Kapanen comes home to the Penguins

1. All the people call for JR to be fired need to get a grip. Let’s all be clear about one thing. JR is getting his marching orders from above. It Any other GM Lemieux-Buekle hired would be doing the same thing – trading first round picks for roster players.

   One other thing to keep in mind. You have to get really bad before you can draft high enough to get really good. Anyone the Pens draft now will be arriving too soon for the rebuild. If he’s good player, he only makes the descent slower so that the Pens would spend more time in the finish middle-draft middle purgatory. Ideally, there will be a complete crash and burn in 3 years and hope to reemerge in 6. A good player drafted now will ironically only prolong the agony. No, we want to be really, really bad in three years and we don’t want any great 2020 draft pick screwing up the plan.

   1. Perhaps Stratton, perhaps JR is getting his orders from above. However, that type of meddling/micro-managing usually only comes right before a firing. Add to that what Dan Kingarski reported today “one Penguins team source expressed confusion to PHN.” (with regard to the trade) in his piece entitled. “Where the Kapanen Trade Really Hurts the Penguins”. There would be no confusion if the decision was made from the owners.

      And you really don’t have to get really bad to get high draft choices. Yes, almost ever team goes through that scenario, but it isn’t a universal constant. A team can always stay on top, retooling every so often by selling off aging top talent while their stock is high to GMs like Rutherford who are like people with gambling sickness always looking for one more big score.

      Hornqvist could have been traded off when his last contract was up for a top pick to a team with dreams of a title looking for that “Last Piece”. He could have then been re-signed in the off-season, if the team really wanted him back.

      Letang could have been traded several years back as well for young guns that would now be coming into their own, supporting Crosby and Malkin truly keeping the window open.

      There is no guarantee another generational player like a Crosby or Malkin is coming down the pike any time soon, so waiting to go nova is fruitless. Edmonton has had tons of top 5 picks and look how they are struggling. With all the talk, McDavid, as good as he is, still has yet to show that he is the true generational player that Crosby and Malkin were.

2. Terrible trade. Not over-rating first round picks here but the 15th overall pick has quite a bit more value than the ones which we’ve usually dealt (anywhere in the 20’s).
   So that being said, this is definitely the one year where you keep the pick due to its relative value.
   That being said, and noting my personal preference was to keep this years pick, if the decision was made to trade it, I wouldn’t have been against doing so. Provided of course the value was right and that value was reflected by maximizing those assets received both in terms of clear fit and relative value.
   And this is why I hate this deal. Awful asset management on every level. While adding Kap certainly adds value and makes our team better, he is not worth the 15th overall pick. Just simply isn’t. Then stripping our youth even further, we add one of our few legitimate forward prospects in Halander making a mockery of how lopsided the value we gave compared to what we received .
   Then there is the question of Kap and fit. Guys, gonna say this now. He isn’t going to work on Crosby’s wing. Nor Geno’s. His speed and tenacity are unquestionable. No doubt. His skill and hand speed are not. They are looking at him as a Kunitz, aggressive on the puck type winger which is what he is… though without the skill of Kunitz.
   Maybe your take is how the first round pick won’t help the window remain open. A few thoughts on that. People have been saying that for several years now and several of those picks turned into players that could have already helped the team (would be nice to have Matthew Barzal right now who was picked with the first rounder we used to acquire David Peron in 2015) or are in position to be full time NHLers next season and have a legit shot to have a positive impact (KeAndre Miller and Klim Kostin).
   Even if you have the position of trading the pick for immediate help to keep the window open, that is fine. It’s a defensible position and valid. So use the pick, get equal value and get the player who can maximize that value on the impact he can make on the team. Kap fails to meet either of those criteria. If you’re of the mindset of, “Well that was the price and they weren’t going to budge” then that is a fair point as well. Perhaps they stuck to this price and wouldn’t budge (doubtful as everyone except GMJR knew that either Kap or AJ had to be moved this offseason and Rutherford completely failed to leverage that against Dubas while allowing himself to be leveraged). So if that’s the price and they don’t budge, walk away. Not like this deal had to happen today and not like Kap alone is the one and only younger player a GM would potentially move. You don’t cave and over pay with something that has as much value as the 15th overall pick. It isn’t like giving a 3rd rounder at the deadline for a player normally worth a 4th rounder because you’re willing to overpay to get what you want. You don’t do that with such high value picks nor is Kap a difference maker that you just have to get no matter the cost.
   Another problem is our coach and his preferential deployment based on personal reasoning rather than the best lineup night by night. We already have a player in Jared McCann who worked amazingly well and showed chemistry and promise (and actual production) with Sid and Jake. But Sid wants Simon on his wing so despite that line clearly working, we get about 60 straight games (end of last season and beginning of this season) with a first line winger who scores about 4 freaking goals. Then Geno/Rust and Jake was arguably the best line in the league for a month and a half to two months and again, our coach doesn’t even attempt using it despite offensively struggling mightily versus Montréal.
   Point being we have to trade a valuable asset to bring in a tryout for Sid’s line because we have a coach that won’t use the assets at his disposal properly and a player who wants what he wants despite it not working for the whole team. And Sid has more than earned preference of course. I love the guy and what he’s given this franchise and think incredibly highly of him. Yet this is my one single complaint against him and how he runs his captaincy. His insistence on calling the shots as who his wingers are despite the obvious detriment it has been at times to the overall lineup. Even though I believe Sid’s earned the right to preference, you know who else has as well yet never gets it? Geno. Just as much as Sid.
   And that’s where a coach is supposed to step in and curb the players preference for the benefit of the team. Sullivan has no problem being a dick to Geno but a major problem in allowing Sid’s desires to be fulfilled over the best lineup the team can ice.
   So it doesn’t much matter who you trade for if the coach won’t maximize their usage. And despite all the evidence overwhelmingly pointing to Sullivan losing the players, we resigned him long term. So why give up first round value then continually trying to find Sid a winger when Sid won’t want to play with him and our coach won’t even deploy him.
   Giving up value for roster players without addressing the roster problem that Sullivan brings is pointless. Because you bring in the player while keeping the core of the problem intact. Unless Sullivan clearly changes (he won’t. Far to stubborn and arrogant, media won’t hold him accountable, GM protects him, Sully’s penchant for deflecting his share in the problems of the last few years by blaming players and throwing them, and his assistants under the bus while not even acknowledging his clear and specific mistakes are proof) or they fire him, bringing in the right players and giving up valuable assets for them won’t do much other than be a band-aid at best.

   Just an awful move and awful asset management.

   1. Stardog,

      I agree, we way overpaid for Kapanen. I wanted him back, but not at this price.

      This is just one more piece of evidence that our GM should have been fired – as I have been pleading for. The teams biggest problem isn’t its on ice presence as much as it is the Coach and the GM.

      Over the last 4 years JR has done nothing but throw away assets, reducing the talent level, year after year, getting back less than he gave up.

      Our friend Jim wanted Klostin in that draft you mentioned, I wanted Nicolas Hague – Hague looks like he is now ready to play. We gave that pick up for a player Sully refused to play and now we don’t even have anything from that trade as JR traded Reaves for Lindberg then Lindberg for Ben Sexton (Retired) and Erkamps (FA playing for WBS we don’t even have his rights anymore).

      I was hoping for Anton Lundell or Yaroslav Askarov in this draft.

      Askarov could be the best answer to the impending loss of a goalie. At least it would be the right idea to replace a soon to be gone asset.

      As you say poor, poor management. Our Penguins are rapidly becoming the same mess the Canes went thru.

      As for Sully, yes he was given an extension, but he can still get fired if Ownership wants to build value back in the team.

      1. “Over the last 4 years JR has done nothing but throw away assets”

         You mean like when he traded Sprong for Petterson
         You mean like when he traded a 6th round pick for Marino

         I’d call manufacturing a young second pair of defensemen from almost nothing pretty damned good asset management.

         Nothing like forming an opinion first and then reinventing history to justify the belief. You know that you aren’t dealing with someone who is rationally looking at the facts.

         1. Sorry, I have to disagree here,

            Pettersson back slid. He had a good rookie season but struggled this year. Maybe it was the Sophomore jinx maybe not. The

            Pettersson – Sprong trade may end up a push or a very minor win.

            Marino had a good rookie season, it is now time for him to prove himself again, something Pettersson couldn’t do, nor McCann. And even if he does, A. Stevens was the one that pushed for the trade and B. even a blind squirrel finds a nut. If Marino does pan out it will be the first trade he made since Botrell left that did turn into win for the Penguins.

            Fact of the matter is, the Penguins have been going down here for the last 3 years giving up more than the got each year, that is why they are on the outside looking in this playoff year.

3. Hey Coach,
   You must be clairvoyant.You have been calling for KK back in the Berg for a long time. Go buy a Power ball lottery ticket. Your hot !! haha
   Personally I think we over paid for at max a 20 goal scorer.
   HE IS NOT GOING TO WIN US A STANLEY CUP.
   The other two players are nothing burgers as they say.But because we have so very little talent in the pipeline we are supposed to be happy.
   Toronto has been trying to dump KK for a while. He had one good season of 20 goals and 24 assists but look who his line mates were.
   He is NOT a pure goal scorer Coach. If he was he would still be in Toronto.
   His salary cap of about $ 3.2 million for the next two years is also suspect.
   If he plays on the third line then we have over paid.
   What do we do with Hornqvist? He is not good enough to play second line or first line anymore, so do we put him on the fourth Line ???
   At five million plus !! Not on my team buddy.
   Today the Pens are no where any closer to being a Cup favorite.

   Lets hope that Murray and Letang go to Ottawa for their # 5 pick and possibly one of Ottawa’s Four second round picks. Then draft and keep a Center man for the future. I hear Detroit at 4th is planning to draft a d man so that 5th pick could actually get you a top rated 3rd or 4 th Center man.

   Then dump Hornqvist and buy out Jack Johnson and use that money to get a proper Winger for Sid at free agency.

   Remember the reason they traded KK in the first place was HE WAS NOT PROJECTED TO BE A SNIPER like Kessel was. What changed?

   That is my ramblings for today Coach. Just a reality check…

   1. Hey Jim,

      Not arguing about overpaying. But that is JR for you. The JR fan club calls him a horse trader, the rest of the GMs look at him like a rube coming into town for the first time. All I would have given up is Murray and maybe one of the Prospects.

      However, I do like Kapanen and think that he will develop. He is not a sniper, not the right-handed sniper I want, the team needs, but I think he is a Bryan Rust type with a little better pedigree, remember he is still only 23 and remember what you said, look who he was playing with. It wasn’t like he was top minutes with Matthews and Tavares.

      As always I want to be optimistic. I want to believe that JR will somehow deal Letang and Murray to get picks and maybe a 3rd line Center and D man, but more than likely he will trade away our first picks up thru 2025 for a bag of pucks and a couple of broken sticks.

      But for now, the team has another right handed shot that can net 20.

      1. HI TOR!

         I might have an explanation for why GMJR brought Kapanen back in the Burgh. Kapanen’s father, Sami, played for the Carolina Hurricanes from 1997 to 2003 (plus 2 years for the Whalers before their transfer to Carolina). Jim Rutherford was the GM back then. I heard from hockey insiders, here, in Canada, that the connection between the Kapanens and the Rutherfords is pretty strong and goes beyond hockey.

         Maybe Rutherford didn’t want to trade Kasperi initially but felt that the young man was his best asset to get Kessel. Just sayin’.

         1. Interesting Jorenz,

            I wouldn’t doubt it (Rutherfords and Kapanens are tight). However, I don’t know about JR and his “Horse Trading”. I think his ego gets in his way making him an extremely vulnerable bumpkin when he deals.

            As I said above, I have wanted Kapanen back for a while, but not at the price JR paid. So long as Sullivan coaches this team it will be imbalanced – every player is the same. So long as Sullivan coaches this team, his imbalanced team will fail.

            I like Kapanen but there still are many holes, including the pending reduction of an already depleted Goaltending corps.

4. This is a very puzzling trade. The Pens need a defenseman and a 3C. Spending the best asset on a player who isn’t not proven as a top 6 wing hardly seems the best idea. Also.

   1. The traded pick was 15, which sounds high. But the top talent in the draft ends at 11-12 by all reckoning. There was likely little difference between 15 and 25, so it wasn’t as if the Pens traded a near certainty. Historically, #15 is a very hot or miss proposition. Still, I would have expected a better prospect than Lindgren coming back.

   2. It’s probably no accident that Lindgren is right handed. That likely boosted his value in the Pens’ eyes. I always get a laugh out of those sparkling prospect descriptions of lower round picks. Apparently, he has no flaws. They always make the guy so perfect you wonder why he didn’t go top 10.

   3. Money was doubtless a consideration. Not cap space but hard cold cash. The Pens dumped Warsofsky who is signed for $400K even to play in WBS. That’s a big cash savings

   4. Where is the cap space for Kapanen going to come from? They were squeezed before.There’s certainly no chance sheary is coming back unless he signs near league minimum. Is this the end of McCann?

   5. The Pens did seem to overpay somewhat. But Robert Wuhl says on “Assume to Position” says, “judge slowly”. This deal likely can’t be evaluated independently of other future moves in the offseason, especially the goalie situation.

   1. Hey Stratton,

      I wanted Kapanen but not at this price. I thought Murray – Kapanen type of trade was more appropriate. I want to see him get a chance to play with Sid – Crosby loves to play with fast wingers, but as you say Kapanen hasn’t really showed to be more than a middle 6 at this point.

      I hear you about 15th not being that high of a pick, but sometimes other teams don’t draft the best player instead they draft to fill a position, so someone could still be there. I was hoping that Lundl would still be there.

      Also, I hear you about judging the deal slowly. A goalie still will more than likely be dealt and I can’t help but wonder about a Letang deal to open up Cap space for Kapanen. So, a 3rd line Center and a D-man may still be coming.

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