Penguins offseason thread

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

Rebuilding is not bad lightning did it got vasi and drouin! Rebuild around Crosby

and maybe even Connor McDavid

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

So now we're only firing Ray, but possibly keeping Disco?

 

[Darkstone42]

I think firing Shero is a mistake, but retaining Bylsma, or even dragging out his firing, is a bigger one.

Let's get ourselves into the coaching market now. I don't want anyone to be snatched up.

 

[thedddd]

They better have a new GM lined up already to fire DB and get that new coach in.

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

Firing Disco should be the very first thing the new GM does. If he doesn't, he should be fired on the spot. Will be very disturbing if the new GM doesn't have the gonads to fire Disco. Hire me as GM, I'll fire Disco before I even move into my new office. At the press conference in fact.

#Doobster4GM

 

[Todd1a]

Firing Disco should be the very first thing the new GM does. If he doesn't, he should be fired on the spot. Will be very disturbing if the new GM doesn't have the gonads to fire Disco. Hire me as GM, I'll fire Disco before I even move into my new office. At the press conference in fact.

#Doobster4GM

New gm should want his own coach they need to move fast before coaches are hired!

 

[thedddd]

Botterill is the temp GM. I am worried if they make him permanent he will keep DB.

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

New gm should want his own coach they need to move fast before coaches are hired!

Coach I hope we hire is already in the system...

John Hynes - Pittsburgh Penguins - Team

 

[Darkstone42]

I wonder if part of the interview process for GM is "Will you fire Dan Bylsma?"

If he says yes, he has a chance. If he says no, his resume gets tossed.

It's really the only reason to keep Dan around.

 

[Darkstone42]

I think Sutter should be brought back. I think he could be had on a contract under $4 million per year.

Pick one of Goc or Jokinen to bring back and let the other one walk.

Try to push Scuderi off on a cap floor team for a low draft pick. He's not as bad as he played this year, he still has two Cup rings, which you know teams still like, and on a team trying to get to the cap floor, he might make sense, especially if it only costs a late pick.

I don't think we need to make any plays in free agency. Give the young guys a chance to play. See what we have, especially on the blue line.

Even if we have to eat Scuderi's contract, we'll have two defense spots which can be taken by young, cheap players from our system, and we should be able to retain Sutter and Goc. Maybe under a new coach, Scuderi would play better. Either he plays well enough to justify his contract, or he makes himself tradeable. Either way it's great. If he's just washed up, and he's scratched or in the AHL every night, maybe he retires. Who knows.

 

[thedddd]

I agree bring back Sutter and honestly I would rather have Goc but I guess that will go on who is the next coaches’ style. Then if they need an internal replacement for Jokinen, watch Zlobin play in the AHL playoffs. He is the type of winger that I think could work with Malkin. They worry about his size but 5' 11' 198 is fine unless that is exaggerated?

If they could get a taker for Scuderi I will be surprised but it might have to include a young D-man also. They have plenty so it shouldn't be a big deal.

As for the young D-men that should be on this roster next season it should include Despres and Domoulin to replace Orpik and Scuderi (if the above is true). Then also the next in line fighting for a spot should be Pouliot, Harrington and Samuelsson.

 

[Darkstone42]

I agree bring back Sutter and honestly I would rather have Goc but I guess that will go on who is the next coaches’ style. Then if they need an internal replacement for Jokinen, watch Zlobin play in the AHL playoffs. He is the type of winger that I think could work with Malkin. They worry about his size but 5' 11' 198 is fine unless that is exaggerated?

If they could get a taker for Scuderi I will be surprised but it might have to include a young D-man also. They have plenty so it shouldn't be a big deal.

As for the young D-men that should be on this roster next season it should include Despres and Domoulin to replace Orpik and Scuderi (if the above is true). Then also the next in line fighting for a spot should be Pouliot, Harrington and Samuelsson.

Goc would be my inclination, too. He'd be more affordable to boot, I think. Good faceoff man, defensively responsible, tough to play against, and just a touch of offensive ability. He and Sutter would be a strong start to a shut-down defensive line, physical, and a threat offensively. Maybe Gibbons fills that line out, or Dupuis, depending on what the young guys show in terms of scoring touch.

Crosby, Malkin, Kunitz, and Neal are locks for the top six. Bennett should be there, too, if healthy, on Sid's right wing I think. The only question remaining is who plays on Malkin's left wing. I'm sure a young guy, like Zlobin who you mentioned, could do the trick. Dupuis could play there, too, but I would really like him on the third line with Sutter and Goc.

A fourth line with Gibbons, Megna, and whoever else would be a pain in other teams' sides. Maybe Vitale, who's got speed and edge to go with good faceoff ability, or someone from the AHL. Megna-Vitale-Gibbons would buzz around a lot of teams, and we would be truly four lines deep with players who can score a bit and give other teams headaches.

Sutter, Gibbons, Dupuis, Megna, and Vitale would be pretty solid on the PK. Speed, disruptiveness, physicality, and a scoring threat the other way. The powerplay should obviously be potent, as long as it's properly coached. And that roster is entirely affordable, especially if we can find a way to dump Scuderi.

The back end would start with Letang and Martin, then Maatta. We could easily fill the rest of those spots with talented defensemen from our system. Maybe we even start grooming the Letang/Maatta pair to take some pressure off the young guys. They did look pretty ready when they got called up last season. Moving Scuderi could give us enough room to sign Niskanen, too, depending on what sort of deal he wants. I would hesitate to go higher than 4 years, $18 million, though, but with Martin's deal coming off the books after this year (he's great, but if the young guys perform, we can let him walk), we could even go a little higher than that for Niskanen. In any case, the defense should look better and deeper next year, too.

We're fine at goalie with Fleury and Zatkoff, especially if the skaters perform as they should, and the team is well-coached.

 

[Darkstone42]

Basically what I'm saying is that we shouldn't really be players in free agency this year. Solve everything internally, see if we can get some money off the books, give ourselves flexibility for the coming years.

 

[thedddd]

^ totally agree. I am not big on Zlobin but outside of him they don't have much in the way of Top 6 type forwards in the AHL right now.

And if they could work out a way to have a third line of Dupuis, Sutter, Goc that would be a great third line.

 

[element1286]

My god, organization is a becoming a joke. Where the hell was Mario at that press conference?

 

[scoutyjones2]

Coaches and GM's should be brought in together...and fired together

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

My god, organization is a becoming a joke. Where the hell was Mario at that press conference?

I don't blame Mario for not wanting to show his face right now.

 

[averagejoe]

Hey Doobee, I'd like to ask a question, and I hope it won't come off the wrong way.

Saw an article (I think it was on Yahoo Sports) about the demise of the Bruins. And it talked about how they went "all in" on this season for the Cup. And among other things, it mentioned how they brought in Jerome Iginla dirt cheap.

I understand why the Bruins may have invested so much against their cap. But part of me doesn't understand the rationale that some NHL management front offices have. They preach about how it's a team sport, but then overpay for the stars. Which then straps the salaries of the rest of the team. Dale Tallon did this in Chicago too. And so did Bob Pulford before him.

Part of this is stemmed at Iginla. Do I feel sorry for him? Not at all. Because it could be argued that due to his "featured" salary in Calgary, that limited the Flames front office from bringing in better players. And now in the twilight of his career, fans of the NHL should feel sad for him because he hasn't won a Cup? He put his past teams in that position! It's his own fault!

So is this where the Penguins are, tied to contracts for Crosby and Malkin?

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

Hey Doobee, I'd like to ask a question, and I hope it won't come off the wrong way.

Saw an article (I think it was on Yahoo Sports) about the demise of the Bruins. And it talked about how they went "all in" on this season for the Cup. And among other things, it mentioned how they brought in Jerome Iginla dirt cheap.

I understand why the Bruins may have invested so much against their cap. But part of me doesn't understand the rationale that some NHL management front offices have. They preach about how it's a team sport, but then overpay for the stars. Which then straps the salaries of the rest of the team. Dale Tallon did this in Chicago too. And so did Bob Pulford before him.

Part of this is stemmed at Iginla. Do I feel sorry for him? Not at all. Because it could be argued that due to his "featured" salary in Calgary, that limited the Flames front office from bringing in better players. And now in the twilight of his career, fans of the NHL should feel sad for him because he hasn't won a Cup? He put his past teams in that position! It's his own fault!

So is this where the Penguins are, tied to contracts for Crosby and Malkin?

If it was just Sid & Geno that would be great. What kills us are the contracts of Letang, Scuderi, Kunitz, Dupuis, & possibly Neal. It's a front loaded team with no back line depth, which is why I believe we had to let Shero go. At the end of the day he sacrificed our depth so we could have 2 strong top lines. When those players failed this team basically became useless. We need to dump Letang, Scuderi, Kunitz, & Dupuis IMO. Was very foolish of Shero to give them those contracts last summer. That's what cost him his job IMO.

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

Back in the old days, Pens were known for having 4 centers that could be on the top 2 lines of most teams. This allowed us to be a front loaded team that had depth on all 4 lines. We strayed from that and became a team that only emphasizes the top 2 lines, with the back to lines consisting of fillers & goons. We lost our depth our skill & our identity as a team. We're a lot like the team we were during the late 1990s under the pigeon logo. At least those pigeon teams were fun to watch tho, this squad is just a mess.