Daily 5: Intriguing Pirates Trade Target in Padres outfield; When Pens brass soured on Kapanen & more

TIOPS DAILY FIVE *Rumblings, Musings, Opinions* 1. The Pirates could go into their four game series Thursday night with the St. Louis Cardinals at worst, 5 games out of first place. The series could have huge impact on how aggressive the Pirates are in bolstering the roster. Their philosophy of looking to the future isn’t going to change as top prospects Tyler Glasnow, Austin Meadows and Josh Bell will remain off limits no matter what, but if the Pirates go into the All-Star break 2-3 games out of first, it should set them up to stay within striking distance of the Cardinals by the July 31st deadline and that’s where the temptation will surely be there to add a player or two that

Daily 5: On A.J. Burnett’s brilliant season; Why Mike Johnston trying to change Phil Kessel would be a mistake & more

TIOPS DAILY FIVE *Rumblings, Musings, Opinions* 1. For A.J. Burnett, an All-Star for the first time in his 17th Major League season, some are calling it a fairytale season to what is expected to be his final season. Burnett on Monday night lowered his ERA 1.99, his seventh start this season where he’s pitched at least seven innings and allowed one run or fewer. According to ESPN Stats & Information, only two NL pitchers have more, Max Scherzer (9) and Zack Greinke (8). This is only his third season in Pittsburgh in what has been an almost 20 year MLB career but Burnett has really become a Pittsburgher. He’s putting everything out there for this team and his teammates who

Daily 5: Intrigue with Phil Kessel being a “great support” player that can elevate play of Crosby or Malkin & more

TIOPS DAILY FIVE *Rumblings, Musings, Opinions* 1. Once ownership delivered a mandate to Jim Rutherford immediately after the Penguins first round loss to the Rangers that trading Evgeni Malkin would not even be a discussion internally, the Penguins had two proper ways to attack this off-season. I: Go younger in sort of a re-tooling manner, stay competitive, but look more towards 16-17 and 17-18 by shying away from the win-at-all cost mentality in adding marginal players who don’t move the needle and see if players like Kasperi Kapanen, Derrick Pouliot, can be the ones in 1-2 years who can provide the big jolt. II. The other scenario was going out and adding a true game changer, elite type player who has

Daily 5: Rutherford worked Leafs inexperienced front office; Scouts buzz on 87 or 71 with Kessel & more

TIOPS DAILY FIVE *Rumblings, Musings, Opinions* 1. Penguins General Manager Jim Rutherford showed Wednesday he still has his fastball. Rutherford is an old-school GM known by rivals as a risk taker. Much of his first season as Penguins GM, everything seemed rushed. He overpaid for David Perron giving up a first-round pick that wasn’t lottery protected; he went from believing the Penguins needed skill and four scoring lines, to over-reacting to some tough games with the Rangers, Capitals that the Penguins needed grit to win; he ran the cap so tight the Penguins couldn’t fill a full lineup late in the year, to taking the risk of trading Simon Despres for Ben Lovejoy just because the Penguins needed a right hand

Daily 5: Brandon Saad, lack of forward assets, targeting bottom-6 players who can create their own shot & more

TIOPS DAILY FIVE *Rumblings, Musings, Opinions* 1. Brandon Saad went on the trade market Sunday after contract talks stalled and boom was traded this afternoon in a stunner to the Columbus Blue Jackets. In the deal Chicago sent Saad, Alex Broadhurst and defenseman Michael Paliotta to the Blue Jackets, with the Blackhawks receiving forwards Artem Anisimov, Marko Dano, Jeremy Morin, Corey Tropp, and a fourth round draft pick in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft. The Penguins made what they felt was an aggressive pitch for Saad, at least that’s what they want the media to put out there, but the Penguins didn’t have the forwards to matchup in a trade for Saad, per team sources. A Penguins source says the

Daily Five: Penguins Draft Day Chatter & Rumblings Edition

TIOPS DAILY FIVE: NHL DRAFT EDITION *Rumblings, Musings, Opinions* 1. Jim Rutherford looking to make a splash, multiple NHL sources confirmed today that the Penguins are trying to maneuver two separate trades for top-6 wingers. The Penguins had identified two wingers with a shorter term and two wingers with four+ years left on their respective deals. The grand plan would be to strike deals for one of each but lots of roster shuffling would have to take place and the Penguins intend to be patient if it doesn’t happen tonight. It’s going to be a very tough scenario to pull off and some of the chatter out there indicates what they’re trying to do isn’t realistic. The usual suspects out

Daily 5: Chatter around league has Rutherford looking to swing for the fences in acquiring Kessel & more

TIOPS DAILY FIVE *Rumblings, Musings, Opinions* 1. Chris Kunitz future with the Penguins this summer is hinging on whether the Penguins make a specific move they are exploring for a top-6 winger, Inside Pittsburgh Sports has learned. A source close to the situation in simplest terms says the Penguins are not planning to move Kunitz just for the sake of moving him but have explored scenarios to create a roster spot or cap room, were the Penguins to swing a deal for one scenario they’re exploring right now. That leads to this:

Daily Five: Rutherford’s Russian Quota Met? Bennett trade talk; 3-on-3 OT, Corey Hart & more

TIOPS DAILY FIVE *Rumblings, Musings, Opinions* 1. All this talk for months of the Penguins determined to sign a few Russians is coming to fruition as the Penguins have a verbal agreement in place with 25 year old winger Sergei Plotnikov. For the Penguins it’s a low risk move as there’s no harm in bringing Plotnikov on board. Plotnikov, 25, is regarded as a hard working very physical forward who has some offensive tools and good hockey sense, but is not a fast skater and his skating is considered a major weakness. Plotnikov had 15 goals and 36 points in 56 games for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the KHL this season. He had a goal and assist in 10 games for

Daily 5: Brandon Sutter trade talk, Rob Scuderi, Alex Semin & more

TIOPS DAILY FIVE *Rumblings, Musings, Opinions* 1. What is Brandon Sutter’s worth on the trade market? The Penguins probably wished rival General Managers had Darren Dreger’s view of Sutter. [“I mean Brandon Sutter is a young man, relatively young, and has tremendous upside no question about that,” Dreger said on TSN Radio, via mynhltraderumors.com] Maybe one does but as the Penguins have been gauging Sutter’s value in recent weeks, he’s not going to nab them a 2015 first round pick, that much has been clear. The Penguins main goal, though, has been putting him out there in the hopes of landing a top-6 winger in return. That type of deal might not be there for the Penguins with so many

Daily 5: Pirates disaster of a series; Penguins top-6 winger search; Phil Kessel; Beau Bennett & more

 TIOPS DAILY FIVE *Rumblings, Musings, Opinions* 1. The Pirates disaster of a series with the Washington Nationals was capped off with a 9-2 loss on Sunday where the Nationals put up nine runs in the first inning. Pittsburgh was outscored 19-3 in the series and the Pirates saw first hand they weren’t playing the White Sox or Phillies anymore. The Pirates after getting within four games of first place, have now fallen back to six games behind the Cardinals. Still so much baseball to be played but the National League playoff picture remains the same as a month ago. There are six true playoff contenders, Nationals, Cardinals, Dodgers, Giants, Pirates and Cubs. Don’t expect any of that to change from now