Penguins continue to eye an impact player to add to forward group
Penguins GM Jim Rutherford is asked so much about the search for a third line center, his comments will vary from a week-to-week.
One day Rutherford will make it seem like the Penguins are close to the deal, a few days later he will be quoted as saying he’s waiting for specific targets to be available.
Where things truly stand is this:
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Rutherford has been talked into by his staff to avoid making a deal for the sake of making a deal, hence the trade scenario for Red Wings center Riley Sheahan that Pittsburgh could have moved on weeks ago, and instead the consensus in the organization is to wait things out for a group of 3-4 players the club has targeted since August.
These particular targets are players who are somewhat available but prices are high and the particular teams are not in the stage yet where they’re truly ready to move them just yet.
For Rutherford and his staff it’s all about laying the groundwork for when an opportunity presents it self and General Managers are often not ready to deal until around December.
“I don’t feel the urgency,” Rutherford told the Post-Gazette. “McKegg and Rowney have played well. I would like to continue to look and find somebody there. That doesn’t affect either of those two guys because of those guys can go to the wing when we add another center. As long as we can hang in there, we’ll continue to wait until it’s somebody that we’ve identified that we feel will fit into our team and help us win,” said Rutherford.
— Add another name to the list of targets Pittsburgh is watching closely:
Despite a $4.9 million cap hit through the 2019/2020 season, the Pittsburgh Penguins have had internal discussions surrounding Montreal forward Alex Galchenyuk and have not ruled out making a run at him as a trade target, league sources say.
Last summer Pittsburgh held trade discussions with Montreal about Galchenyuk where opinions vary throughout the league whether he should be a center or winger.
That dilemma has continued for Montreal this season with Galchenyuk having another slow start and demoted to the 4th line.
Galchenyuk, 23, had 17 goals and 44 points in 61 games for the Canadiens in 2016-2017. In 2015-16 he had a career high 30 goal season.
League sources say when it comes to players with higher cap hits, Pittsburgh has been drawn to players who can play center and wing.
Penguins – Rangers
— The 7th game of an 82 game season is by no means a must-win but the New York Rangers off to a 1-5 start are entering uncharted waters. You can’t fall too far behind in this division.
The Rangers have scored just 13 goals in six games and while praised for getting rid of the Derek Stepan contract, the team hasn’t replaced Stepan and have a major center problem.
It’s led to the Rangers having to play Kevin Hayes out of position as a top-2 line center and from there you have a trickle down effect.
The hope in New York has been that the winger depth they possess would be good enough to cover the hole at center for a few months until they can address it prior to the deadline. So far that plan hasn’t played out.
New York tried hard for Joe Thornton on July 1 and almost got him, but a loss tonight away from their worst start in 57 years, David Desharnais will be the Rangers second line center vs Pittsburgh with J.T. Miller and Chris Kreider on the wing.
With Lindy Ruff now behind the Rangers bench as the top assistant, the noise could start getting loud for Alain Vigneault. [/hide]
Malkin game winning goal, Kessel game winner assist. Sam, was your tv on or shutdown for that?
GAME WINNER ASSIST UPDATE
2016-17 Golden Frog winner “Chubby” jumps to the top of the charts, where he left off last year. Although, he’s probably able to rack up all of these Game Winner Assists because he’s on the third line with fellow third liner Evgeni Malkin (lot of production out of that third line, I guess).
Kessel – 2
Hagelin – 1
Schultz – 1
Maatta – 1
Letang – 1
Sheary – 1
This is why I came back, these stats are hard to find elsewhere lol
Looks like it’s gonna be a heated battle again this year.
Hey I remember someone else throwing Galchenyks name out there in the comments section about a week ago lol Before he was unceremoniously kicked off the page for a rather racy picture of the sammich felating the habs lol
You mean Perron 2.0, according to cement head Bauer?
LOL, worked out for the team either way… sure Perron died after the hot start but his inability to keep up was a factor. That and he refused to shoot. Moved him for Hags who had a great impact on the team overall despite his stone hands. So I guess, if its available, we could see what impact Sullivan would have on Galchenyks game and if it dont work there may be someone else willing to give it a shot lol… the last line is kind of a joke FTR
What is not a joke is the 35 goal pace Sheary is currently on haha!
Habs look good again.
Habs lost. Again.
Better sign Rusty up long term soonest.
Yup, guy does a little of everything out there and currently and quietly is sitting one point behind the team leader is scoring. Granted it’s hard to imagine he keeps this up but wow
Now that malkin had 4 point game he is in tile to take vacation for next 5 to 10 games
In tile
I’ve never vacationed in Tile
Omg you must. They have the most beautiful collections of porcelains and ceramics.
Figures, gone for a week and this idiot is taking a dump on Geno after a 4 point night lol
Another 90s game by the pens. Must be entertaining for some bandwagon fans to watch high scoring games. .stain, tbj,npl.
Hey stain and tbj I know lately you’ve been more busy about Habs games then pens games. I know you two are concerned about have scoring goals. Maybe should be concerned how goals pens are letting in each game. Once again same was right 90s penguins are back
It’s 6 games in. With largely the same team that won two cups. Yeah. You’re right. Time to “worry.” Says the guy that started watching the NHL during George W’s second term. You know what you need to worry about? Phil. Winning the game winner assist title in back to back years.
They won two cups in the 90s too dipshit
Every time the other team scores LeJunk is on the ice. Guy is worthless.
This game is pretty insane.
Sid back to the box!
Selfish, out of control player.
Nice job Sid
Yeah for scoring a important goal late in 3rd period. Pens should take his C. Away and trade him
Hahahaha. What about the two he gave up?
Sid the penalty man!
“Chubby” scored. Tell us some
More about how much he sucks, sam
It’s good once in a while he shows up him or malkin. As long as they have points it’s okay Mr box score
After all you have to expect them to show up once in awhile when they getting paid big paychecks. Oops I meant stealing big paychecks
Way to avoid by post below, virginal bandwagon. Such, such a b1tch.
I’m sure shero did an amazing job on his first round picks. Your just ridings Crosby ‘s bandwagon. Ones this Era is done it will be back like the early 2000’s empty seats. Don’t worry Habs and some other Canadian team will help them financially. Like they do right now for teams like canes
So Malkin, Fleury and Staal were bad picks? Wrong again, chubster.
This shows and proves your hockey started since Crosby Era you bandwagon. Last I remember fleury, the Russian were drafted by Craig Patrick . Now you may go continue humping in shero successful drafting
DB won with MT team while Shero won with CP team. 2 overpaid con artists that leached off Marios wallet for a long time
HAHAHA, who cares about Shero but you… he is gone because of his mistakes. What is real funny is that you keep defending that turn Bergeron for the same mistakes. I mean that Subban deal looks worse and worse daily for one. Reality is the Pens have traded away a lot of their 1st rounders because they have been a cup contender adding pieces that put them over the top like Kessel for instance. Other than that they have made the massive mistake by investing in French names (looking at you Despres and Pouliot)
I think Shero drafted Joe Morrow – who’s on your shittty asss blue line, last I checked. (PS – Habs suck)
Sammich please tell me more about the scenario that had led to the Pens rough 2002-2005… was it simply a matter of fans giving up or was it an old building and some poor management that led to the widespread selling of assets which led to the poor product which had no out in sight because of the building issue so fans became frustrated and checked out? With the CEC or PPGP at this point and the current management team I think the Pens will have moved far away from the issues that led to the early 2000s nightmare. Again… Read more »
Coincidentally, those guys lead our team in playoff production in each of the last 2 years. Man, do you embarrass yourself.
True while teams are focused on the real star that’s when your 3rd liners shows up which is expected on most teams come playoffs when they want to win the cup
I think sometimes you realize you’ve only been watching g the game for ten years and that points are, you know, how you win the game.
Hey virginal bandwagon, I’ve decided to post the list of Montreal first round draft picks just to show you how much of a disgrace your favorite organization is to the league and the amount of promising careers it ruins. The onus is on Montreal, not Galchenyuk. From 2006-20015: David Fischer, Ryan McDonagh (haha!), Danny Kristo, Louis LeBlanc, Jared Tinordi, Nathan Beaulieu, Galchenyuk, Michael McCarron, Nikita Scherbak and Noah Juulsen. What a cavalcade of embarrassment. Montreal – where careers go to die.
Marcus Naslund
Markus, noob
Galchenyuk sitch reeks of him needing a change in scenery – a little risky for Pittsburgh, because they clearly need a center, and his play at that position has left a lot to be desired – that being said, he oozes talent. Taking some pressure off of him and playing him at 3C instead of relying on him might make it all worth while. Interesting though.
It’s always good for some chokers to play in Pittsburgh and pretend they are stars players thanks to sid for taking the pressure off them. Galchenyuk is a bust as a first line center along his buddy yakupov. But galchenyuk can be a good 3rd liner. If be thinks he can be pens first line center he is going to wait a while
Why would he think that he could be the Pens 3rd line center?
I’m assuming you meant first line center, and I’m sure he doesn’t. It’s just Samantha being Samantha. In Pittsburgh especially, line numbers are often overrated. Look at the 2016 cup. Was HBK our third line? With AG, we would have the ability to put 3 scoring lines on the ice. Sprong is lighting it up in the AHL (4 goals, 2 assists in 4 games last I saw). Put him with AG and Rust. There are certainly a lot of question marks there, but there’s also a ton of talent.
I wonder if Sid took the pressure off of Justin Schultz, or if he’s just better playing around talent than playing with a bunch of losers for a different canadian team like Galchenyuk is now…kinda makes you think. (BTW, i know you just started watching hockey recently, so I’ll go easy on you here – but Yakupov isn’t a center, so it’s hard for him to be a bust as a first line center like his buddy Galchenyuk – i won’t tell anyone you had no idea what you’re talking about again – it’ll just be between us).
Yeah shultz was not around talented players like McDavid. Or could’ve played with other shitt players like getzlaf but decided to not to. And as for yakupov you cockk I know he is not a center what I meant is galchenyuk and his buddy are busts as top picks. Now go make some donuts fatso
HAHA McDavid rookied in 2015 – 16… he was hurt halfway through the year. Schultz was traded late that season! Swing and another miss
David Perron part 2
Now I really want him, if the mayor of Bedrock doesn’t like him.
So that was one name. The other two or three that D eluded to are…
I love that d claims to know where things truly stand
I spat out my coffee at that line..