Fifth Avenue Forum

I actually wouldn't mind the Pens saving *some* cap space to pull some of these players off of teams that are at the cap. Vegas/Tampa had expendable players all year that could have been had cheapish that exceeded expectations.

BUT that's a terrible way of doing anything, and nothing is guaranteed - but would have been interesting.

I can't remember any names from the top of my head, but I believe I thought there were some useful players available at the beginning of this season...

Pouling, Legare or Zohorna for example. As long as they are waiver exempt.

Edit: and I think that our team is in need of becoming younger if possible. Even though I like our current squad, it is quite old, and will be even older next season...

Basing your roster decisions on what could be on waivers is a little tough...

Also, those early season waivers are really logistically tough...you had guys all camp, all preseason, maybe been in the organization for years...and then the day before the season starts, you get a guy off the heap and throw him in that guy's spot? And I'm not saying it can't be an improvement, but you have to get a noticeable uptick in performance and quality of player to really justify that move...that's part of the reason why so many guys go through.

Personally, Letang is the one guy I would offer insane money to.

Might as well ban me before the ink is dry because I will be completely insufferable about it.

There’s a level of insufferableness beyond this? Hatchi matchi

Mario 86. Sid rookie year 05-06. Draft the next chosen one 25-26

Wake me up in 2026 then

After a better than average showing in the playoffs, I wonder if this is the time to try to move Pett Pett, just for cap space to sign letang.

I would be fine to start the year with:

Letang-dumo
Matheson-Marino
POJ-chad
Extra: Friedman

POJ needs to play. If he stinks, he stinks and make a move at the deadline. And an extra 3 million is space would go a long ways

Basing your roster decisions on what could be on waivers is a little tough...

Also, those early season waivers are really logistically tough...you had guys all camp, all preseason, maybe been in the organization for years...and then the day before the season starts, you get a guy off the heap and throw him in that guy's spot? And I'm not saying it can't be an improvement, but you have to get a noticeable uptick in performance and quality of player to really justify that move...that's part of the reason why so many guys go through.

Yeah, that is why I called it a video game mode

Since we're going video game mode, let's trade Malkin, Letang, a 1st, and a 2nd to Edmonton for McDavid.

Personally, Letang is the one guy I would offer insane money to.

Might as well ban me before the ink is dry because I will be completely insufferable about it.

There’s a level of insufferableness beyond this? Hatchi matchi

Gotta reach for that extra gear sometime.

I, for one, can't wait to see this next gear.

I'd believe Pettersson has some value. He was decent this year

We all know that the only top-4 (4!) d-men available this year our Letang and Klingberg...

Let's look one year ahead for UFA d-men, ignoring that they can't be extended yet, and some definitely will...

Dumba
Erik Johnson (35)
Orlov
Sanheim (I'd try to get him, but I bet he gets traded and then signs where ever he goes)
Gostisbehere
Severson
Dumoulin
Weegar

So, there's no #1 guys...looks like maybe there's a #2 in there or two, assuming, again, they don't get re-signed in the meantime...

Going all the way to 2024 (!)...

Muzzin (35)
Skjei
Hanifin
Toews
Pesce

Siiiiiiiicccckkkkkkk...so for three waves of UFA d-men, Letang is the best and, even at age 37 will be better than any of these players by a significant margin...he might be worth 2x or more money than almost all of these players (Toews, Weegar, maybe one more exception)...

Betting on an actual top pairing d-man to not only become available, just available...it's not a video game, you can't just sign the best free agent (Suter, Parise, Kariya) even when you have the best player (players?) on earth and have success...so, now we're talking about luring these guys to ****** Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with your zero nightlife and triangle streets...get lost.

god this is depressing and convinced me that we have to give Tanger what he wants

Risk with signing Geno is we turn into the mid 10s Red Wings

Two things.

Haven't they already been trying to trade Pettersson for like two years, or hasn't it been rumored?

This has been an issue for awhile, but the insistence to not play the younger guys throughout the year has been bugging me for the past 3.

POJ certainly could have played games down the stretch, same for O'Conner and Zahorna. Those guys weren't used nearly enough.

Basing your roster decisions on what could be on waivers is a little tough...

Also, those early season waivers are really logistically tough...you had guys all camp, all preseason, maybe been in the organization for years...and then the day before the season starts, you get a guy off the heap and throw him in that guy's spot? And I'm not saying it can't be an improvement, but you have to get a noticeable uptick in performance and quality of player to really justify that move...that's part of the reason why so many guys go through.

Still can’t believe the Pens didn’t take a flier on Ghost

Two things.

Haven't they already been trying to trade Pettersson for like two years, or hasn't it been rumored?

This has been an issue for awhile, but the insistence to not play the younger guys throughout the year has been bugging me for the past 3.

POJ certainly could have played games down the stretch, same for O'Conner and Zahorna. Those guys weren't used nearly enough.

They didn't have cap room to recall them

Two things.

Haven't they already been trying to trade Pettersson for like two years, or hasn't it been rumored?

This has been an issue for awhile, but the insistence to not play the younger guys throughout the year has been bugging me for the past 3.

POJ certainly could have played games down the stretch, same for O'Conner and Zahorna. Those guys weren't used nearly enough.

Zohorna can't catch passes at this level. He needs work, he's a late comer, he needs to work on his skills hard over the summer if he wants to be an NHLer.

Same with POJ...44 pts in his last 84 in the AHL is good, so hopefully he's improving. But he wasn't ready this year...Friedman was a way more effective player than anything POJ could provide. Our D was healthy for most of the year, so there was no need to do anything with him...

DOC was pretty much in a perfect spot for his development...up and down, use what you learn in the NHL, apply it to the AHL. He had a really good year down there and was generally useful when he played (played a quarter of the year and played in the playoffs, he wasn't really blocked or anything) and now you can be confident he'll be a regular next year...

Re: The fairly standard complaint from fans of not playing young players...first, it's particularly not true with Sullivan. Second, Zohorna is older than Kapanen. He's just not very good, that's his problem. Who in the AHL is being blocked? What specific players would add what to the lineup?

No matter how many times fans try to jam the square in the circle slot, for a team that hasn't picked in the top 20 for ten years (once since 2006, and that's because we swapped Staal out)...somehow, was still able to play young players to a startling degree...what's the one that was left for dead? You can make a claim that it was Sprong I guess...he's played on 40 teams in the last three weeks, so we weren't alone there either...but sure, Sprong, wasn't used that much. Everyone else that was worthy has gotten a look, as someone who tracks our prospects' development - it's tough to watch things down below. You're not missing much.

Marino, Maatta 20 minute players...famously Sid and the Kids - two rookies playing top line in the Final. We turned away from a Smythe worthy performance from veteran Fleury to hand the reigns over to rookie Murray. Simon v1.0 was used a lot. ZAR was a call-up that ended up running raw here.

I can't imagine what more he could have done in terms of playing young players...and I've heard him speaking on development, he gets it. I know Ty Hennes, he's a really good skill dev guy...the organization gets it, it just has no young players to play...the ones that they had were probably over-thrust into the lineup out of necessity and it happened to work out because of Sully's coach and Crosby's godliness...

I don't feel confident that DOC would be a regular NHLer next year. I'm still stuck on the bottom six just really being blah and would hope someone would produce. I liked Zahorna on the 4th line, for the size component etc.

POJ, I felt they could have even given a handful of games.

I'd put money on DOC being a regular next year

I hope so.

I'm confused, who is GMBG?

I'm confused, who is GMBG?

Bill Guerin.

I don't feel confident that DOC would be a regular NHLer next year. I'm still stuck on the bottom six just really being blah and would hope someone would produce. I liked Zahorna on the 4th line, for the size component etc.

POJ, I felt they could have even given a handful of games.

Who would POJ have slotted in over, and when?

He played 4 games in the bigs this year - 0 points, -2, 2 PIMs.

I mean he could have been given games throughout the year. It’s not slotting him in to take a position away it’s to give others a break.

I’m not saying POJ is a starter this year at all. That’s not my intention.

Like, even the "bottom six didn't produce" thing is just not really true...it's like we're running down the bingo card here haha...

Carter: most goals and points since 16-17. Was basically a 20/40 player.
McGinn: was on a 15/30 pace, which would have been his best
Blugers: Career highs across the board, despite missing 20.
Heinen: Career high in goals, nearly got to 20
Boyle: Even he was on a 15/30 type pace and he hardly played at all...

Obviously non-NHLer ERid was a disaster down the stretch, Kapanen had a woeful season...but we did fairly well for what we got...

Crosby missed 15 or whatever it was...Malkin missed half the year...we still finished 12th in 5v5 goals this year, four back of 8th...so, someone must have been picking up the rear...

It's not perfect, but it's rare to have a super imposing bottom six (period) with so many big tickets on the books...we got a lot of value out of some cheap scoops...

Essentially the same as Carter/Boyle. Did those guys need to play as many games as they did? I don’t really think so, but won’t argue either way.

There were probably opportunities for more games to rest but it is what it is. It’s nitpicking more than anything.