Équipe: 2021-22 Penguins de Pittsburgh

Date de création initiale: 9 juill. 2021

Publié: 13 juill. 2021

Mode - plafond salarial: Basique

Before I explain my thoughts, let me get this out of the way. Nobody knows anything on here, including me, and we are all wannabe GMs and any deal, draft pick or signing will be wildly different than anything anybody predicts. We’re all here to have fun, so play nice.

For starters, all of these transactions would occur after the expansion draft. The following is the draft protection list and key exposed players:
Forwards: Crosby - Malkin - Guentzel - Rust - Kapanen - McCann - Blueger
Defensemen: Letang - Dumoulin - Ceci
Goalie: Jarry

Key exposed players: Zucker, Carter, Tanev, Aston-Reese, Matheson, Pettersson

I think these protections are pretty explanatory. For the forwards, it’s about protecting guys who Seattle would select. You’re banking on Seattle not taking an old Jeff Carter who wants to play for a contender. You’re assuming my the term on Tanev’s contract would be a deterrent in the Kraken’s eyes due to his rugged play style. That leaves two intriguing players in Zucker and Aston-Reese for Seattle to think about. We will talk about them in a moment. On defense, protecting Letang and Dumoulin makes sense as they are the pillars of the blue line. The third option is a crap shoot as Marino and POJ are exempt. Protecting Ceci is a decent strategy. Seattle will select free agents they don’t plan on resigning in order to avoid a full NHL roster of talent and having flexibility. So in protecting Ceci, you hope to keep Seattle from letting him walk to the open market. Granted, that means you’re forcing Seattle to take a quality player but that was more likely anyway. Leaving Pettersson and Matheson exposed in okay due to their higher cap hits and lengthy terms. Matheson had a solid season for the Penguins but his play style only fits certain teams and again, that term can be scary. Pettersson has had a down year and a half, however before that, he proved to be a solid 4th D as he was paired with John Marino and helped stabilize the rookie at the time. He’s a good bounce back candidate but again has a risky contract. In net, Jarry has the most upside despite his playoff fumble. DeSmith is a quality backup but nothing you cry over if you lose him. That leaves Zucker, ZAR, and DeSmith as the most likely picks for Seattle. Zucker is a fast, high character player who had a knack for scoring in Minnesota but has been snake bitten in generating a decent amount of scoring chances but lacking finishing and luck. It may be time for both sides to part ways, as great of a player and teammate he seems to be. ZAR is one of the Penguins many successful college free agent signings. He is one of the best defensive players in the league. According to leading public analytics, such as Evolving Hockey and JFresh, Aston-Reese is in a league of his own, landing himself in the 100th percentile in the NHL. That is amazing. His WAR is only 75% due to his lackluster offense. He is the perfect penalty killer and bottom six player snd would be an above average player if he generated more offense. It’s tough to leave a guy like him exposed, for sure. Lastly, DeSmith has proven to be a capable backup and has even gone on stretches where he seems like a fringe starter such as Anton Khudobin. He has a friendly contract as well.

With all of that being said, I think Seattle would choose Aston-Reese due to his strong analytics and role playing ability. However, I don’t think they’d have to be convinced too hard to take a guy with the credentials that Jason Zucker has. However, in order to get Tarasenko is my make believe story, we need him to not be selected. So on that note, Marcus Pettersson is the pick here. You’re banking on convincing Seattle that he has upside and his contract can be managed as the salary cap rises eventually….hopefully. Granted, it is hard to convince you all on here that they’d want him due to his cap hit and not knowing who else they’d take in this “simulation” but it’s my world and you’re just reading it so take that, losers. To compensate for such words, we’ll give Seattle a second round pick because I’m too cheap to give a first and I don’t care what you think.

After the expansion draft, the first order of business is to acquire some insurance in net. Don’t get me wrong, the frisbee golf god Casey DeSmith is nice and all but getting a guy with playoff experience would be ideal. So why not make a deal that would blow up Twitter for a while. You either love him or hate him if you’re a Pens fan, that’s right, step on up Mister Marc-Andre Fleury. You’re the next contestant and first returnee on “what goalie will we blame for our playoff failures this year?!” In all honesty, why not get him if he’s available. I trust Jarry to bounce back and I think he and Fleury thrive off of completion. The guys in the room love him and should welcome that energy and friendship and all that intangible stuff that the old coots drool over. He just won the Vezina, sympathy or not, but he could still be a high quality guy in the Steel City. With Vegas being in cap shambles, we’re aiming at a cheaper price here for the sake of the simulation (I stg if I see a comment that says I underpaid I will be disappointed in you all for not understanding that we all know nothing and this is for fun.) This trade is the reason why this team is over the cap so let me explain that for a moment. We know last off-season that Rutherford tried to acquire Fleury but they need a third team to retain the other half of fleurys salary. It was going to be like the Lehner deal we’re Vegas would take 25% of Fleurys cap while the third team would take 50% off of the reaming cap hit. I’m not going to bother making a three team trade because why p*SS off another fan base today. Use your imagination please and thank you.

As for the Tarasenko deal, nobody seems to know what he’ll get in a deal. He’s had two shoulder surgeries and could have a third, although it seems unlikely now. He’s a former 40 goal scorer but he has only played 30 something games in the past two seasons. He may not be the same player. However, even 75% of what he was is still a good player and he of course has the cup experience and scoring prowess you covet. Giving the Blues Zucker gives them a replacement goal scorer and a good NHL player rather than straight up prospects. There are two C-tier prospects thrown in, in Jon Gruden and Jesper Lindgren. Both were acquired in trades last offseason and quite frankly could be replaced by any of these other prospects depending on your preference. Obviously, we’d like to avoid giving up Poulin and Legare. A first round pick and third are included to compensate for the lack of high tier prospects and gives the Blues assets they can either use or flip in other deals. Asking the Blues to retain salary doesn’t seem unrealistic, rather very possible in the fall cap world. The compensation for that is up for debate. This isn’t an offer to say this is what they should take compared to other teams but rather what the Pens could offer based on the reported price and questions regarding Vladimir. Go ahead and complain, I don’t care.

Finally, let’s look at the signings here. The main ones, of course, are re-signing some of last years players. Gaudreau and Rodrigues proved to be quality players and hopefully could be brought back for cheap. Cody Ceci could get paid heavily in free agency but a good deal for him to stay would be somewhere around a 2x2. He played surprisingly well in the minutes they gave him and he’d be great to keep around. Teddy Blueger is estimated to get paid in the $2mill-2.5mill range, according to Evolving Wild. He is a no-brainer for the Penguins to bring back as he plays a valuable 4C role and could realistically be a quality 3C. I shouldn’t need to explain anymore as you should know how great and important he is to this team already.

The only free agent signing we make here is Zach Parise to a near league minimum deal. He’s getting paid nicely and shouldn’t be looking for money after the Minnesota buyout. He and Suter almost signed with Pittsburgh in 2012. The final three teams were Minnesota, Pittsburgh, and Detroit, according to Michael Russo of The Athletic. He’s good friends with Sid and according to JFresh’s analytic player cards, he is a high quality play driver and provides offense at a good rate. He is also a net front presence that Penguins lack and he has that intangible stuff that tv analysts would like.

I thought about trading McCann in the Tarasenko deal originally and giving Zucker to expansion or even keeping Zucker in the Tarasenko deal and suck it up and lose ZAR to expansion, however this was my final outcome. I almost traded for Miles Wood or Andrew Copp. I thought about signing Nick Foligno, Corey Perry, or Tomas Tatar at a cheap price. I even thought of just promoting Poulin and/or Legare but again, this is what I decided. Injuries will always occur so all these depth guys and prospects will have a chance to play. While Malkin is injured, Gaudreau could come in the lineup and either McCann or Carter could play 2C. Side note: I would’ve loved Nugent-Hopkins here but so be it. Philip Danault would be interested if he was cheaper, obviously.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I appreciate it and hopefully you all understand that this is for fun and just a generalization of what I’d like to see. Obviously you nor I know what players will sign for or who Seattle will take or what trade values of different players and prospects are. Comment as you may but don’t expect me to be bothered if any of this upset you and you think I’m garbage because news flash, we all are. Hopefully some of you got a laugh. Have a good one, everybody!

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