Penguins now over the salary cap with Dustin Jeffrey officially resigned

FORWARDS (13): Sidney Crosby ($8.7 million), Evgeni Malkin ($8.7 million), James Neal ($5 million) Chris Kunitz ($3.725 million), Pascal Dupuis ($3.75 million), Jussi Jokinen ($2.1 million), Brandon Sutter ($2.066 million), Tanner Glass ($1.1 million), Beau Bennett ($900,000), Craig Adams ($700,000), Dustin Jeffrey ($625,000), Matt D’Agostini ($550,000), Joe Vitale ($550,000)

DEFENSEMEN (7): Paul Martin ($5 million), Brooks Orpik ($3.75 million), Kris Letang ($3.5 million), Rob Scuderi ($3.4 million), Matt Niskanen ($2.3 million), Simon Despres ($840,000, 2-way), Deryk Engelland ($566,667)

GOALTENDERS (2): Marc Andre Fleury ($5 million), Tomas Vokoun ($2 million)

UNSIGNED: Robert Bortuzzo, RFA

Dustin Jeffrey officially resigned today, agreeing to a one year (1-way deal) contract worth $625,000.

The signing now takes the Penguins over the salary cap with $64,798,333 committed to 13 forwards, 7 defensemen and 2 goaltenders The salary cap is $64,300,000.

RFA Robert Bortuzzo remains the only player unsigned. Bortuzzo has a salary arbitration hearing on August 1st and while the Penguins would like to keep him, he’s no lock to stay around and could be traded for a prospect or draft pick prior to the season.

Following the signing of Rob Scuderi, the Penguins have intended to be patient on getting under the cap and league sources say as of early this week the Penguins had yet to actively put Matt Niskanen on the trade block. With Paul Martin recovering from a severe ankle injury he suffered in the post-season, word has been that the Penguins would prefer to keep Niskanen and are not sold on their young guys being ready for increased roles.

One intriguing option to start the season with 13 forwards, 7 defensemen and 2 goaltenders, would be parting ways with Bortuzzo for a pick/prospect and trading Tanner Glass who carries a $1.1 million cap hit.

The intrigue with trading Glass is this:

The Penguins could add some youth and a physical player in Harry Zolnierczyk ($550,000 cap hit) or Zach Sill ($550,000) for example, to round out their forward group (13 forwards) for half the cost and leave the Penguins a little over $50,000 to have some wiggle room for callup’s.

If the Penguins are intent on keeping Niskanen and won’t consider moving Orpik, then they are going to have move Tanner Glass or Jussi Jokinen upfront to realistically get under the cap as the window to move Marc Andre Fleury is now pretty much out the window.