Penguins/NHL
Some Rumblings with the draft one hour away
Aside from James Neal, two intriguing players the Penguins are getting calls on include defenseman Paul Martin and Brandon Sutter. There is a feeling that despite Jim Rutherford liking Sutter, he could price himself out of Pittsburgh. He’s a year away from unrestricted free agency and would count $2.7 million this season against the cap if he were to play on his one year, $2.7 million qualifying offer, which he is expected to decline. Sutter’s name is certainly out there.
A Penguins source says the Red Wings have expressed interest in Martin and there’s the talk of the Minnesota Wild are also kicking the tires on Martin who is entering the final year of his contract. If your looking for a maybe a surprise Penguins trade, it would be one of them.
A Penguins source says GM Jim Rutherford has been in the stage this afternoon of gathering information and is open to a lot of potential scenarios.
- Lots of mixed opinions on the Vancouver Canucks return for Ryan Kesler. They got two quality NHL roster players in Nick Bonino and Luca Sbisa plus the 24th overall pick, and both teams swap third rounders. Vancouver was backed into a corner as Kesler would only go to Anaheim or Chicago. Better return the more you breakdown the situation. The Kesler camp confirmed again today that Pittsburgh was not on his two-team list (Anaheim and Chicago).
- Tanner Glass is among the free agents the Penguins informed this week that won’t be resigned. One Report out there is that Glass could return to Winnipeg.
- Allain Roy the agent for Joe Vitale says “many teams have inquired” on Vitale and expects him to have options on July 1. 5 teams in fact have called.
- The salary cap is set at $69 million, meaning the Penguins have slightly less than $14 million in cap space.
