Pens

[theoneandonly]

I'm not targeting anyone to replace Martin/Ehrhoff... I said already a few times that they already have the pieces within the system to have a very adequate defense next year.

I'd rather have a very cheap 29 year old Chorney... a cheap Dumo at 23 years old.... Harrington at 22... Cole at 26 and Pouliot at 21 than pay Martin or Ehrhoff. Pair that with a healthy Letang and Maatta (hopefully/fingers crossed) and you have a very serviceable group of D to pick from.

You're right about Chorney/Dumo but Chorney played pretty decent in his NHL games as well. Plus those two gave up like 5 even strength goals this season in WBS when they were on the ice together. Maybe that doesn't translate to the NHL exactly right away but I'm not discouraged to give them a shot instead of dropping another $4/5 mil into someone else.

I'm not sure what you saw in Winnik that I didn't but there are probably going to be 30 UFA's this year that can be brought in to do what he did, IMO.

[abpk2903]

Martin and Erhoff are gone, guaranteed. The Pens have a ton of young defenseman coming out of WBS, who led the league in goals against this year. I would say that is the easiest place to replace them. There is no reason to give them $4 million + a year on multi year deals when the Pens could find similar production from players in their system for 15-20% of the price.

They can keep Winnik or they can let him go, IMO it really doesn't matter. You can find other Winnik's on the market.

[HockeyGenie]

Keep Winnik, dish out Martin, ehrhoff, and Bennett.

Winnik is by no means an offensive mastermind but for the most part he is very defensively responsible (except for the GWG in game 4 at consol). There might be better offensive targets but keep Winnik because they know his ceiling and know his reliability.

Dude, the Penguins should SERIOUSLY consider going after Joel Ward. He would be perfect with Malkin. That guy works for every second he's on the ice. And he got a nice goal last night against NYI. They get Ward, Kapanen comes up, and maybe they get another top sixer through a trade, they will be set.

[abpk2903]

KK had 21 points in 41 games over in a Finnish league that probably doesn't even quite measure AHL competition. I think he is a good prospect and future productive NHLer but to imagine him coming to Pittsburgh and being a solid contributor on Malkin's line next year is probably overly wishful thinking. Maybe in 2-3 seasons.

[JustWrestle]

Sheary had a good year, wouldn't mind giving him a chance

[HockeyGenie]

Yeah, and look what Kap is doing for WBS right now. If we're going to measure by their production in terms of AHL, then Kap is as ready as anyone, he is reeling in the postseason.

Never said he's going to immediately going to be a 30 goal scorer, just said he's NHL ready. Who better to pair him with than Malkin (or Crosby). He plays with them, starts putting pucks in the net, and it will do wonders for his confidence. They didn't draft him where they did for him to be sitting stagnant in Liiga, which is better than him playing in the AHL but still. They drafted him to be a future star, plain and simple.

Management made the right choice not pushing the issue by throwing him right away into competition. They let him develop a year, let him make the transition, and now he's ready. Don't baby him.

[Jrs237]

Yeah, guys! Don't baby the 18 year old that was held pointless for long stretches of the season and is just performing well in 2 GAMES. No, don't buy into the hype, Genie. If Kapanen was ready to play top six minutes, believe me, I'd be the first one in line begging for it because I'm excited as anyone for him. But he's not. Liiga's a joke, he's on a hot streak in the Calder Cup playoffs, please just take it for what it is.

Rutherford talked about the possibility of using Buyouts: aka, Scuderi is going bye-bye hopefully.

[abpk2903]

It's not babying him. Only the few generational talents are ready for the NHL before 20. He has what, 1 goal and 2 points with WBS. If that's the deciding factor to pair him up with 71 or 87, then his organization is in a worse situation than I thought.

If the Pens bring him up too early and he gets injured playing over his head, how much development comes during the next 5 months when he's sitting on the coach changing his ice pack every 20 minutes?

Why force him into a role he's clearly not ready for when the Pens hopefully will have at least $6+ million in cap space to play around with this offseason. Dupper hopefully comes back on the books (that means he's healthy), Erhoff, Martin, Downie, and a potential buy-out of Scuderi opens about $10-$12 million.

Here direction I would like to see the team take next year:

72-87-big time FA pick up
39-71-big time FA pick up
14-16-9 (fingers crossed)
13-40-17

58 (fingers crossed)-3
44-8
51-28/12

[Jrs237]

Genie, you want to know what happens to Kapanen if the Pens bring him into a large role like you want them to next year? Nail Yakupov happens. Abpk said all that needs to be said about it.

They will get a big time winger through trade I am hoping. My hope is they pick up Ward off of FA, and go for another winger through trade. Who it is, I haven't even tried to play out.

[Jrs237]

Worst thing you can do is give the kid another buffer year for his entry contract.