It appears the longer things drag out on the Tomas Tatar front the better chance the Penguins are going to have. Pittsburgh is looking to give him a PTO for training camp. If other teams are willing to step up and give a second year I can't imagine the Penguins will be an option. It sounds like Tatar will be taking a paycut regardless of his next team. A paycut that would likely fall within the range of a Jeff Carter cap hit.

I don't think moving Carter is realistic. However, how many people thought you could acquire the defending Norris Trophy winner for as little as the Penguins did while shedding the majority of their dead weight contracts?

Here is more on Tatar

“Well he’s looking at multi-year deals ideally for him and he has some options in terms of PTOs. Pittsburgh is one of them. We had some reports earlier this week kind of linking the two. But it looks like more in a professional tryout to see if he might be a fit for the Pittsburgh Penguins to add to their forward core.

There are a few other teams looking to add, to kind of add to their middle-six. Second and third line. Bring some secondary scoring in there. He could certainly provide that but it’s going to be considerably less than the $4.5 million cap hit he had over his last contract. He’s going to take certainly a dip in the dollars. And I think he understands that but at the same time looking for that multi-year cushion rather than just the one year.

So we’re going to see what type of options become available to him but there are teams looking to kind of add to their secondary scoring but they have to worry about the salary cap.

This may be a situation that goes into camp, and if he can’t find a destination, he may go on that PTO option. Whether it’s a team like the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Toronto Maple Leafs, or another club looking to add a little firepower to their mid-six.

Training camp physicals begin for the Penguins on September 11th. So if Tatar doesn't get signed for the next three weeks there's a real chance to see him in Pittsburgh. I don't understand why he isn't signed. He's been a very effective player for a long time and is looking at a pay cut no matter where he signs. The Penguins would be very fortunate to land someone like him this late in the free agency game and after the other moves Dubas has already made. Stranger things have happened.

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