Penguins/NHL
The Penguins giving out two year extensions to Scott Wilson, Tom Kuhnhackl and Bryan Rust Monday was a situation of the ‘player’ getting the security of a one-way contract in return for taking maybe $50,000 or so less if they would have been tendered this summer.
From the Penguins standpoint, even if all three players have peaked, the Penguins need cheap bottom-6 forwards if they are going to continue with the same core they have.
Including the retained salary from the Rob Scuderi trade, Pittsburgh has $67,918,333 committed to 18 players for next season and there are serious concerns among NHL General Manager’s that the salary cap will stay the same or even drop to the $67-$68 million range if the players don’t accept the 5% escalator which they often accept.
Forwards on 1-way contracts: Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel, Patric Hornqvist, Carl Hagelin, Chris Kunitz, Eric Fehr, Nick Bonino, Bryan Rust, Tom Kuhnhackl, Scott Wilson
Defensemen on 1-way contracts: Kris Letang, Trevor Daley, Ian Cole, Brian Dumoulin, Olli Maatta
Goaltenders: Marc Andre Fleury, Matt Murray (2-way contract).
Ray Shero’s drafts produced a lack of high end talent, notably top-6 forwards, but as some in the organization say, you can’t judge a draft until six, even seven or eight years later.
It’s taken a while and the Penguins are now getting a slew of bottom-6 caliber players emerge around the same time in the likes of Rust, Kuhnhackl, Wilson (team feels there’s some top-6 upside there with Wilson) and you can add Oskar Sundqvist to that group who would be getting more consideration this season if a Nick Bonino wasn’t in the way. Josh Archibald could also join this group by next season as an option to play a role, along with a Domink Simon, a Rutherford draft pick.
These players might not be good enough to get the Penguins to the next level but it’s a better situation for the Penguins to now be in than the alternative with plugging players like Max Lapierre, Zach Sill, Craig Adams and Tanner Glass in there.
With a cap crunch coming, the Penguins are starting to see a small reward from the Shero drafts with the opportunity to plug cheap bottom-6 forwards into the mix. Mid-to-late round picks like Rust, Wilson are good examples of that.
Pittsburgh also boast the top goaltending prospect [hide] in the NHL in Matthew Murray and another high upside netminder in Tristan Jarry. From where the Shero draft classes looked at his firing, and it’s still not great by any means, but has pretty much gone from a D- to a C+ in a matter of two years. [/hide]
Related posts:
Lack of Fleury Market has Penguins in a Cap Crunch
GM Ray Shero on the Penguins coming up empty at the deadline, outlook of team
Poor cap management coming back to haunt them, Penguins may use Daniel Winnik on defense some tonight
Penguins accomplish pre-deadline goal of starting to create some cap flexibility
