B21 Posted July 2, 2019 Share Posted July 2, 2019 So after dealing Phil the Thrill (no surprise) the Pens took a quick dive into the free agent market (surprise!) and signed Brandon Tanev for 6 years at a cap hit of $3.5 million. Through the black and gold goggles I think this will be one of the better free agent signings as far as a team filling a need. Tanev brings some much needed speed and grit. Tenacious penalty killer. 3rd in the NHL with 278 hits and was a +9 while starting almost 60% of his shifts in the defensive zone. I think the cap hit is fine. The length is a bit long for a projected bottom 6 guy (6 years) but he's only 27 so it's not "that" bad and he's only played 195 NHL games (less wear and tear than most 27 year olds). The signing leaves the Pens about $2 million under the cap with deals still to be done with RFA's Marcus Pettersson, Teddy Blueger and Zach Aston-Reese all of whom are expected to break camp with the team. So...someone else has to go. Multiple news outlets in the Burgh have taken Rutherford to heart that he is happy with his D (sorry Jack Johnson haters) which means that most likely to be dealt are either Bryan Rust ($3.5 million cap hit) or Nick Bjugstad ($4.1 million cap hit) who never quite meshed after being acquired from Florida. I would prefer it be Bjugstad as I would not want to lose Rust’s speed or experience with the Pens. Bjugstad will certainly generate less return which is fine. In a cap world I look at it as trading him for Tanev. If Rutherford can pull off a Bjugstad deal the Pens will break camp looking something like this: Guentzel / Crosby / Hornqvist Galchenyuk / Malkin / Rust Tanev / McCann / Kahun Simon / Blueger / Aston-Reese ??? Letang /Dumoulin Schultz / Johnson Pettersson / Gudbrandson Riikola Murray DeSmith Rust, Kahun and Tanev are all interchangeable. Caveat: Assuming $4 million total on the deals for Blueger ($1M +/-, Aston-Reese ($1M +/-) and Petterson ($2M +/-). That leaves about $2 million in cap space for a mid-season deal if needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mojo1917 Posted July 2, 2019 Share Posted July 2, 2019 I like the Tanev signing. I like what he brings, he definitely helps that third line get more minutes, it's a good cap hit too. Top six is looking typically high skill, I wonder how Galchenyuk is going to like playing with Malkin ? If he can remember to keep his stick on the ice he should be good for 55-65pts rolling out of bed this year. I don't think this group looks "done" the way some others do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notfondajane Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 On 7/2/2019 at 8:44 AM, B21 said: So after dealing Phil the Thrill (no surprise) the Pens took a quick dive into the free agent market (surprise!) and signed Brandon Tanev for 6 years at a cap hit of $3.5 million. Through the black and gold goggles I think this will be one of the better free agent signings as far as a team filling a need. Tanev brings some much needed speed and grit. Tenacious penalty killer. 3rd in the NHL with 278 hits and was a +9 while starting almost 60% of his shifts in the defensive zone. I think the cap hit is fine. The length is a bit long for a projected bottom 6 guy (6 years) but he's only 27 so it's not "that" bad and he's only played 195 NHL games (less wear and tear than most 27 year olds). The signing leaves the Pens about $2 million under the cap with deals still to be done with RFA's Marcus Pettersson, Teddy Blueger and Zach Aston-Reese all of whom are expected to break camp with the team. So...someone else has to go. Multiple news outlets in the Burgh have taken Rutherford to heart that he is happy with his D (sorry Jack Johnson haters) which means that most likely to be dealt are either Bryan Rust ($3.5 million cap hit) or Nick Bjugstad ($4.1 million cap hit) who never quite meshed after being acquired from Florida. I would prefer it be Bjugstad as I would not want to lose Rust’s speed or experience with the Pens. Bjugstad will certainly generate less return which is fine. In a cap world I look at it as trading him for Tanev. If Rutherford can pull off a Bjugstad deal the Pens will break camp looking something like this: Guentzel / Crosby / Hornqvist Galchenyuk / Malkin / Rust Tanev / McCann / Kahun Simon / Blueger / Aston-Reese ??? Letang /Dumoulin Schultz / Johnson Pettersson / Gudbrandson Riikola Murray DeSmith Rust, Kahun and Tanev are all interchangeable. Caveat: Assuming $4 million total on the deals for Blueger ($1M +/-, Aston-Reese ($1M +/-) and Petterson ($2M +/-). That leaves about $2 million in cap space for a mid-season deal if needed. I'm curious if the Pens could a 3rd, 4th or a 5th round pick for Bjugstad? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B21 Posted July 15, 2019 Author Share Posted July 15, 2019 On 7/9/2019 at 12:19 PM, notfondajane said: I'm curious if the Pens could a 3rd, 4th or a 5th round pick for Bjugstad? I'm guessing that Rutherford would take a 3rd for Bjugstad in a heartbeat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B21 Posted July 15, 2019 Author Share Posted July 15, 2019 On 7/2/2019 at 9:21 AM, mojo1917 said: I like the Tanev signing. I like what he brings, he definitely helps that third line get more minutes, it's a good cap hit too. Top six is looking typically high skill, I wonder how Galchenyuk is going to like playing with Malkin ? If he can remember to keep his stick on the ice he should be good for 55-65pts rolling out of bed this year. I don't think this group looks "done" the way some others do. Agree. I'm glass-is-half-full on them this year. By no means are they the favorites for the division let alone the Cup but I don't think it would be a total shock to anyone if the new "parts" all meshed and the team made a deep run as a 2/3 seed. I would be shocked if they missed the playoffs entirely for reasons other than several star players missing a lot of time due to injuries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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