Yeah this team still screams first round exit

This was a phenomenal trade for Pittsburgh.

But they still miss the playoffs

Making the playoffs would be an improvement though. Which is what ownership wants.

Pittsburg is the old age home of the NHL now. Almost no one under 30

They won't even make the playoffs and the rebuild starts in a few years with no assets to trade or in the system

Exactly and I get it. Basically just promising Crosby to try to seem competitive til he retires. And I mean who cares anyway cause when the rebuild starts the NHL will just rig the lottery in favor of the Pens like they did for Crosby and Mario anyway. It’s not like it hasn’t happened already lol it happened as recently as this year with Bedard and Chicago!

I hope it goes that way. Unfortunately Briere seems fully committed to rebuilding. So PHI will probably actually be a competent org. provided ownership doesn't rush the rebuild.

I hope the Penguins make the playoffs next year solely because it means they have a 0% chance to win the lottery. I don’t trust the NHL protecting their big markets

As a Canes fan, we all saw this coming, but not quite the deal expected. Impressed that Pitt was able to move the contracts they did but shocked that they got so little retention AND had to retain on Petry. They actually added salary? Looks like a minor move gets Guentzel activated, but what sticks out to me is the depth getting a bit hammered here. I can see why Waddell backed out. Not paying $10M a year for the next four years for this guy. This goes either really well or really bad.

Uhhh what??? They got rid of the half of the roster they didn't want. Dubas pulled some wizardry, dude. Just enjoy it.

Pittsburgh isn't a big market. It is lucrative relative to the population size of the city though. I know the TV ratings here are very high for an American market.

100% agree. Dubas is gambling for sure but I respect that much more than "let's just see what happens."

The Pens saved 3mill with todays deal. It's a big win.

Bless your heart. We'll see how much.

What do you mean? They literally saved 3 million with todays trade.

Wasn't really talking about the money.

The sent 3 overpaid players, 2 of which were huge negatives last season, and a few picks for a Norris trophy winner. It's definitely a win.

You might be exaggerating on the players you moved out, but for the sake of argument... while some seem happy to see them go at their current cost, they still may be better than what you have to fill out the bottom of the roster with. As one Pens poster put it, you moved a bunch of guys out for one really expensive guy. I don't think the main issue is whether EK stays healthy or maintains his level of play, but what this does to depth. Dubas has a penchant for leaning too much on star power at the expense of the bottom half of the roster. We watched that play out in Toronto. And we haven't even talked about the goaltending yet. Look, it's probably best we circle back to this conversation in 82 games. Everyone has work left to do. First prediction. EK doesn't win the Norris again.

They moved out 2 RD to bring in 1 RD. That would have been an issue if they didn't also have Ruhwedel and Friedman at RD. Both have played on the bottom pairing regularly in the past and have been fine. They have 4 LD on NHL deals and 4 RD on nhl deals. They didn't hurt their depth there.

Granlund is addition by subtraction. He was an awful fit last season and needed moved. He was a buyout candidate if this deal didn't go through. Obviously we have to wait and see if this deal is successful on the ice, but they are a lot better on paper today than they were yesterday.