Follow me on twitter
OK, so I don't know about anybody else but I feel it is kind of pointless to speculate about the Penguins next coaching hire until some legitimate developments transpire.
Today I decided to take a few minutes to mess around on
Cap Geek's Armchair GM .
What I discovered quickly was that the Penguins cap situation isn't really all that bad and they do have the ability to ice a very competitive team in 2014-15. I did not make any fancy trades, I did not buy anybody out. Rob Scuderi and Marc Andre Fleury are still on this roster. I kept things pretty meat and potatoes to show just how easy this could potentially be. This isn't intended to be a final roster for the 2014-15 season, just to showcase most of their improvements can come from in house.
The first line will see the lone acquisition that has come from outside the organization. Ales Hemsky will ride shotgun with Sidney Crosby. The Ales Hemsky we saw with the Ottawa Senators will continue to show up and probably with a slight improvement while playing with 87. Crosby deserves legitimate talent and Hemsky fits that bill. You can fall into the trap of buying into cheesy narratives that he is a soft player or you can do what LA has done the past few years and bring in talented players (Carter, Richards, Gaborik) regardless of their "stigma" attached.
The case for teams signing Hemsky have been
made by Travis Yost
Ales Hemsky - A player who should have been traded for well before this year's NHL trade deadline. Hemsky was dying a slow hockey death in Edmonton before being rescued by a better Ottawa team that injected some life (and scoring!) into his game. There's a good chance Hemsky will parlay his run with Ottawa into a bigger and better deal with a legitimate Stanley Cup contender, and good for him. For all of the wasted years he put in with Edmonton, he deserves it. As for his limited play in Ottawa? Him and Jason Spezza tore things up in the stretch run, though the team could never do enough to climb back into the playoff picture.
Todd Cordell highlights why Hemsky is an attractive free agent idea
here
And back in March I outlined why Hemsky leaving Edmonton would
provide him the opportunity to shine
The second line sees a promotion for Beau Bennett. Time to see what the kid can do in a top 6 role. James Neal remains on the roster, I'm not trading him away for the sake of trading him away. He's on thin ice, we'll see what impact a new coach has for him.
3rd line sees a big improvement over what the Penguins put out there for most of last season. Pascal Dupuis is a capable top line player with Crosby, but he should do more than fine in a 3rd line role, I would expect him to crush it in this role.
Stempniak is a good responsible player that you don't have to hide. He will also be able to provide around 15 goals in this role.
Sutter will reap the benefit of not having Tanner Glass and Craig Adams by his side. This line is one that you could use against tougher competition, Sidney Crosby would no longer have to play a complete shutdown role. There are rumors of Sutter asking for as much as 4M, I don't believe he will get that. He doesn't have the numbers to take to an arbitration hearing to command that. 3.2M is close to what they will settle on.
The fourth line is light years better than last year. Brian Gibbons is more than capable as a 4th line guy who can play on the penalty kill. Goc is a horse and provides insurance for Sutter. Megna is a little bit of a question mark, but he's not Craig Adams or Tanner Glass, so there's that.
With the draft approaching there is also a long shot possibility that the Penguins 1st round pick could make the jump to the NHL. I wouldn't bank on it, but it has happened before. They are in an area of the draft in which they should be able to choose from an interesting group of forwards.
The defense corp. is where you will see significant changes. The youth movement has begun. The time for the Penguins to see a return investment on all the defensemen they have drafted has come. The biggest complaint I'll get about this unit is their age. That complaint is going to fall on deaf ears, I don't care what their birthday is. I care about improving the team. You know what you are getting from Orpik, Scuderi , and Doug Murray types, they are a possession black hole. I don't view going with the younger players as a bigger risk than moving forward with players you know don't get the job done. Why veterans who play poorly get the benefit of the doubt while young players don't is a mystery I have yet to figure out. Mistakes are mistakes. If you are going to have them, get them on the cheap.
I don't believe for a second that these young players who possess good skating and decent puck skills will be a step backwards. Sure, you'll see the occasional mistake where a turnover leads to a goal but I don't see any difference between that and when Rob Scuderi goes high of the glass 15 times a game "playing it safe". Scuderi voluntarily gives away possession when doing so. Give me the players who can move their feet and set themselves up to make a controlled hockey play. Playing it safe sucks. The puck is not a grenade. Controlled zone exits and controlled zone entries are the key to success in the NHL. High off the glass does not get you in a position to succeed at either of those.
Derrick Pouliot is a wild card, he is not included in this roster. Who knows if he could possibly make the NHL by the end of the season. I wouldn't rule it out.
The Martin Letang pairing is going to take on a lion's share of the responsibility, as they should. They can handle it, especially in the same pairing.
In a perfect world Scuderi is off the roster and Robert Bortuzzo can slide between a bottom pairing role and the extra defenseman.
Matt Niskanen had a hell of a season last year, I'm not buying high on him.
Goaltending stays the same for the purpose of this exercise. Fleury isn't my goalie moving forward, I think you can save money by finding his equal. His equal shouldn't be hard to find because
he isn't as good as the perception is . Remember, last year was a "bounce back" year for him.
This is the kind of roster you could field without getting rid of Scuderi and Fleury's cap hit. If the Penguins were to aggressively pursue moving both players off of the roster that would free up another 8.375M. That could be the difference in adding a guy like Jussi Jokinen back to the mix.
I don't expect to see this as the opening night roster, but what I did expect to do is showcase how the Penguins can have a pretty darn good team next year with the cap space that they have available to them. Most of the moves can be handled in house if they choose to do so.
The Penguins could always look outside the organization to improve the roster but keep in mind that most times that will come with a higher cost.
The Penguins aren't as far away from righting this ship as some pundits think.
Thanks for reading!
Follow me on twitter
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»