Sources: Doan seeking at least 3-4 year deal; Pens to make decision very soon on whether to push forward with Semin or pass

LATEST PENS BUZZ

The Pittsburgh Penguins are said to not love Rick Nash and Bobby Ryan enough to meet or be willing to come close to the extremely high asking prices for both players at this point for their respective teams, which has the team turning their attention to the free agent market in Shane Doan and Alex Semin.

The Penguins continue to touch base with Shane Doan’s agent Terry Bross and the team’s interest in the 35 year old Doan is very serious.

“Shane Doan, there are certainly attributes to him, having him on our team in top-6 role. Big body guy, strong power winger would be something you look to add, ” head coach Dan Bylsma said of Doan.

The Penguins are expecting to learn in the next couple days of whether Doan is as serious about Pittsburgh as his agent seems to be indicating to them.

Doan is viewed as a bigger priority internally than Semin and an interesting thing about Doan is that sources say he views his next destination whether it’s Phoenix or elsewhere as a team he expects to retire with and that has him seeking at least a three to four year deal, NHL sources say.

The Penguins are very willing to go two years for Doan but might be lukewarm to go three and especially four I’m told.

Meanwhile, the Penguins have been discussing Alex Semin internally since after the draft and those discussions remain on-going. Two prominent members of the organization are intrigued about Semin.

“Alexander Semin has scored 40 goals in this league, and is dangerous player and you know when he’s on the ice and has been dangerous player on the Capitals power play, ” Bylsma said of Semin today. “Where they fit and if they’re possibilities here, those are things Ray Shero is looking at and we’re looking at as a staff, ” Bylsma said of Semin and Doan.

Bylsma is one those members as I mentioned a few weeks back who is intrigued about Semin and GM Ray Shero has not reached the point yet where he’s against the possibility. I’m told some members of the organization feel that Semin is a much more complete player than he is given credit for. The Penguins have had a few discussions with agent Mark Gandler in the past 48 hours and I’m told one thing with Semin is that the Penguins have ruled out him being a bad fit in the locker room. They don’t seem to see that as a problem.

“You always have strong feelings about opponents you play against, battle against and they have very little to do with whether they are good players or whether they can be on your team, ” Bylsma said mentioning the “Arron Asham reference” of how Asham was a Flyer and it’s well documented that Asham and Matt Cooke disliked each other when they were opponents and two ended up getting along fine. That stuff doesn’t really matter.

The pursuit of Semin could be tied to Doan but I was told today that the Penguins will be making a decision very soon of whether to push forward with Semin or decide to pass. If Pittsburgh decides to push forward, the Penguins would only be interested in a short-term deal and while Semin has interest in Pittsburgh, he told his agent at the start of free agency that he won’t consider any one year deals. The Penguins might only be interested in a one year deal for Semin.

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