The Penguins 2017-2018 Season Revisited

With the trade deadline closing to single digits soon and sports chatter throwing rumors about as the arm-chair GMs offer suggestions as to what their favorite teams should do, I figured I would go back to the past and revisit some recently past seasons and what my suggestions were – not just at the deadline but throughout the season. This post (really series of posts) started several months back when some Penguins fans I know cornered me (and my opinions) while the team was struggling at the beginning of the season, asking me “so what would you have done?” and “what would your team look like?” Our friend Rick Buker has been prodding me to post this, however I have held on to it for a more apropos time, like now, when all the arm-chair GMs come out of the woodwork. (So, read at your own risk – lot’s of my opinions expressed.)

I suppose I will do as the King says in Lewis Carroll’s tale, “begin at the beginning….and go on till you come to the end; then stop.” To answer my critics, I was on board with everything our Pittsburgh Penguins were doing until the Spring/Summer of 2017 so that is where I will start.

In 2017, nothing bothered me more, while watching our Penguins push towards their second of back-to-back Stanley Cups, than the apparent lack of urgency in the front office about the coming off season. Yes, the players were embroiled in a war, a war that saw P.K. Subban trying to twist Sidney Crosby’s ankle off. However, there really should not have been anything distracting then General Manager (GM) Jim Rutherford for preparing for a big off season. Maybe Rutherford was trying to do something, maybe it is unfair for me to write this, he was preparing for the off-season, but if he was the evidence is hard to find. And there was a lot for the GM to do.

Of the 35 players that played for our Penguins in 2016-2017, nine of them were going to be Restricted Free Agents (RFAs) at the end of the season; Josh Archibald, Frank Corrado, Jean-Sebastian Dea, Brian Dumoulin, Matt Murray, Derrick Pouliot, Justin Schultz, Conor Sheary, Oskar Sundqvist. Another 11 players were going to be Unrestricted Free Agents (UFAs): Nick Bonino, Matt Cullen, Trevor Daley, Cameron Gaunce, Ron Hainsey, Chris Kunitz, Kevin Porter, Chad Ruhwedel, Tom Sestito, Mark Streit, David Warsofsky. And to top that off, the GM had to prepare for the Expansion Draft that would be bringing the Vegas Knights into the League. Also, let us not forget the regular NHL Entry Draft to prepare for.

The Expansion Draft
Perhaps my biggest point of contention with Rutherford during the 2017 off-season was his paying of Vegas a draft pick in the Entry Draft to take Marc-Andre Fleury. While I was a Murray fan, I was never in the rabid camps of you have to chose one or the other. I could have been quite comfortable with both Murray and Fleury. I understood/understand that Rutherford had to choose one to expose to the draft and logic (age and salary) dictated that it be Fleury, trading them a draft pick to take Fluery was asinine. I would have dared them to take Sheary or Kuhnhackl, or even a veteran like Carl Hagelin.

Ove the past several years some people have contended that Rutherford had to trade the Draft Pick to get Vegas to court Fleury and get him to wave his No Movement Clause (NMC), however, in a recent interview with Dan Kingerski of Penguins Hockey Now, after stepping down as Penguins GM, Rutherford was reported to have said that Fleury requested a trade to Vegas, so the paying of Vegas to court Fleury has no validity. Furthermore, if Vegas doesn’t take Fleury, but takes Sheary and I have to trade Fleury to Vegas, I may be able to get one of their Goalies in exchange, so I don’t have the worry of Antti Niemi.

The RFAs
Looking back at everything I wrote about the RFAs at the time (not using hindsight to help me now) I would have, just as Rutherford did, make a priority of signing Dumoulin, Murray, and Schultz. However, I must not that I was not a big fan of how much Rutherford gave Dumoulin. With hindsight, I can see he was worth it, but I must confess that I was for trying to get him for a lesser price. Just like Rutherford, I would have looked to sign Archibald and Pouliot, they were both still young players and still showed a potential to play, more so in Archibald’s case, but I definitely would have tried to sign them to 2-way contracts, not the 1-way contracts to which they were signed. I would have also signed Sundqvist. If I had signed Corrado or Dea, it would have only been to fill out the Wilkes Barre/Scranton (WBS) Penguins’ roster. Sheary, I had already soured on, his long absence from any contribution in the playoffs, when things got physical made him a Dunsel. I would have traded his rights or simply let him go and saved the $3 million he cost the team.

RFAs in: Archibald, Dumoulin, Murray, Pouliot, Schultz, Sundqvist
RFAs maybe: Corrado, Dea
RFAs out: Sheary

The UFAs
Re-signing’s:
Depending on how far you read back over Penguin Poop, you will see that I was a big fan of Bonino and wanted Rutherford to offer him an extension in 2016, but that did not happen, so when going down the UFAs I would have had to review for 2017, as much as I liked him, Bonino was now too expensive for my tastes (even with the $3 million saved on Sheary).

Since I was going to lose Bonino, I would have at least offered Cullen a contract and with the savings from letting Sheary go and the chance for a shot at history and a three-peat, I am pretty sure I sign Cullen. However, of the other UFAs, I would have only tried to sign Ruhwedel and Sestito. Sorry Rick B. I would not have tried to sign Hainsey and as much as it grieves me, I would not have tried to resign Kunitz.

Signings:
During the off-season, Rutherford went out and signed luminaries such as Matt Hunwick, and Antti Niemi, as well as Greg McKegg, and Zach Trotman to ply their trade here in the ‘burgh. I may have eventually signed McKegg, I loved his speed, as well as Trotman (size) but I could not stand the Hunwick or Niemi signings.

Rather than Hunwick, I wanted Rutherford to sign Andrei Markov. Yes he was 38 years old and was asking for a 2-year contract, I believe around $2 million, if I recall correctly, but he was a puck mover like Mike Sullivan prizes and was coming off of a 6 Goal (G) 30 Assist (A) season in 62 Games Played (GP). In 2017-2018 in the KHL he posted 5 G and 28 A in 55 GP, in 2018-2019 he had 2 G and 12 A in 49 GP. That has to be considered far better than Hunwick.

As for Niemi. I did not think the team needed a veteran Goalie to back up Murray. With Casey DeSmith, Tristan Jarry, and Filip Gustavsson, Niemi was totally useless.

I also pushed to sign Zach Aston-Reese, Will Butcher and Adam Johnson out of College. Rutherford did sign Aston-Reese but not Butcher. I doubt I could have signed him either. He wanted to play and with Ian Cole, Dumoulin, Markov, and Olli Määttä ahead of him, I doubt he would have signed.

Back then, I also floated the idea of trying to sign RFA Andreas Athanasiou out from under Detroit or try and swap rights to Sheary for him. However, Detroit did not seem to want to give him up so I doubt I would have gotten him.

UFAs in: Aston-Reese, Cullen, Markov, Ruhwedel, Sestito
UFAs out: Bonino, Daley, Gaunce, Porter, Streit, and Warsofsky

The Trades
As I wrote above, I would never have traded a draft pick to get Vegas to draft Fleury, so I would still have that draft pick in the back. However, I would have conceded to Fleury’s request to eventually trade him there, even if it eventually cost that draft pick. However, if I felt the need for insurance in Goal, I would have grabbed one of their Goalies in the exchange.

The next trade Rutherford pulled off was the Ryan Reaves trade. Although I do appreciate what Reaves brings, I would never have traded for him, or at least not for what we did trade. With the loss of Bonino and the age of Cullen, I would never have let Sundqvist go. Some, including our own Phil Krundle suggested that Sundqvist was a Dunsel, but even though I did not argue the point strongly, I did not feel that way.

Secondly, with the way Tom Wilson hid from Tom Sestito when Sestito was I the line-up I did not see the need to upgrade to Reaves unless, I could get him for a steal. Third, since Sullivan did not choose to use Sestito, I could not see Reaves getting much of chance either. And finally, I did not want to swap picks. There was a kid I wanted the team to draft and did not want to rick not getting him.

In training camp, it was already obvious that Pouliot was not long for the team. He should not have taken a 1-way contract. He may have stayed a Penguin; had he been easily sent back down to WBS. However, he was on a 1-way contract and when the opportunity to trade him to Vancouver for Andrey Pedan came along, YES, and emphatic YES, I would have jumped all over that deal. I had mentioned a year earlier that I had wanted that particular big, rugged Vancouver Canuck. Like Pouliot, he may not have been able to crack the Pens lineup, but he certainly would have been on my short list for call-ups.

Shortly after the season started, the team dealt Scott Wilson for Riley Sheahan to bolster the glaring hole at Center. If you read back in Penguin Poop, I was not a fan of this trade either, even with the gaping hole at Center. It turned out that Sheahan eventually did find his groove and was playing well down the stretch run, making the future trade the team eventually fell into a bit questionable. But since I would have still had Cullen and Sundqvist, as well as McKegg, I do not think I would have needed to make this trade.

Later, in December, Archibald was dealt to Arizona with Sean McGuire and the teams 6th Pick in the 2019 draft for Michael Leighton (a goalie to bolster WBS) and Arizona’s 4th pick in the 2019 draft. I liked Archibald, but I probably make the trade. With Phil Kessel, Patric Hornqvist, Bryan Rust, Tom Kuhnhackl, Carter Rowney, Archibald was expendable and getting a better draft pick while helping my AHL affiliate did and does sound worth it.

The next December trade was the Penguins 4th round pick in 2019 for Jamie Oleksiak, at Sergei Gonchar’s recommendation. Yes, I was all over that trade. I would make this trade in a heart beat.

The final move I want to talk about is what many consider the knife in the three-peat dreams, the Brassard deal. In a complicated trade deadline deal, Rutherford traded Ian Cole with Filip Gustavsson, a 1st round pick in 2018 and 3rd round pick in 2019 for Derick Brassard, Vincent Dunn, and the Ottawa Senators‘ 3rd round pick in 2018. To make the deal workout financially, Rutherford had to deal Reaves to the Vegas Golden Knights to with a 4th round pick for Tobias Lindberg and Vegas picked up a portion of the extra money and Cap hit for acquiring Reaves. This would never have happened under my watch. Even though Brassard was the darling of the deadline, I was never in favor of changing the team’s chemistry at that late date and the only player of interest to me in Ottawa at the time was Jean-Gabriel Pageau. Since Ottawa was not interested in trading Pageau at that juncture, I would have stayed put, no trades.

The Entry Draft
Since I would have had my 1st Round Pick, I would have selected Nicolas Hague and not have had to settle for Zachary Lauzon (Who is now out of hockey due to concussions) in the 2nd round.

Therefore, going into the playoffs my roster would have been;

And in the system, I still would have the following;

Would that team have won a third Cup? We will never know. All that we can know is that the moves our favorite flightless fowl did make were not successful. Even if my version of what the Penguins would have looked like did not win the Cup, I am fairly certain that saving the draft picks set them up for the future much better.

Next up, I will look at how these changes would have affected my 2018-2019 decisions.