Man the Pen’ s have. Until Riikola or Marino prove they handle an 82 game
schedule I think the Pen’s will hang onto JJ.
My guess is they may want to see a little more of Marino before moving out one
of the other D-Man. Although I’m not sure how that corrects the left side of our
defense.
I realize a lot of Pen’s fans want Johnson gone but the truth of the matter is he still offers the team a dimension or two that no other defenseman does. He’s
durable, physical and was team leader in hits and blocked shots. I know he doesn’t skate or move the puck as quick as some others but his attributes are
extremely valuable to this Penguin team.
It will be interesting to see how JR maneuver’s around this situation.
Hey Mike,
I understand your thought. On the Left side, not only is Riikola still rather young and unproven, Pettersson isn’t that much more of a sure thing and most teams wouldn’t really want that many young D-men if they thought they had a shot this year.
I did see JR said he expects to see JJ in the opening line-up Thursday night, but I am not sure how much stock I put in that. Just a couple days earlier he made it sound like the deal was pretty close to being complete. He postured at the beginning of the summer about trading Malkin, even though everyone and his grandmother knows Malkin can’t be traded or moved without his OK, then had to eat his words. Then he postured back and forth with Kessel, first trade him, then no – Kessel was to stay, then yes trade him to Minn, but Kessel nixed the deal, then finally trade him to Az. Even back as far as coach MJ, he gave MJ a vote a confidence only days before firing him.
Furthermore, like you I do see an aspect to Johnson game that few Pens D-men seem to have, and JJ isn’t the worst defensive liability on the team, Letang and his trying to split 3 Isles in OT during a line change in the playoffs makes him the worst defensive player right now on the team, but his Offensive potential is light years higher than Johnson’s.
If Johnson doesn’t move this year, I would think that the no other team is willing to take him without a significant sweetener, if for no other reason than Cap space. As I mentioned earlier (to Jorenz), although the team is just in under the wire for Cap money, they still need to create a little more in wiggle room, just in case Kahun (or one or more of the kids in WBS come up) and he (they) hit their potential Performance bonuses. The team is carrying a penalty from last year due to performance bonuses, they may want to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
Also, remember not only is Murray RFA, but their are tons of FAs next summer, FAs far more important to the team than Johnson, so if they have a window of opportunity to move him, whether they want to move him or not, they may feel pressured into moving him to sign players.
I may not try and sign some of those FAs but I am not sure what JR thinks about the bigger names – particularly the ones he more recently traded for. Letting those players walk would make several trades look really foolish and losses.
Johnson may not get traded before game time tomorrow night or ever, but I doubt it will because the team didn’t try and trade him. It will be because no one wanted him/his contract without robbing the team of younger assets.
In a situation like that, then I would hope JR maintains his cool and doesn’t throw away kids just to lose JJ.
The Other Rick
This is why the “Media” disgust me. They create stories based on there opinions and what they would like to see happen vs writing about the
facts. They intentionally use the power of the pen/pencil to run people
out of town or cost them there jobs – Its called propaganda and I personally believe they should be held accountable.
https://pittsburghhockeynow.com/not-true-jack-johnson-pushes-back-pittsburgh-penguins-trade-rumors/
Hi TOR!
Two quickies for you:
1- By putting Bryan Rust on the LTIR and since DeSmith has been cleared from waivers, are the Pens under the salary cap?
2- Do you think that it would be preferable to trade Jarry or DeSmith and Jack Johnson to a western conference team? For the goalies, I was thinking about Anaheim. Ryan Miller is 39 years old and he is not going to stay forever. As for Johnson, Edmonton or Winnipeg could be a good fit, since they have young D-squads.
Hey Jorenz,
1. Yes, the Pens are under the Cap. Sending DeSmith down got them under the Cap by around $400,000. That will be good for now. However, Kahun has $2.85 million in potential performance bonuses that could take them back over the Cap at the end of the season, so the Rust LTIR will start to create a buffer, should Kahun hit those bonuses. Unless he is out for most of the season, by itself his LTIR won’t be enough if Kahun hits his full potential salary (not sure what the conditions are – if it is all or nothing or some graded scale. I may have to look that up, if possible).
2. I honestly can’t see keeping Jarry at all, unless the team doesn’t think they will be able to afford Murray. Both Jarry and Murray are 25 or under and they will have to expose 1 of them to the expansion draft and possibly lose him for free.
There is a chance DeSmith might get taken as well, but by then he will be 29, so that possibility should be lower.
So, if Colorado or any Western team is looking for a goalie, I would think that Jarry should be traded, so they can get something in return for his loss and I would rather not help any team in our conference.
As for Johnson, I am very surprised by the Colorado talk. Even if they are interested in Jarry, I would think that they would be too shrewd to take on his Salary, even if they were planning on buying him out over the summer (I believe a buyout means about $900,000 over the next 6 years). I would only do that if I were them, if I thought Jarry was a definite upgrade over Grubner at least for next year.
My thought would be Anaheim is a more likely trade partner for Johnson. They only had 6 Defensemen signed, last I looked, and their bottom pairings weren’t all that impressive or significantly better than Johnson. They need could use a RHD more than a LHD, but may be able to be talked into taking Johnson if they could get a RHD as well, and/or the goalie you mention.
Like you I would think that Johnson would be more in line with Winnipeg but like Anaheim, I think they are more interested in a RHD, especially with Dyfuglien’s status. I am just not sure if/what you would have to sweeten the pot for that deal.
Edmonton, they really don’t have the Cap room to take Johnson (last I saw it was only about $1.5 million)