Penguins/NHL
Morning Buzz on the Penguins
All of a sudden the Pittsburgh Penguins get to operate under a little bit bigger budget than expected, with news of the salary cap expected to be set at $64 million for the 2011-2012 season.
After the owner meetings in March, word out of the organization is that the team had expectations of the cap to be somewhere in the $62.5 million range.
What does the extra wiggle room mean for the Penguins?
When it comes to their key negotiations with Tyler Kennedy, Pascal Dupuis and Mike Rupp, not much, most notably Dupuis and Rupp.
What number the Penguins have in mind with Dupuis and Rupp isn’t going to change. However, with the cap going up $4.6 million, it does give the Penguins the ability to be more aggressive in free agency than they might have expected to be…. of course if they intend to choose that route.
Here’s a look at some different scenarios:
The team currently has $55.541 million to 8 forwards, 7 defensemen and 2 goaltenders.
There is a need to fill five forward spots, and even with the team always wanting to keep $700,000-$1 million in cap space to start the season, the Penguins would have as much as $7.8 million to spend under that cap structure.
The team in theory could add two 20 goal wingers by:
Resigning Tyler Kennedy – $2 million
Free Agent Winger – $3 million.
Getting Kennedy under contract for $2 million per season and adding another winger at $3 million per season, that would still leave the Penguins around $2.8 million to spend and if they wanted to spend the cap, they would have $3.5 million to fill out their roster for just three players as the team is likely to open the season with 13 forwards, 7 defensemen and 2 goaltenders.
Here’s a scenario with the Penguins resigning their top three targets before July 1.:
Tyler Kennedy – $2 million
Pascal Dupuis – $1.75 million (2 years)
Mike Rupp – $925,000.
The Penguins would then have $60.066 million committed to 11 forwards.
That would still leave a little bit of wiggle room to go after a forward in the $2 million+ range.and fill out the final roster spot with a player making under $1 million per season.
