Penguins/NHL
EXTENSION CANDIDATE
The Pittsburgh Penguins gave up a steep price for David Perron last January in what ended up being the 16th overall pick in the deepest NHL draft in 12 years.
Is it even worse asset management to let Perron walk for nothing next summer?
“He [David Perron] could be here for six [hide] to seven years,” Jim Rutherford said in January following the trade.
Has the Penguins stance changed following Perron’s disappointing end to last season and with the addition of Phil Kessel who’s eating up $6.8 million in cap space?
The answer is ‘no’, according to a high ranking front office source.
“You don’t let that type of skill get away,” the source said.
The Penguins have had a preliminary discussion this month with Perron’s agent Allan Walsh to see where the Perron camp stands. The two sides are planning to speak again later next month once camp opens.
Perron, 27, is carrying a $3,812,500 cap hit this season, due to make $4,500,000. For the Penguins they’d most likely be looking at a deal to keep the cap hit in the high 3, low $4 million range. Like all agents do, they look at the players current salary not the cap hit.
From the Penguins end, though, the time could be ripe to get Perron at a team friendly deal.
“Free Agency is scaring the heck out of players,” a veteran NHL agent of over 15 years said.
Lucrative deals have been extremely tough to get for many quality players and for others getting a job has been even tougher.
The largest contract given out to a forward this summer (UFA) was Michael Frolik, 5 years – $21.5 million.
Frolik is also a Walsh client and based off this summer’s free agent group, Frolik is the best comparison to Perron. The two put up similar numbers, Perron the more established scorer and skilled winger, with Frolik having the stronger two-way game.[/hide]
NOTES
The Penguins today announced they signed 2015 second round pick Daniel Sprong to a three year entry level contract. The deal kicks in when Sprong turns pro. Sprong will be playing in the QMJHL this season.
