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Another team out on Matt Murray |
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A day after it was reported the Edmonton Oilers don’t want to pony up a first round pick for Matt Murray I have heard from a source the Sabres are no longer interested in Matt Murray, either. Their interest is higher with Jared McCann. I can’t speak to if the Penguins were insisting on pushing both Murray and McCann on the Sabres as a package and that is why the interest waned. Regardless, it appears the Penguins are down another team to bid for Murray’s services at the moment.
It isn’t panic time. Rutherford is looking to see if anybody will bite on his highest price. Can’t blame him there. He is going to have to walk a tight rope as things progress towards the draft on what he’s looking for and what the market is dictating. The draft isn’t a hard deadline on trading Murray, but the draft is an excellent time of the year to swing deals because many other teams are looking to shake up their rosters. I’d want to have a deal done by the time the draft comes around.
We’ll have to wait for the Murray trade, but there were other shake ups for the Penguins today. Jason Karmanos was named the Baby Penguins GM and J.D. Forrest is the new Baby Penguins Head Coach.
Karmanos has been with the Penguins since Rutherford came over from the Hurricanes. He will take over the void left behind by Bill Guerin. J.D. Forrest was the assistant coach for the team so his promotion gives the team some consistency. I think what stands out the most is these are in-house hires. This certainly helps the bottom line and there are reports about the Penguins (and many others) cutting costs any way they can due to the pandemic and the loss of ticket revenue. Even in a normal season it has been reported the Penguins need to get to the second round of the playoffs to turn a profit. They are 1-9 in their last ten playoff games. Not a recipe for profit.
the Pittsburgh Penguins are reportedly planning to budget in the low-to-mid $70 million range on an $81.5 million limit.
Pittsburgh Penguins: A 25 per cent reduction for all staff through Nov. 30, 2020.
These are real issues to keep in mind with how they will impact roster structure. It highlights the contracts on the roster that don’t provide great value.
Jack Johnson and Brandon Tanev combine for 6.75M. They don’t provide 6.75M of value. No, Brandon Tanev isn’t a dumpster fire like Jack Johnson, not even close. Also, he does not provide 3.5M worth of value. This 6.75M would have them in their low-to-mid 70M range. Penguins aren’t the only team with this issue. It’s still an issue when you overpay versus what you get even if the Covid impact could not have been foreseen.
Thanks for reading!
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
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