Upgrading the 4th line

Équipe: 2020-21 Penguins de Pittsburgh

Date de création initiale: 9 mars 2021

Publié: 9 mars 2021

Mode - plafond salarial: Basique

Put Zucker on the 3rd line to spread out the skill and because McCann-Malkin-Kapanen line has clicked. Plus we can roll 4 lines this way. Lazar is tough to play against. He can throw the body and chip in offensively here and there. He is also solid in the faceoff circle since being in Buffalo. It also gives the pens another cheap forward for next year too.
I’d assume McCann gets taken in the expansion draft. Friedman takes over as 3rd pair RD. Pens can re-sign Ruhwedel and Trotman for league minimum as depth pieces. Poulin would make the jump. Which gives the pens 21 players and about 4 million in cap space. Should be good enough to re-sign Blueger and ZAR who should together come to about 3-3.5 million.
Pens also could bank on Matheson to continue his decent play and use Pettersson as trade bait for picks/prospects or a McCann replacement if they don’t feel Poulin is quite ready while moving POJ into the lineup full time, and/or trade Riikola and sign a cheaper depth dman for a tiny bit of cap space.