Penguins Sign O’Connor, Open a Second Buyout Window

The Penguins signed RFA forward Drew O’Connor to a two-year deal yesterday with an AAV of $925 K, two days ahead of a scheduled arbitration hearing.

A fair price, I’d say, for a 25-year-old kid who’s shown more promise than pop at this stage of his career, yet one who just might blossom into something more as evidenced by his strong showing at the IIHF World Championship in May (three goals, eight points in 10 games).

While his boxcars at the NHL level are by no means dazzling (eight goals and 17 points in 78 games spread over three seasons) to my eye the 6’3” 200-pounder began to assert himself last season in ways he hadn’t before.

I especially like the way O’Connor kept the game simple, using his size and speed to drive to the net and shoot. Good things happen when you put the puck on net and the kid seems to have a firm grasp of that concept, along with an emerging awareness of what works for him.

Superficially at least, Drew reminds me of another tall, rangy player who’s taken some time to establish himself. Drafted 26^th overall by St. Louis in 2016, Tage Thompson (pictured) developed s-l-o-w-l-y, collecting only 10 goals and 21 points in 107 games over the course of his first three NHL seasons. Numbers comparable to O’Connor’s at the same stage of their respective careers.

Following a nondescript rookie season, Thompson was dealt to Buffalo in a multi-player swap for Selke winner Ryan O’Reilly. While O’Reilly led the Blues to a Cup, Thompson played only one game for the Sabres in 2019-20, pretty much costing then-GM Jason Botterill his job.

Then the big guy began to figure things out. And once he did…SHAZAM! Following modest improvement in ’20-21, Thompson exploded like a supernova for 85 goals over the past two seasons. Proving, among other things, that patience is a definite virtue when it comes to developing young talent.

Okay, maybe comparing O’Connor to Thompson is (more than) a little over the moon. But if Drew emerges as anything close to the Sabres’ super sniper, he’ll be well worth the investment.

Second Buyout Window Looms

With O’Connor’s signing comes a second buyout window, which springs open this Saturday (August 5). The Pens will have 48 hours to execute a buyout should they choose to do so.

President of Hockey Operations Kyle Dubas has stated for the record that he doesn’t favor buyouts. However, with the black and gold presently perched some $3.2 million above the cap limit as well as a player over the 23-man roster limit according to CapFriendly, something’s obviously got to give.

Too, paring salary through a buyout might provide Dubas with some much-needed cap relief and flexibility for his on-again, off-again pursuit of Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson.

Personally, I’ve championed the notion of buying out veteran forward Mikael Granlund, which would result in an immediate savings of $4.167 million against the cap.

We’ll see what Dubas does.

Baby Pens Ink Samorukov

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins signed 24-year-old defenseman Dmitri Samorukov to a one-year deal on Monday.

A native of Volgograd, Russia, Samorukov was Edmonton’s third-round choice in 2017. He played for two seasons in the Oilers’ system, mostly for Bakersfield of the AHL, before being dealt to the Blues last fall for countryman Klim Kostin.

Standing 6’3” and tipping the scales at 188 pounds, the left shot defender has three games of NHL experience (no points, minus-3), two with the Blues and one with the Oilers.

After flashing some offensive ability in junior hockey (25 goals, 99 points in 188 games with Guelph of the OHL) he’s settled into a stay-at-home role in the pros.