Penguins/NHL
Notebook Buzz
~~~Rumblings, Musings, Opinions ~~~
Vasily Ponomarev vs Jake Guentzel Tonight! Guentzel returns to Pittsburgh for the second time, his first trip as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning. As i stated the morning after the Guentzel trade, the Penguins did a lot better with their return than most pundits gave them. Still, there is always going to be second guessing surrounding the Guentzel situation. Guentzel was always going to resign for $8.5-$9 million a year if the new front office had actually made a ‘real’ offer to him and showed him some love that he was a priority. At the end of the day Dubas was just locked from the start that there had to be a significant change somewhere and Jake Guentzel was always going to be it since he was a pending UFA and didn’t have the nostalgia around him the future hall-of-famers. Guentzel was the easy out to make. Still, many in the organization believe the forward-thinking move was to resign Guentzel and trade Bryan Rust who had significant trade value around the league………….
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— Buzz inside the Penguins organization: Kyle Dubas does not see Kris Letang in the same light as Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin (which is fully understandable) and an interesting development is that there is a bit more interest in Kris Letang than you may expect with the significant declining play, contract and health history. Letang is said to have a passing interest in finishing his career in Canada and is not locked in that it’s Montreal or nobody. Sounds like the Penguins are under the assumption Letang would at least give consideration To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
— The Penguins callup of Owen Pickering caught a lot around the league by surprise. Not that Pickering hasn’t been on an uptick trajectory and there’s evaluators who see a #2 pairing ceiling from the 2022 first-round pick, but with just a handful of games under his belt in WBS and only 20 years old, he’s viewed as a young player who you would bring up when you’re sold on him staying in the NHL. However, could this be a full-time callup? The thinking has changed where the Penguins front office brought him up with the intention that he has the ability to stick. San Jose was San Jose, though, when evaluating the young guys. A great test this week against Tampa Bay, Winnipeg and Utah……….
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Something feels special about the 8-2 Pittsburgh Steelers. The culture, type of bounces, turnovers they create, it’s reminiscent of the early Mike Tomlin years…………This is a really complete team with depth and even young depth that hasn’t reached their ceiling in a number of areas……..A downfall for the Steelers jump this season to a legitimate AFC Contender? Even with the 9-1 Chiefs looking vulnerable, the AFC is loaded. While the Steelers can beat anybody, there’s also four or five others you can say the same thing about. Among Them: Buffalo, Baltimore, Kansas City, LA Chargers. While the Houston Texans are not on that tier, there is phenomenal QB play from the clear Top-6 teams in the AFC where anybody in that group could get hot and win multiple playoff games. You can’t say that about the NFC…………If there’s one team nobody would want to see as the 7th seed it’s the Cincinnati Bengals because of Joe Burrow. The sooner the Bengals are put out of their misery in the playoff race, the better…….
–The Steelers have a legitimate game changing QB and are getting the best quarterback play since 2018 Ben Roethlisberger and after one so-so game the Justin Fields crowd is back in full-force. Call me shocked………. Has there been a bigger turnaround in a matter of four weeks than Patrick Queen?. He has looked like an All-Pro the last couple weeks………Biggest takeaway/Concern from the Steelers Offense vs Baltimore? Did the Ravens put the blueprint out there on taking the top away from the Steelers passing game? Pittsburgh’s group of receivers don’t create enough separation quickly enough in the short and intermediate game where the Ravens might be onto something………
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3 Years or Less of Paul Skenes in a Pirates Uniform? That’s the gut-wrenching reality for Pirate fans. Skenes taking home NL Rookie of the Year Monday Night, will be eligible for free agency in 2029, his age 27 campaign. Will Skenes command a $500-$600 million contract by then? The clock will start ticking on the Pirates to trade him after the 2027 season………
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