Penguins/NHL
Ruslan Fedotenko re-signing with Pittsburgh wasn’t a surprise but the surprise was the fact that he signed for $1.8 million per season.
Fedotenko received significant interest on the open market but there was no one willing to over-pay for him and for the most part, not even give him much of a raise over his 2008/2009 salary.
It is believed Fedotenko received over
five offers, most of them in the two-three year range. His final three teams were the Penguins, Wild and Kings.
The Kings and Wild each offered multi-year deals but from what were told, nothing over $2.15 million per season.
Fedotenko left some term on the table but players such as Fedotenko and Chad Larose learned that the market isn’t always so kind to everyone in the salary cap era.
Both players came off of strong playoff runs and it was widely expected that both players would command atleast $2.5 million per season.
Fedotenko’s camp had reason to believe that Fedotenko was going to get offers in the $8-$10 million range.
That wasn’t the case and the beneficiaries were the Penguins who get a 40-50 pt player at a $1.8 million per season rate.
Market Watch
Pittsburgh is comfortable with their group of forwards but they are going to keep an eye on the market for bargains to bring into camp that have top 6 forward abilities.
That is why they remain somewhat interested in Petr Sykora.
