Rejoint: juin 2022
Messages: 1,631
Mentions "j'aime": 547
Absolutely not. The pens were reportedly in on trocheck without trading Zucker and just didn’t want to give him the 7th year (not sure why not). I’d rather just wait and choose from next years crop. Not to mention if some guys step up like Poehling, Nylander, DOC, Zohorna, Puustinen, Poulin, etc then they may not need a big free agent signing anyway.
I kind of understand the Rutta signing. As a guy that can play the left side, he could move to the left side next year and replace Dumo leaving (playing 2nd pair with Petry.
I’d guess POJ and Smith can battle it out for an offensive presence on the 3rd pair.
Keeping Zucker is a win-win. He either bounces back in a contract year and at the very least lives up to a 5.5 million cap hit. Or he deals with major injuries and goes on LTIR for cap relief and we keep our 1st rounder that could be used in a deal to bring in a healthy and useful player. But the pens need to keep their 1st rounders to restock their prospect pool and use free agency to their advantage.
The two contracts hurting them the most right now are Kapanen and McGinn.