Edit: June 29 7:15 AM Pittsburgh has a forward that they like and they met with agent Allan Walsh about him yesterday
Michael Frolik is commanding a lot of interest from around the league but his skill set would be a perfect fit for the Pittsburgh Penguins who need to add speed and skill to their forward ranks. It will take at least 5 years and 25M to get a deal done with Frolik but a slight overpay here also prevents the loss of Olli Maatta/Derrick Pouliot, and a 2016 1st round pick (IE: framework of a Kessel trade).
I wrote about Michael Frolik in detail a few days back. You can get those details
here
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Some player decisions on Sunday could potentially impact the Pittsburgh Penguins
It appears the Los Angeles Kings could not find any takers for Mike Richards contract and will have to buy him out and boy is it a doozey. If you thought Rob Scuderi's buyout was painful...
Los Angeles General Manager Dean Lombardi is paying a incredibly high price for loyalty. Mike Richards was a no-brainer compliance buyout but the team did not exercise that option. It would be a fireable offense for most general managers but he has two recent Stanley Cup championships that give him some rope.
I'm gonna say it now before people start getting ideas. Mike Richards is a terrible option for the Pittsburgh Penguins. There are other options, use them.
Richards is cooked and even if against all odds he shows something with his new team let that another team take the risk to find out. It seems foolish to chase the odds that a player rebounds from terrible to below average.
The intriguing player that is being bought out and could potentially help the Penguins is PA Paranteau. I wrote about him back in
March.
He should be a low cost option and quite frankly if the Penguins are looking to roll out four scoring lines in the future you will need a cheaper player who is able to put up tangible offense at even-strength.
Here is where the perception of PA Paranteau has gone south:
Paranteau had a career low shooting percentage.
Paranteau did not have the best year in Montreal but some of that can be traced to his usage and playing for a below average Head Coach in Michael Therrien. Mostly all of Therrien's success as a coach can be traced to lights out goaltending (this was definitely the case in 2007-08 Fleury's career year).
Again, if Pittsburgh is committed to having four scoring lines this is the kind of player they have to look at to fill out that depth. Anything under 2M would be fine.
A note to the readership. I have a very weird schedule this week coming up and you may notice the blogs not coming out at their normal times (mid morning). Don't worry I'll try and get them out early morning or evening (perhaps both). I understand it is a big week with free agency so don't get worried if something isn't posted immediately, you'll get something eventually. Thank you for understanding.
Thanks for reading!
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