Ask the sharks or the isles about how age is just a number. I have nothing against Pittsburgh, I was a huge fan of Crosby before the isles got JT lmao.



Sometimes a dirty hit can end a career tho…. Or cause significant problems down the line.

Why would you compare Poehling to Matheson and Marino lol. You should be comparing Petry and Smith/POJ

No. I meant that adding Poehling doesn’t make up for the decline in quality between Petry/Smith and Marino/Matheson.

Marino and Matheson are way better than those two. Adding a couple mid round picks and a cheap forward doesn’t change that.

I'm not trying to say Hextall has done bad. I know I mentioned it in another comment but I'd put him maybe slightly above average. He did great with the big guys contracts but made some very puzzling moves with the little guys. I agree they're starting with a better and healthier team. I'm excited about the team I'm not trying to complain. I'm fine with Zucker staying. I just think the argument can be made since they have such a small window that you want to maximize that as much as possible. That 1st round pick probably won't be able to help any time soon. But they do get Zucker's money to spend next year. So I have no problems with keeping Zucker.

9 of the 10 oldest teams in the league made the playoffs last year. So yeah - I'm not too worried about it.

Ah okay - I see what you're saying. Still wrong though. There isn't really a decline in quality. Plus they signed Rutta too - which is probably the person you should be adding to the convo instead of Poehling. As much as I don't think it was needed, it's still a slight upgrade

Marino and Matheson aren't way better than those two. Petry is better than Marino - this isn't even something you can debate.

I def disagree on Marino V Petry, especially given Perry’s advancers age lol. You don’t want to surround ur aging core with more aging players. It’s a bad idea.

You are way too focused on age and not enough on play lol. Nobody anywhere would say Marino is better than Petry - I mean the guy just had Norris votes the year before last. He's a legitimate first pair Dman that we get to put on our 2nd pair. That's a huge boost to him. Look how much better people like Schultz and Matheson looked when they came here and got to move down the lineup

How many teams with multiple players at or over the age of 35 won the cup?

Great hockey talk. An article comes out about a Zucker trade and here we are with an ACGM and a long thread going. Pens fans are 24/7 365, got to love it and respect it. Can't wait for training camp in 2 weeks.

You are correct - he did have a low shooting % for sure. If he had his average shooting percentage last year - he still would have only scored 14-15 goals though. I'm sure he's due for some positive bounce back, his possession numbers were still decent - but either way that contract is still bad

I’ll trade bailey for him lol

What's your point?

Lol - we're so bored that one rumor comes out and we go off haha. Let's not even go down the Erod rabbit hole

If they were making the same salary maybe haha

I mean look how young Colorado and Tampa Bay’s rosters were. All their older guys were on cheap deals and didn’t play key roles. Pittsburgh has three core guys at 35 and they r adding Petry to the group? It’s highly debatable if the pens can even win a cup with this group, but if they r going to then they need younger talent around the core.

TBL was the third oldest team in the league last year. The two years they won they were the 6th and 5th oldest. When the Pens won in 16-17 they were the 3rd oldest. Just because COL won with a middle of the road age roster doesn't prove the Pens can't win with an older roster. As I said - 9 of the 10 oldest teams made the playoffs last year. Crosby scored at 100 point pace, Malkin scored at a ppg pace and Letang scored the most points of his entre career and came 7th in Norris voting. These are guys that are still at the top of their game. Sure everybody wants more talent around their core - but it's the talent that matters, not the age.

You are way too concerned about age and not enough with play. I'm not saying it can't be a factor at all - but it's not a disqualifier the way you are making it out to be.

I don’t think TBL’s core guys were that old was my point actually. That Pittsburgh team in 16-17 had an older core for a cup winning team tho.

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.

TBL core is not as old as the Pens core currently is yeah you're right - but I guess I'm just failing to see the point. Crosby is still arguably a Top 5 player, Malkin scored at a ppg pace, and Letang finished top 10 in the Norris 3 of the last 4 years and just scored the most points of his career. It's not like they're shells of their former self limping around the ice. Again, I just feel like you are putting all the weight into age and nothing into how these people are actually playing.

I think that it’s a bad idea to have too many old guys on the same roster tbh. And I’m not a big believer in Petry tbh. I liked him a lot when he was behind Weber, and I haven’t liked him since then lol.

I think there is more of a risk of guys breaking down if there r too many old guys. You need younger guys with less wear and tear around them imo.

Interesting - I would have loved to see how they would fit Trocheck without trading Zucker lol. It will be tough for those guys to step up though considering only one of them will probably make the team. I don't know where this idea came from that Rutta can play the left side - he's played the right side his entire career. Also, then that means you would have Pettersson playing top pair?

I'm fine with them keeping Zucker honestly - if healthy I think he brings value. Although I'm not sure it's a win win. If he doesn't bounce back or gets hurt then you just wasted a year of an already very small window. And that 1st rounder isn't going to help in this window at all.

Yeah Kap and McGinn's contracts are definitely bad. Rutta's contract might not be bad but the signing just didn't make sense and seems like wasted money there too

I mean i'm not advocating for signing older guys, I'm just saying signing/trading for an older guy isn't a bad move just because he's old.

Well now he gets to be behind Letang haha. I mean if you're not a believer in him that's fine, questionable, but fine. But to say he's worse than Marino just isn't correct.

For sure there is. But just getting younger guys doesn't help - you can't just sign people because they're younger that's not how you win. I haven't seen any younger guys that would have been better than signing Malkin and Letang. Petry is better than Marino, and POJ/Smith are younger than Matheson. I'm not sure what else could have been done better.