A couple of years back, I played armchair GM and offered my not-so humble opinions on what then Pittsburgh Penguins GM Jim Rutherford should have done in the off-season. If you go back to the summer of 2019 and look, I really wanted Rutherford to raid the European ranks for some good young, inexpensive talent, rather than shop the old high-priced veteran market of the NHL Unrestricted Free Agents. The 3 biggest desires I had was for the black-and-gold to sign Ilya Mikheyev (Wing), Oliwer Kaski (Right-Handed Defense), and Adam Reideborn (Goalie).
Rutherford instead chose to sign Oula Palve (Center) and Emil Larmi (Goalie). At the time I quipped that it would be funny if Mikheyev that turn out to be the next Artemi Panarin and Palve the next Sergei Plotnikov. Mikheyev was having a pretty strong inaugural season until he broke his wrist, had a slight drop off after that but turned in a good season this past year potting 21 Goals (G), including 4 Short Handed Goals (SHG), and 32 Points (Pnts). While those are not Panarin numbers, Palve never even laced up the skates once in the NHL. At least Plotnikov played a bit in his first season.
As for the other 3 players I wanted, Kaski was signed by the Detroit Red Wings (AHL affiliate – Grand Rapids Griffins) but struggled there. Before he could settle-in to North American hockey he was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes (AHL affiliate Charlotte Checkers). In Carolina, he started to get acclimated to the AHL. Unfortunately, for his North American hockey aspirations, Carolina was and is deep on Defense. He ran back to Europe and the KHL to Avangard Omsk. He had that thundering point shot that our Penguins haven’t had in quite some time.
| Team | League | Season | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | +/- |
| Grand Rapids Griffins | AHL | 2019-2020 | 19 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 12 | -8 |
| Charlotte Checkers | AHL | 2019-2020 | 35 | 11 | 9 | 20 | 2 | 2 |
| Avangard Omsk | KHL | 2020-2021 | 58 | 13 | 21 | 34 | 14 | 3 |
| Avangard Omsk | KHL | 2021-2022 | 47 | 13 | 20 | 33 | 12 | -8 |
Reideborn never did come to North America. He jumped from the SHL to the KHL where he had some real success with Ak Bars Kazan for 2 seasons, but last season had an off year with CSA Moskva.
| Season | Team | League | GP | GAA | Sv% | SO | W-L-T | |
| 2019-2020 | Regular | AK Bars Kazan | KHL | 36 | 2.11 | 0.913 | 3 | 21-9-4 |
| 2020-2021 | Regular | AK Bars Kazan | KHL | 29 | 1.82 | 0.931 | 3 | 16-9-3 |
| 2020-2021 | Playoffs | AK Bars Kazan | KHL | 5 | 1.68 | 0.938 | 0 | (2-2-0) |
| 2021-2022 | Regular | CSKA Moskva | KHL | 21 | 2.37 | 0.902 | 4 | (12-7-2 |
That is the past. More recently (after game 7), our friend Rick Buker and I were talking, about what our Penguins should do, going forward. With a bit of a slow down with my clients – wanting to vacation, I figured I could play armchair GM again. So here goes….
Our Penguins have a boatload of Restricted Free Agents (RFAs); Niclas Almari, Justin Almeida, Jordy Bellerive, Kasper Bjorkqvist, Alex D’Orio, Jan Drozg, Danton Heinen, Kasperi Kapanen, Cameron Lee, Alexander Nylander, Pierre-Olivier Joseph, Will Reilly. In all, our Penguins have 12 RFAs. I tender qualifying offers to all except possibly Almeida and D’Orio.
Don’t mistake those Qualifying offers with me thinking any or all those players will ever make the NHL Roster. I just would want to keep them in the system for 1 more year while I garner other prospects to improve the pool. And in some cases (Heinen, Kapanen, Joseph), if anyone wants to pluck an RFA from our roster, they will need to pay us. I would not give up any of those players for free. Our Penguins have lost far too many players with the team realizing no return over these last few seasons and may yet lose a couple of others (Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang) without compensation.
Before looking at the Unrestricted Free Agents, a plan to clear Cap space must made. I trade Jason Zucker, Brian Dumoulin, and Chad Ruhwedel.
Mike, please understand, I don’t want to disrespect Zucker. Even though he hasn’t really put up the numbers everyone envisioned, a lot of Zucker’s frustrations would seem to be from misuse of his talents. As I illustrated in a reply to Rick B, metrics would seem to indicate that Zucker should have been playing with the Captain, Sidney Crosby. So, please follow my idea.
To push forward my deals I would use the rights to my RFAs, Heinen, Kapanen, and Joseph, to sweeten the deals, if I had to package something.
I won’t wait for those trades to take place, I will bury Zucker and Dumoulin in the minors and dare some club to pluck them off waivers. If they don’t get claimed, I can then trade them as the deadline approaches.Let’s face it, all a team has to be is within striking distance at the trade deadline, they don’t need to be challenging for the Presidents Trophy.
However, I may not need to wait that long. In an article by Jon Lane on the NHL website, it appears the Ottawa Senators could possibly be persuaded into trading the 7th pick in the draft for a top 4 Defensemen. The article states that they may be looking for a steadying hand back on their blue line to guide their youngsters into the next generation.
Looking at their roster, they could also use a real NHL calibre Left Wing (LW).
And lo and behold, according to Capfriendly they have a little over $23 million in Cap Space. My first call would be to Ottawa to see what kind of deal I could strike. I would definitely start with the idea of that 7th Pick. To get that pick, I would also be willing to flip them my 1st round pick plus those 2 players, but I would ask for at least one of Ottawa’s 2 – 2nd round picks, since we traded our away.
I would even throw any of my RFA’s into that pot if they could get me into a top 10 pick.
I could then use that pick to garner one of the draft picks I was talking about (surely one would be available). In order of preference, I would look to grab 1A) Juraj Slafkovsky (F, Slovakia), 1B) David Ji?i?ek (RHD, Czech Republic), or 2) Šimon Nemec (RHD, Slovakia), 3) Conor Geekie (C, Canada).
If I didn’t have to swap 1st round picks but got an extra No. 1 pick, I would look to pluck any of the above players who may have slipped to my normal draft position, or if they are of the board I would then look at taking; 4) Isaac Howard (LW, USA), 5) Seamus Casey (RHD, USA), 6) Pavel Mintyukov (LHD, Russia but playing in Saginaw), 7) Ivan Miroshnichenko (LW, Russia).
I wouldn’t waste my number 1 pick on a USA kid or a Russian kid right now. Most of the prospects from the US have committed to college already. With Russian players, I do have interest in Mintyukov and Miroshnichenko, but I would be fearful of not being able to get them over here to North America any time soon.
Looking at the numbers of the players and their Cap hits (in the table below) I would have between $25.818158 and $35.108158 in Cap space, depending on if I can trade Zucker and Dumoulin, (and Ruhwedel?). before the start of the season or if I have to bury them and only get the small break of a buried contract. (Since Ruhwedel’s contract is below $1 million I can bury the contract)
| Player or Condition | Cap Hit | Sub Total |
| Sidney Crosby | 8.7 | |
| Jeff Carter | 3.125 | |
| Teddy Blueger | 2.2 | |
| Centers | 14.025 | |
| Jake Guentzel | 6 | |
| Brock McGinn | 2.75 | |
| Left Wings | 8.75 | |
| Bryan Rust | 5.125 | |
| Right Wings | 5.125 | 5.125 |
| John Marino | 4.4 | |
| Mark Freidman | 0.775 | |
| Right-Handed Defensemen | 5.175 | |
| Mike Matheson | 4.875 | |
| Marcus Pettersson | 4.025175 | |
| Left-Handed Defensemen | 5.175 | |
| Tristan Jarry | 3.5 | |
| Goalie | 3.5 | |
| Kasperi Kapanen | 0.84 | |
| Danton Heinen | 1.1 | |
| Qualifying Offers | 1.94 | |
| Jason Zucker | 5.5 | |
| Brian Dumoulin | 4.1 | |
| Jack Johnson | 1.916667 | |
| Dead Space | 9.266667 |
This post is long enough, I will go through position by position to rebuild the team I just broke down n later installments.
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The Other Rick
Couple of observations and comments.
1) IMO the Pen's resigning Malkin and Letang is a huge business mistake even if either or both gives them a team
discount and will set the organization back 5 years. It makes zero sense to bring them back. To be a mediocre
team?
2) By signing Malkin and Letang it will probably cost them any chance of inking Rakell to a contract. He's a proven
goal scorer and a legit top 6 player.
3) I don't see anyone giving us a top 10 pick for Dumo even if you throw in a couple of players. The high end picks
are to valuable unless you're getting a legit front line player. Just Dumo's age, injury history and regressed play
would probably hurt his overall value. Ottawa could probably snag a much younger player moving into his
prime.
4) I have no problem moving Zucker if we're able to resign Rakell. This would offset Rakell's contract who's probably
looking at 3-4 years at 4.5 to 5.0mil per year.
5) If I had to choose between E-Rod, Heinen & Kappy I would keep the latter two based on age / upside. E-Rod has
each of them by 3 years and has never scored more than 9 goals until this season. I do believe kappy will bounce
back.
6) By signing Malkin and Letang it will drastically restrict Hextall from any opportunity to address our lack of size,
and toughness. I do agree that GMRH should tender at least 75% of his RFA. Malkin and Letang on team friendly
deals will cost the team around 12 million (IMO) Each getting around 6mil per year. You could sign some pretty
good Free Agents with that type of cap space - although from experience I would caution that having a lot of
money to spend doesn't always translate into getting the player or players you desire.
7) It's time for the Pen's to have an influx of young talent inserted into there everyday lineup. Evaluate players by
spending a half of season taking a regular shift "find out what you have" - Poulin, Zahorna, O'Conner, etc...etc...
8) Last but not least - do I think Malkin and Letang can still play "yes" but the only way to begin the restructuring
of our current team to be better prepared to handle the rigors of playoff hockey is to let them walk. PERIOD!!!!
PS - Jim I agree with your assessment of Tampa's defensemen. I always felt the trade they made with the Rangers
getting McDonagh and Miller was a game changer. McDonagh has been a rock for the lightning. To me that was
a crafty move by then GM Steve Yzerman.
GO PENS - As always I look forward to your feedback.
Thanks Mike,
I guess my point simply is that REAL CHAMPIONSHIP teams usually have an advantage over their completion. I found it interesting that Tampa's strength was their Blue line and their Goal tending. Even to some degree their Coaching and former management.This year's Tampa team is certainly NOT the high flying,high scoring team of 2 years ago. They lost a lot of their young forwards to free agency and they had to piece together a team to defend their title. So they adapted !! Problem with our Penguins is we never adapted to the 2022 reality in the team we have now.
Sid Crosby is our best player yes. But he is not the top player in the league anymore. He is not even top five. Maybe top 10 which is still a major compliment for a player who has been in the league for 17 years....But he can not deliver the goods by himself at age 34. Last 4 years prove it. So he needs help as you know .
Cheers
JIM
Amen Jim,
This Team is indeed in need of a makeover. JR severely damaged this team just like he crushed Carolina. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt when he came in, and he did bring us 2 Cups before he started to destroy the team. However, I do remember people shouting out a warning. It is not going to be an easy fix, and the team may need to also look at making some of their decision more on finances rather than finishing 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in the Division. Quite often 1 step backwards today can lead to 3, 4 or more steps forward tomorrow. Trying to win every battle leads to a high probability of losing the war.
As you will soon read, I really wish the team would have either signed Malkin and Letang to their extension before the trade dead line or traded them for Anton Lundl and draft picks rather than leaving us in this messed up situation.
Only those blinded by arrogance could see this team was never going to win the Cup this season.
Hey Coach,
Lots to think about my friend. I recognize and agree that your first move is indeed to clear the Cap Space so we can start the process to move forward. With out that we are simply wasting our time. Our team needs a make over. I appreciate the detail thought process you followed above and I look forward to see where you would apply the Cap savings .
The second point you make is we need to be better at drafting, especially in markets other than the US Colleges and the North American Junior ranks. I have always thought the really successful teams all have a few Europeans on their roster that the ISS or Central Scouting failed to identify.
The final point I see is that we both agree drafting 21st again this year will not fix our problems. For me that is the kiss of death and at 21 st you can not attract the really elite talent we will need moving forward. In my opinion we need to move up into the Top 10 for sure and secure a European who has been miss labeled talent wise.Maybe we can get a 40+ goal scoring center who can play a 200 foot game.
In a perfect world we keep our 21st pick and get another top 10 pick via trade.
I also like the idea of trying to secure some second round picks by trading some of our RFA's.
FYI Coach, In researching a response for Rick's last post regarding Tampa Bay, I noted that 5 of their defense men are ALL FIRST ROUND PICKS.These players are all high enders. ( 2nd,3rd,9th,12th and 14 th.) That is impressive. Not only are they big and fast, but all have high skill levels. That is what the Pen's are missing.
We need to draft better and attract high end talent.
Cheers
JIM