Official 09-10 Penguins Thread

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41

HEATLEY!!!

just kidding. although if he continues being a douche, he’ll probably not cost very much.

i dont think we need a “scoring” winger for the second line. i see why everyone was calling for a scorer for sid. passing is a huge part of his game and he needs someone to finish… but malkin plays a little different style. he doesnt need a 30 goal guy on his line. i think a guy that can turn the transition 90% of the time and will work on the boards will be fine. dont waste the money, give it to scuderi (or some other FA who wants to stick around).

42

Just my hunch, I think if Feds leaves then we will sign Pistol Pete for one year. I even think Pesenon may have a chance to be resigned and play this season.

No more scuds…wonder if they will sign boucher now. I think he looked decent…nothing amazing, but solid

Penguins lose Scuderi to L.A.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
By Dave Molinari, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Penguins have lost free-agent defenseman Rob Scuderi.

He accepted a contract with Los Angeles today. Terms of the agreement were not announced, but is it believed to be a four-year deal with an annual salary-cap hit of $3.4 million.

The Penguins continue to try to re-sign winger Ruslan Fedotenko, and to have discussions about bringing back winger Petr Sykora.

They also are in the market for a backup goaltender, although restricted free agent John Curry is a candidate to fill that role.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09183/981365-100.stm#ixzz0K8Rm2wCE&C

43

Scuderi to the Kings

44

Scuderi got 3.4 million a year for 4 years from the Kings.

Interesting considering the amount of outstanding young talent the Kings have on D for them to make that move with Matt Green, Drew Doughty, and Jack Johnson (even though he is an RFA). All those guys are more puck movers than stay at home types, so expect Scuderi to play on a top defensive pairing with Johnson or Doughty next year. Rumor floating around that Scuderi was willing to take 20% less a year to stay here, but that Shero couldn’t fit 2.75million a year under the cap right now.

With the first round draft pick this year in Despres, I think Shero knew that he had zero chance of bringing back Scuderi as Despres is a bigger, stronger version of Scuderi. I’d love to take a look at bringing in Francois Beauchemin, who is a little bit injury prone and had a cap hit of only 1.65/yr last season from Anaheim, or to bring in Christian Backman from Columbus whos cap hit last year was 2.3 but may be willing to go below 2 to play for a winner.

As far as forwards go, Fedetenko wants a multi year deal, Shero wants another 1 year deal. This may be the breaking point here, because Shero doesn’t believe in long term deals for role players or guys getting up in age. And right now, considering the teams success the past 3 years, its hard to argue his philosophy.

As far as outside forwards who may be interested in coming here, I wouldn’t be surprised to possibly hear whispers about Kovalev (who’d have to take a big cut from his $4/yr cap hit to come here, probably somewhere in the 2.5 to 3 range), Maxim Afinogenov from Buffalo (stupid fast, has a tough time finishing, not too much different than Dupuis but is more offensively skilled, but once again would have to take a cut to come here), Ales Kotalik (would fit in money wise, but not very tough in the corners, would need a player like Kennedy to on his line to help fill in the gaps in terms of rugged play), or maybe Jason Williams from Columbus who played well for the Jackets after coming over from Atlanta.

Problem is right now we are tight to the cap. Assuming we sign John Curry for the minimum (500k) to back up Fleury, we only have about 4.5 million in cap space available which isn’t a lot, so maybe look for a player like Dupuis, Godard, or possibly Cooke to be shipped if space needs to be made (more likely the 1st two than the last).

45

I wonder if kovi would take a “play for Mario again” discount. It would be cool to see him back in a penguin uniform. I’m guessing it’s pretty unlikely though.

From the little I’ve seen of him, I don’t really liken Desperes to scuderi at all. He seems to be much more of a fourth offensive guy than scuderi would ever be. When they selected him I sort of thought they were grooming a replacement for gonchar. As he will be retiring at some point in the near future.

It sucks to see scuderi go. But if he doesn’t make that kick save in the finals then no one in Pittsburgh gives a shit if he stays or goes. If he’s making 3+ in LA then good for him. But that seems a little steep for a guy like that.

46

i guess we are waiting on Feds decision before we go after anyone… hopefully shero has some offers out there just in case… we will see…

Also I guess there are talks of trades if we dont pick up another D off free agency…

47

Hossa part II?

48

i think the team is fine, it would be nice if feds stays but if he goes, he can replaced without an issue. scuds is replacable along with gill. they just got paid to much imo especially gill

49

feds signed for 1.8mil for 1 season, we also picked up nate geunin who is a sewickly boy, 6’2" 210lb defense from philly, not sure for how much but prob not that much… so i think we might still have like 2.8 mil left to sign curry and any other ufa we want to keep…

50

Pens signed Chris Connor and Chris Lee today… not sure fo rhow much and if it is a 2 way or 1 way contract… so we will see. Also I read Taffe and Minard went else where… anyone else here that… and we still need to sign curry or brown, we have no backup goalie…

51

http://www.citizensvoice.com/sports/penguins/2.189/top_scorers_moving_on

The backbone of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins’ offense - center Jeff Taffe and winger Chris Minard - is moving on.

Minard, who set a club record with 34 goals last season, has signed with the Edmonton Oilers.

Taffe, second on the team with 75 points in 74 games last year, signed a two-year, two-way deal with the Florida Panthers.

“I’ve been talking to (assistant general manager Jason) Botterill and those guys for a month and a half and I think we were just a little off as far as where I was and what the offer they were giving me,” Taffe said Friday while vacationing with his family in California. “I told them I appreciated everything they’ve done for me. It’s one of the best places I’ve ever played. But Florida called right away and it was the kind of deal I couldn’t pass up at this point in my career.”

Minard expressed a similar sentiment, adding that the NHL door in the Penguins organization seemed to close a little more when the parent club re-signed winger Ruslan Fedotenko on Friday afternoon.

“I didn’t want to leave Pittsburgh and I didn’t want to leave Wilkes-Barre, but things happen,” Minard said. “Edmonton, you see their lineup in the NHL, they have a lot of young players, a lot of good young players, but they haven’t really been established yet. If you look at the lineup in Pittsburgh, there aren’t a lot of holes.”

If Taffe doesn’t stick in the NHL, he’d be assigned to the Rochester Americans, giving the vaunted AHL franchise the kind of veteran scorer they’ve lacked for several years.

If Minard doesn’t stick in Edmonton, he’d be assigned to the Springfield Falcons. Minard said the minor-league portion of the two-way contact he signed was significantly more lucrative than the one the Penguins offered.

“We asked if they could bump the offer up and it wasn’t really close,” he said.

With Minard and Taffe moving on and Finnish scoring sensation Janne Pesonen unlikely to return, the Penguins will likely have a dramatically different look on offense next season.

“I feel bad for (coach Todd Reirden),” Minard said. “He’s going to have to do it with a whole new group of guys. But he’ll be all right. He’s a good coach and they’ll bring in good players. They’ll be young and inexperienced, but they’ll be all right.”

The Penguins made one key addition to their lineup Friday as well, signing stay-at-home defenseman Nate Guenin.

Guenin was a key player for the Philadelphia Phantoms the past three seasons, recording seven goals, 36 assists and 333 penalty minutes in 207 games and earning 12 games’ worth of call-ups to the Flyers.

A 6-foot-2, 210-pound Ohio State graduate, Guenin is the third Pittsburgh-area native to sign with the Penguins, following forwards Ryan Malone and Bill Thomas.

In other Penguins news Friday:

  • Wilkes-Barre/Scranton strength and conditioning coach Chris Pietrzak-Wegner has been promoted to the NHL. He will join former Penguins coach Todd Richards’ staff with the Minnesota Wild.

  • Tom Fitzgerald, who joined Dan Bylsma’s staff when he was promoted to the NHL on Feb. 15, will leave the bench and return to the front office as an assistant to general manager Ray Shero.

52

Mad Max to miss the first 1-2 month is the season…shoulder surgery. Wonder who is going to play wing on Geno’s line? I would like to see Pesonen get signed and get a shot, maybe Caputi…but he still has to put on some size.

53

The Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins have signed defenseman Jay McKee to a one-year contract, it was announced today by Executive Vice President and General Manager Ray Shero.

McKee, 31, recorded eight points (one goal, seven assists) along with 44 penalty minutes in 69 games with the St. Louis Blues during the 2008-09 season. He finished seventh in the NHL with 185 blocked shots while ranking fourth on the Blues with a plus-eleven rating. McKee played in four playoff contests, helping the Blues in their first playoff appearance since 2004.

“Jay is a strong defensive defenseman who will bring additional experience to our lineup,” Shero said. “He has great size and is an outstanding shot-blocker, and his veteran presence will help in the continued development of our young defensemen.”

The 6-4, 203-pound defenseman has played parts of 13 seasons in the NHL with the St. Louis Blues and the Buffalo Sabres. McKee played parts of 10 seasons with the Sabres, tallying 17 goals and 98 points along with 470 PIM in 582 games. He played in 51 playoff games with Buffalo, scoring nine points (three goals, six assists) and 60 penalty minutes, while posting a plus-18 rating. McKee appeared in the 1999 Stanley Cup Final with the Sabres before being eliminated by the Dallas Stars.

The blueliner has appeared in 740 career games in the NHL, collecting 115 points (20 goals, 95 assists) and 568 penalty minutes while recording a plus-49 rating. McKee has tallied three goals and nine points along with 64 penalty minutes in 55 post-season appearances.

The native of Kingston, Ontario was originally a first-round selection (14th overall) of the Buffalo Sabres in the 1995 Entry Draft.

54

Though some were holding out hope that Petr Sykora might be able to stay on board with the Penguins in some capacity, it does appear that he is officially done with the team. Especially based on his comments to the AHA daily Czech newspaper.

Tomas Jandik, who regularly translates Czech and Russian articles and interviews over at www.letsgopens.com, posted his latest today and it is quite telling. In the interview Sykora seems to be harboring a good bit of resentment towards Penguins head coach, Dan Bylsma. He also says that his time in Pittsburgh is over for the second time in a month.

No. My agent talked to the management, and I won’t be back. When the coach does not want Sykora, nothing can be done.

Incredibly. I think I had two excellent years there, scored 59 goals, and persuaded the previous coach Therrien about my qualities. But this is business, nobody cares about feelings. I’m pissed off; but on the other hand, it gives me more fuel to prove they had made a mistake.

Sykora went on to show his true feelings towards the coach that benched him for most of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

It’s never a good thing when you are coached by a former teammate. On top of that, he used to be a player who drifted around as a fourth-liner. I was younger than him, played on the top line, scored goals, was the little star. Now the roles got reversed, and from the first moment I had a feeling that he let me ‘eat it.’ I honestly say that I have not had liked him even as a teammate. Which does not happen to me often…

Though Sykora had great chemistry with Evgeni Malkin over his time in Pittsburgh, it is worth noting that his play did significantly tail off. In fact, he scored only 10 points in his last 36 games as a Penguin. He was knocked off of the top two lines and off of the number one power play unit, two areas that he needs to be a part of to be successful.

Sykora has also proven that he isn’t very effective in a checking role, which has seemingly ended his time in Pittsburgh.

It will be interesting to see how the team deals with losing a player that scored 59 goals over the past two seasons. Especially now that they seemingly have a need for a second line winger, at least until Max Talbot recovers from his labrum surgery.

55

anybody get season tickets? i get them through work and can’t wait for hockey season to start up again.

56

Still on the waiting list. Signed up over 2 years ago…think I am like #620 on the list.

57

The Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins have signed goaltender Brent Johnson to a one-year contract, it was announced today by Executive Vice President and General Manager Ray Shero.

Johnson, 32, played 21 games with the Washington Capitals, finishing with a record of 12-6-2 during the 2008-09 season. The veteran goaltender recorded a .908 save percentage along with a 2.81 goals-against average.

The 6-3, 199-pound goaltender has played parts of nine seasons in the NHL with the Washington Capitals, Phoenix Coyotes and the St. Louis Blues from 1998-2009. He has appeared in 247 career contests in the NHL, posting a 111-94-12 record. Johnson has a .903 save percentage along with a 2.63 goals-against average for his career.

Johnson has made 12 post-season appearances in the NHL, posting a record of 5-6. He has a save percentage of .931 and a 1.84 goals-against average during post-season play. He established a St. Louis franchise record with 206:45 consecutive shutout minutes while tying an NHL record during the 2001-02 playoffs when he registered three consecutive shutouts during a playoff series.

The native of Farmington, Michigan is the grandson of NHL Hall of Famer Sid Abel and the son of former Penguins goaltender Bob Johnson. His father played 12 games with Pittsburgh, posting a record of 3-4-1 with a 5.04 goals-against average and a .856 save percentage during the 1974-75 season.

He was originally drafted by the Colorado Avalanche in the fifth round (129th overall) of the 1995 Entry Draft.