Why spend $3mil on a backup goalie when you can have one for $1.5mil or less?

Pens are full of RWs: Sprong, Hornqvist, Rust, ZAR. that's one reason why they would move Kessel, to make room for Sprong.

We don’t need a RW back. That’s one reason the pens are willing to trade him in he first place. The essentially have a cheaper and younger Kessel in their eyes with Sprong. And they have a ton of RW depth in the system. Hornqvist, Sprong, Rust, Sheary, Kuhnhackl, Simon, Rowney, ZAR can all play right wing and the pending free agents are all cheap lol. They need LW help and a 3rd pair RD so they can get Letangs minutes down now that he is getting older.

The AZ trade is just pointless for AZ to do. They are taking on a cap dump and retaining salary on their starter and giving up Domi. All they get is Jarry in this deal that’s worth anything and he isn’t much of an upgrade over Raanta right now

Great minds must think alike lol

Isn’t Kuemper the starter? They’re going to want a better goalie than Raanta or Kuemper. And I’m sorry but Trocheck is a massive upgrade over Sheary on RW. There is no reason to trade Phil only to replace him with either Sprong, Simon, Sheary, or Kuhnackl in the role he plays—that jut makes us worse.

Until Sprong or Simon or Sheary can put up 92 points in a season and make this team better by replacing Kessel, we need a better RW in return.

Our backup goalie situation was anything but comfortable. DeSmith and Jarry played good, but we need someone there in case Murray gets injured again or in the playoffs for insurance as well.

Trochek isn’t an upgrade over Kessel. When trading a player like Kessel you aren’t looking for an upgrade and the only way you trade him is if you believe you have a replacement in place already. Doesn’t mean an upgrade. Not many players in the league would be an upgrade over Phil. We are lookin for a more complete team. Why trade him for a downgrade and no help elsewhere? You are literally trading for a downgrade, throwing in a 2nd and a prospect for a 1st. That doesn’t make sense to do. Might as well just keep Kessel for that.

They can’t do that if you continue to block their ability to play by having Kessel or bringing in a guy like Trochek to take their spot lol.

And no, Kuemper isn’t the starter. Raanta is.

That was the whole point of this page, if Kessel were to go we would need to find a cheaper fit to plug back in. Otherwise there is not point in trading him. Getting a bottom six player and bottom six d man and a couple picks is useless for a trade with him.

Except Kuemper outplayed him when he got to the team and earned the role so...

The organization believes they already have the cheaper fit in Sprong. They want someone they can plug into the LW on that second line and get basically a 2nd pair quality RD that’s on a cheap enough contract that it wouldn’t kill them to plug him into a 3rd pair D to balance out their defense. Kind of like how they were doing with the fwds by plugging Phil in the 3rd line when he is really a 1st liner.

Your starting goalie is only making 750,000 more than your back up.
Why don't you get some one like Malcolm Subban for 832,500 dollars a year.