Penguins Trade Deadline Breakdown
[Letang out a while?]
[Penguins leave open door for big move this summer]
[The Fleury Narrative]
[Scouts Buzz on Streit]
Penguins accomplish goal of moving Fehr’s salary
Trade Analysis: The Pittsburgh Penguins acquired defenseman Frank Corrado from the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for Eric Fehr, Steve Oleksy and a 2017 fourth-round draft pick.
Grade: C+
The Penguins and Leafs had discussions for weeks about Fehr but the acquisition of Brian Boyle appeared to likely close the door on that scenario.
So much so, the Penguins decided to play Fehr last night instead of protecting the asset.
For the Penguins, though, the possibility to trade Fehr to Toronto surfaced again in the final 90 minutes of the deadline when the Leafs circled back to the Penguins after Fehr cleared waivers.
The Penguins accomplished the primary goal of being able to move Fehr’s salary off the books for next season while also giving them cap space to add elsewhere as moving Fehr helped take on 43.5% of Streit’s salary.
Even with Bryan Rust a ways away towards returning, the Penguins were also comfortable in moving on from Fehr because of their organizational depth at the forward position for this season with the likes of Carter Rowney, Josh Archibald, Oskar Sundqvist all being viable players who can fill a 4th line role this season if needed (Rowney will be in lineup tonight) and beyond this season where the Penguins have potentially a few more close to NHL ready players in Dominik Simon, Teddy Blueger and the organization see’s upside in Thomas DiPauli as a 4th line player at the next level in time.
“We’ve got a lot of young guys knocking on the door who have an opportunity to move into that position,” Mike Sullivan said of filling Fehr’s spot on the depth chart.
What I liked about this deal was the Penguins adding some AHL depth in defenseman Frank Corrado who’s still young enough at age 23 where he could be coached up a bit.
The talk immediately after the acquisition from some of the local media is that adding Corrado is similar to the Justin Schultz acquisition last spring. That is crazy talk to be honest.
Corrado has some good puck moving skills but is a Chad Ruhwedel type. A good AHL player with some skill, see’s the ice well who can hold his own for a couple NHL games. He’s an AHL/NHL tweener.
How much can Streit help?
Trade Analysis: The Pittsburgh Penguins acquired Mark Streit from Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for a 2018 4th round pick
Grade: B-
The Penguins acquired Streit from the Tampa Bay Lightning less than an hour after the Lightning acquired Streit from the Flyers.
At age 39, Streit’s numbers have declined since his 52 point out-put in 2014-2015 and there’s obvious questions what Streit can bring to the table down the stretch as the season wears on but there’s also some intrigue here.
The hockey IQ and puck moving ability is the same as three-to-four years ago.
The Streit acquisition is not a game changer by any means but one scout I spoke with loved the move for the Penguins.
“Fantastic addition,” an Eastern Conference scout said. “The way Pittsburgh’s forwards get up the ice, it’s a nice fit for how well Streit [still] exits the zone [hide].”
Another scout I heard from felt Dave Hakstol’s system also hindered what Streit does so well in getting the puck up to forwards who are trying to attack off the rush.
While Buffalo’s Dmitry Kulikov who didn’t move, was the Penguins top target today, Streit was on the Penguins short-list throughout the last week.
“He was on our shortlist of defensemen we wanted to acquire,” Rutherford told reporters this evening.
MORE BUZZ
— NHL sources say one reason the Penguins took a good run at Kevin Shattenkirk Monday is Pittsburgh has some concern Kris Letang’s injury is one that could not only be more than day-to-day but type of injury that could nag him the rest of the season. That’s why the Penguins were determined to get another established NHL defenseman.
— As reported here this morning, the Penguins were one of six teams that Shane Doan would waive his no trade clause to. Arizona approached Pittsburgh if there was interest and the conversation ended there. One forward the Penguins kicked tires on was Radim Vrbata but Arizona would only move him for a second round pick or a combination of a 3rd round pick and prospect.
— The Penguins have not received one offer for Marc Andre Fleury this season. That is alarming. It’s the Penguins job to do PR spin that they didn’t want to move Fleury but the facts are they tried.
Not moving Fleury and getting that situation resolved is a negative for the Penguins.
There’s concern in the organization that the market could be exactly the same in June.
The Penguins were baffled by the lack of interest. [/hide]
The blackhawks would have lit up Murray like a christmas tree last night. Thank god Fleury was in there.
I don’t think the Penguins will have enough in the tank to get through two rounds. But I’m excited about next year. They should be able to shed some salaries, get some young guys in the line up and maybe even picked up a top FA/trade. I think Gramps played the deadline right.
As much as the excitement of it had me hoping for a move youre bang on… prices were absurd. Hopefully this will correct the market a bit going forward. That said I guessing the Vegas thing played a big role in why it was so quiet yesterday. A lot of teams may have their plans in place already
The NHL needs to fix the trade deadline. Move the date, get rid if no movement clauses,create cap loop holes … I don’t know the answer but what used to be an exciting time of year is a snoozer.
These guys are either tired or feel it’s gonna be easy… I hope that’s not the case. Sheary and Rust are solid but should not be the difference in wins vs getting their ass whooped or blowing leads. Missing D is gonna factor but to this point where Sid goes pointless in his last two? These guys need to step it up soon, that feeling on how they were playing last year at this time is missing so far. That needs to change if they plan to repeat.
FTR I get they were not outclassed last night by any means… that finish is missing… vs another back up. This is what I am most concerned about
Just goes to show you how important Letang is to the team.
This too!
Yup but ask that to stain he doesn’t see that way
Regular season hockey starts to drag this time of year for the good teams. They all kind of just wait around for the playoffs. As far as sid going scoreless in the last 2, you can thank Kunitz for that. He can’t play on the top line. I think sid only has 7 points since sheary went down.
Shows how important Sheary is! Those two have a chemistry that is hard to find. Glad he is back this weekend
crosby has 11 points in 13 games since the sheary injury. .85 ppg. before the injury, 1.31 ppg. kunitz and guentzel<<<<sheary and rust
I still like the energy Kunitz brings, he just isnt a top 6 guy. I would like him a lot better with say Wilson and Cullen. Those three looked good together. Guentzel is a very good hockey player I just dont think he meshes as well with Sid as Sheary does by any means.
Funny – because you told us all that he elevates other players, but now it looks like Sheary was elevating Crosby. Odd.
And Cole struggled last night.
Duncan Keith is Teflon. The guy does what he wants all game long and gets called for nothing.
American Kane > Canadian Toews
Funny how they both got the same contract and the American continues producing.
Lost in this argument over which players were at fault is the fact that Fleury got badly outplayed by the guy at the other end of the ice. Fleury rarely outplays the opposing goalie. Murray gets the better of the opposing goalie at least 60% of the time. Fleury didn’t have a terrible game. But Darling was by far the better goalie tonight.
You mean Murray gets bailed out 60% of the time
Exactly.. Fleury made a couple wild saves… but the goals he gave up were bad position goals.
Kunitz and Bonino were crap tonight. Fleury deserved better.
If you guys want pens to go to the final they better start blocking a lot of shots in front of the goalie they way the played tonight in a 7 game series they would be out in the first round from rags, caps,sens jackets Habs and even first round upset by leafs
The real question is will Burkle and Mario have the balls to give st bleury his $12 million dollar buy out check or will they puss out and trade murray and go with the Saint? Done put it past them to do it. This is a weird organization when it comes to the endless love and admiration of a guy who made a career out of being a nice person.
btw, who’s your prophet. St bleury with the .889 and the pens needed 4 to win. Too predictable.
Yeah you are right fleury suckedd when you had Cole, Schultz being turnover machines along with malkin being a tourist on that 2nd goal. a la Gonchar .then you had chubby always 2 steps behind the action I don’t know if it was because he tried to play last night or he ate too many hotdogs in Chicago before game
Where’s Crosby been the last couple games?
Must be a Canadian thing
Why would the pens be baffled there was no interest in st bleury? How effing obvious can it be that his cap hit is outragous and he is in the bottom 80% in stats. They believe their propaganda. It’s a joke.
As I said earlier #4 and #28 were garbage tonight
7 odd man rush. Majority happened when Russian was on the ice
Frenchie Letang forever hurt
Fleury doesn’t need a glove. He’s toast
Lazyyy Russian