Penguins/NHL
Penguins Free Agency Frenzy
Goaltender Tristan Jarry | 5 Years – $26.875 Million
Defenseman Ryan Graves | 6 Years – $27 Million
Forward Noel Acciari | 3 Years – $6 Million
Center Lars Eller | 2 Years – $4.9 Million
Forward Matt Nieto | 2 Years – $1.8 Million
Goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic | 1 Year – $1.5 Million
Kyle Dubas on Day 1 of Free Agency dished out almost $70 Million in one-way contracts as talk of holding cap space or just making some minor depth signings in free agency did not play out.
PENGUINS STILL NEED A KARLSSON LIKE SPLASH
What We Learned: Dubas and the franchise decided to go all-in on Tristan Jarry moving forward. Head coach Mike Sullivan had a strong influence on the Penguins new brass believing this was the right route to go and this decision was made prior to the draft. Just took a little while to get things completed. All signs in the 48 hours leading into free agency pointed towards a Jarry return, the question was just would Jarry and his reps at Newport Sports land the coveted five-to-six-year term they had coveted since negotiations last season with the Ron Hextall regime. Well Jarry was the big winner here in getting the five year, $26.875 Million commitment from Pittsburgh. Just a fantastic deal for his camp to land that deal for him. There were zero signs of another deal that competitive was out there for Jarry and now we all wait to see if Dubas and Sullivan betting on Jarry pays off or becomes a long-term blunder……
Dubas other significant deal of the day was dishing out a six year, $27 million contract to left-handed defenseman Ryan Graves. “He’s one of the younger players in free agency,” Dubas said of Graves. “I think he complements what we have on our right side very well with Kris Letang and Jeff Petry. So, we’re excited about that. The move fills an immediate hole on the left side with the disaster decision of trading Mike Matheson like season and Brian Dumoulin falling off a cliff and the club deciding not to resign Dumoulin. Pittsburgh is improved with a top-4 of Marcus Pettersson and Ryan Graves from where they ended last season. Where there is some questioning in the industry is the term. While Graves was somewhat younger at age 28 than others on the market, that’s a lot of term where when players hit their 30’s there can be a gradual or steep decline……..
Around the edges offensively, Dubas made some expected moves in the type of players he brought in. Noel Acciari, 14 goals and 9 assists last season, is a player Dubas knows well and gives the Penguins a needed element in the style he plays with. Acciari, though, is another smaller player at 5-10 who turns 32 in December. The three year term was a little questionable here especially for a bottom-6 player who’s offense is more reliant on goals than creating offense as a playmaker………..Matt Nieto was a signing that’s hard to complain about, even though it’s another 30+ years old singing. 2 years with a $900,000 AAV, that’s a no risk signing for someone who can hopefully get you 12-15 goals and comes from a similar styled system. Dubas, though, ended the day with another questionable signing with the Lars Eller 2 year, $4.9 Million contract. Scouts and executives think Eller is cooked as a legitimate third line scoring center. That was an interesting contract to give out for a soon to be 35 year old who is also repped by Tristan Jarry’s agent.
What’s Next for the Penguins?
Are the Penguins right now improved at all from where they ended last season? That’s hard to say, but they’re little bit different so that’s a start I guess.
Still, Dubas knows none of this has likely moved the needle from the Penguins suddenly being able to go toe-to-toe with the Devils, and the other expected big boys in the east.
However, there’s one move out there that changes thing and it’s Erik Karlsson.
Many in the industry say Dubas has long been enamored with trying to acquire Karlsson dating back to last season as Leafs GM and he’s put a strong effort into doing so this week now in the Penguins chair.
Despite Pittsburgh eating up all their cap space, Pittsburgh remains one of the last two or three teams standing for Karlsson as of Saturday morning.
As the Sharks and Karlsson’s reps at Newport Sports have worked on orchestrating a trade over the last week, the big development is on Wednesday the Sharks granted the Penguins permission to speak to the agent Craig Oster and Karlsson directly about a facilitating a Karlsson trade. I’m told Karlsson spoke with a number of key members of the organization, including [hide] Sidney Crosby] as the Penguins have tried to sale Karlsson on Pittsburgh. The push from Karlsson’s reps for weeks has been to eventually orchestrate a trade to a specific team, though, there’s been frustrations from the Karlsson camp with Sharks GM Mike Grier in getting over the finish line. Whether Pittsburgh ends up being that team is still up in the air, lot of talk yesterday Carolina might be the preferred destination from the player, the Penguins push for Karlsson was still on-going even after their free agency spending. While this is a complicated trade that would involve three or four teams per sources, it’s a home-run pursuit from Dubas in making a strong push for Karlsson who would be electric in the Penguins system and playing behind Kris Letang at 5 vs 5 as Letang can take on the tough minutes….[/hide]
