GDT #44: Pens @ Sens

[willeyeam]

wow, just 10 5on5 shots

That's pretty good for the minute 45 that was played at 5 on 5

Lol

[Trip McNeely]

[mikey]

Here's a tip, make a save, Casey...you dumb scrotum...

[Dickie Dunn]

This team needs an enema

[nocera]

That’s a guy who really doesn’t want to get fined.

[Dickie Dunn]

I’m starting to think Hextall isn’t a good GM. Sticking with a garbage oft injured backup, the carter deal, the kapanen deal, deciding the left side of the D was fine as is, leaving no cap flexibility

At what point does patience become negligence.

[King Colby]

Impatience is negligence when you're still in a playoff spot and are missing your #1 and #2 defenseman and starting goaltender...

[Dickie Dunn]

Holy **** we're still in a playoff spot? But we suck so bad.

[robbiestoupe]

I'm with Trip. Beyond the Rakell trade, Hextall hasn't done anything worthy of being a GM other than sign guys that were already here. Too early to tell what his drafting ability is. Absolutely no vision.

[Lemon Berry Lobster]

Tough to make trades when damn near every team is against the cap and we have no assets.

[nocera]

I'm with Trip. Beyond the Rakell trade, Hextall hasn't done anything worthy of being a GM other than sign guys that were already here. Too early to tell what his drafting ability is. Absolutely no vision.

Re-signing Malkin, Letang, and Rust was no small task.

[willeyeam]

and Petry and Rutta

[willeyeam]

this is a really good team when healthy

[robbiestoupe]

Let me rephrase it then. We're spoiled fans. But with the spoils comes hindsight in what it takes to win a cup. What Patrick, Shero and Rutherford did, I cannot see Hextall doing. Patrick and Shero didn't really have a cap to deal with, but Rutherford did and he did an amazing job moving pieces around to keep us compliant. It costs us the future in trading away draft picks, but the reward was cups.

If the Penguins are done with win-now mode, then the signing the guys they did made no sense. If they are in win-now mode, what's Hextall doing?

[Gaucho]

All GMRH did this offseason was re-sign Malkin, Letang, Rakell, and Rust, acquire useful bottom line players in Poehling and Archibald, and massively upgrade the defense. Not impressed.

[Gaucho]

Jeff Carter tho

[mikey]

Thanks for saving me the keystrokes, G.

[willeyeam]

this is a really good team when healthy

just to reiterate - the Pens were 2 points (i think) out of first before the latest batch of injuries. And that was without Petry for a couple weeks

[willeyeam]

if you want to criticize for not doing anything to help in the short term to overcome the injuries, I would say that's fair. I'm not sure what assets we have to make a move like that though

[Trip McNeely]

I have a few complaints on Hextall

1) Jeff Carter deal…at the time it looked ok, but 2 years at the price for someone that age was always a huge risk
2) bringing back Desmith when our starter is oft injured and Desmith isn’t necessarily the healthiest or capable of backstopping for more than a couple starts in a row, to a 2 year deal
3) he was a bit handcuffed but the left sided D is below average.

I think he did a very good job getting the stars under palatable contracts

[mikey]

There was virtually nothing that could be done...

I'll list EVERY in-season NHL trade this year...

10/9 Kostin for Samourkov (two guys that I think cleared waivers)
10/27 Studnicka to Vancouver for two non-NHLers
10/28 Bear to Vancouver for a non-NHLer and a pick
11/23 Reaves to Minnesota for a pick
12/19 D.Hunt to the Leafs for Malgin (I believe Hunt was on waivers earlier in the year)
12/19 G.Smith for Del Zotto

I looked at 2013-14 randomly (and I mean randomly) to see how many trades there were by this point that year - 11.

Note here, there's exactly 0 top-six forwards (top-nine?) and no top-four d-men (top-six?). In 2014, starting goalie Dubnyk, John-Michael Liles, Kris Versteeg, Laddy Smid, Downie/Talbot, Vanek/Moulson were all moved at this point in that season...

There's just no room out there. The cap hasn't moved. Teams continue to spend. There's like 25 capped out teams right now. There are limits on how many contracts you can retain on, etc. etc.

Now...if we drafted better...*cough*

[mikey]

I have a few complaints on Hextall

1) Jeff Carter deal…at the time it looked ok, but 2 years at the price for someone that age was always a huge risk
2) bringing back Desmith when our starter is oft injured and Desmith isn’t necessarily the healthiest or capable of backstopping for more than a couple starts in a row, to a 2 year deal
3) he was a bit handcuffed but the left sided D is below average.

I think he did a very good job getting the stars under palatable contracts

I don't say this to be argumentative...just having a conversation.
1. "At the time looked ok" - yup, nailed it.
2. Agree. But he's a known commodity and known to be cap friendly. There were not a lot of options out there, oddly.
3. He did trade for Ty Smith, who has played well while being up in the NHL so far. Where Dumo has fallen off, Pettersson has picked up, so that's a wash. And, he did use a first round pick on one of the premier LD's of the draft...

[meow]

Hextall ain’t the problem here, folks

[mikey]

He may end up being a problem...but he certainly isn't now...

[Gaucho]

FIRE SULLIVAN!!!1