I never heard that. I've only ever heard it was a simple contract dispute. JR wanted an extension with one year left on his deal and Moorehouse didn't want to give him one.

Yes... That's an easy call on whether the Pens would be better off if JR stayed. Hextall was a disaster for this team.
- madmike71

I've also heard the rumor GMJR wanted to trade either Malkin or Letang and they wouldn't let him so he walked. Never felt it was confirmed, but it's been out there almost as soon as it happened.

I don't totally disagree but a bit of retrospect here...

McCann was pretty inconsistent and while he showed some flashes, he wasn't really a no brainer core piece at the time. Should we have kept him? Yeah. But losing McCann wasnt the difference between us competing for a cup.

Rodriguez was a completely different situation. We shouldn't have let him walk, but we did have multiple chance to get him back and chose not to.

So yeah, I'd rather have McCann and Rodrigues right now over Smith and Eller but I think there have been way bigger issues than them.
- MacPatty

IDK McCann's Pens numbers were in line with a second line forward. 141 games 39 goals, 84 points. He improved every season he was here and was still only 24.

Even if he wasn't what he is now, I think he showed enough that there was no way they should have let him go. I thought the decision was between Blueger and Carter for the last spot and was shocked they didn't want to protect McCann.

"I think the thing that I've really learned in the year is that we really have to do everything we can as urgently as possible to infuse the organization with really high-quality younger players and give ourselves a chance to add that by adding draft picks, adding prospects in any chance we can get," Dubas said. "Because if we can do that, while those players are still playing, that standard [core of] Sid, 'Geno,' Kris Letang, Erik Karlsson, Bryan Rust set, that just helps young players come in and get up to speed quicker."

Rust is core. I am down with this.

That's too bad about Capfriendly, go there quite a bit. One more reason to dislike the Caps, I guess.

eury’s most iconic moment was in the waning seconds of Game 7 when the Penguins upset the 2009 Red Wings when he stuffed Nicklas Lidstrom.
- Ryan_Wilson

I don't disagree it's his most iconic moment. But much like Orr's iconic flying through the air OT winner, which happened AFTER he scored the goal, Fleury's iconic moment was stopping a shot that would have missed the net anyway. So while both are absolutely iconic , both had no impact on their respective games.

I don't disagree it's his most iconic moment. But much like Orr's iconic flying through the air OT winner, which happened AFTER he scored the goal, Fleury's iconic moment was stopping a shot that would have missed the net anyway. So while both are absolutely iconic , both had no impact on their respective games.
- jmatchett383

I bet you're real fun at parties...

Hoping skinner absolutely poops the bed because:

1. I hate Edmonton.

2. They can bring in home town boy Jarry.

If shesterkin is rumored to want 11-12m, saros will want nearly as much, then 5m for a Jarry type ain’t so bad.
- 10inchTerror

I really want to see Florida win, don't care if it is Skinner's fault or not. I don't think the hometown connection is going to move any needles, Edmonton can't afford Jarry. Maybe if they end up trading Nurse, but I'm not sure there is a deal there with us to be made. Maybe they are sick of Kane and would want to do a 1:1 trade between the two... I probably would but not sure that is a good one for Edmonton.

Shesterkin isn't getting $11M. Saros is probably going to have to settle for $5M or less if he wants any term. I'd like to get rid of Jarry and try something different in net but at the end of the day he is really just a 1b goalie that is overpaid by about $1.5M per year.

Markstrom is likely to be the goalie that gets moved first. Saros probably next. Someone will take a shot at Brossoit in free agency as a 1b. Not sure what Boston will do with their pair of aces. Gibson? In other words, there are a million pieces up in the air when it comes to goaltending this year. Good (or maybe bad news) is that there are a lot of teams who have a big need for goaltending.

New Jersey, Toronto, Utah (I think they will try to compete), LA, Ottawa, Buffalo, to name a few, all will have playoff or cup aspirations and have a major void to fill in net.

I don't totally disagree but a bit of retrospect here...

McCann was pretty inconsistent and while he showed some flashes, he wasn't really a no brainer core piece at the time. Should we have kept him? Yeah. But losing McCann wasnt the difference between us competing for a cup.

Rodriguez was a completely different situation. We shouldn't have let him walk, but we did have multiple chance to get him back and chose not to.

So yeah, I'd rather have McCann and Rodrigues right now over Smith and Eller but I think there have been way bigger issues than them.
- MacPatty

McCann consistently had a better scoring rate than Erod for like the last 7 years, but yeah he's inconsistent.

I never heard that. I've only ever heard it was a simple contract dispute. JR wanted an extension with one year left on his deal and Moorehouse didn't want to give him one.

Yes... That's an easy call on whether the Pens would be better off if JR stayed. Hextall was a disaster for this team.
- madmike71

The only thing I ever heard about the core is that Hextall was brought in by Morehouse to break up the core, which I think was letting both Letang and Geno walk, but then when FSG bought the team, they wanted to retain the core and Hextall tried to stay the course he was brought in for, regardless of the new owners.

What’s yinz fishin fer? Pike? Walleye?
- Feds91Stammer

Hopefully Walleye, that poop is amazing deep fried on a potato roll with some tartar sauce.

Right. Really weird the NHL doesn't actually provide all that information to their franchises. How the ef does a third party site have information that the Capitals do not have? That's almost comical.
- madmike71

They are the league that hired a former goon as head of player safety, so the fact they can't centrally manage their own cap info is really not a surprise.

I bet you're real fun at parties...
- MattStrat

I scare most people away.

McCann consistently had a better scoring rate than Erod for like the last 7 years, but yeah he's inconsistent.
- j.boyd919

I wasn't implying that Rodriguez was a different scenario because of his consistency, I was implying that it was a different scenario because Seattle has had and kept McCann under contract while we did have multiple shots at resigning Rodriguez.

For sure I'd rather have McCann than ERod.

The only thing I ever heard about the core is that Hextall was brought in by Morehouse to break up the core, which I think was letting both Letang and Geno walk, but then when FSG bought the team, they wanted to retain the core and Hextall tried to stay the course he was brought in for, regardless of the new owners.
- j.boyd919

Right... This is in line with what I've read. DK reported JR felt he deserved to have contract of equal length of Sully's. At the time, Sully had two additional years beyond JR's. JR wanted an extension and Moorhouse wanted to let things play out. JR got pissed and said....I'm out.

I agree, I think it was common knowledge that Hexy was brought here to be the bad guy. Break things up and rebuild. New ownership did a 180 on him.

Regardless, Hexy f'd up McCann no matter how you look at it.

Right... This is in line with what I've read. DK reported JR felt he deserved to have contract of equal length of Sully's. At the time, Sully had two additional years beyond JR's. JR wanted an extension and Moorhouse wanted to let things play out. JR got pissed and said....I'm out.

I agree, I think it was common knowledge that Hexy was brought here to be the bad guy. Break things up and rebuild. New ownership did a 180 on him.

Regardless, Hexy f'd up McCann no matter how you look at it.
- madmike71

We needed to move on from JR but Hextall was an abysmal hire by bad stakeholder in ownership and it torpedoed the twilight years of the Crosby-Malkin era. Dubas was a good hire who stepped into what was probably an unsalvageable dog’s dinner of a situation but his attempts at keeping us competitive have been a failure nevertheless and has strapped us with two pretty bad contracts and inflexibility on the blue line. The big hope with Dubas right now is that he can spearhead the rebuild well when it comes. I’m not sure there’s anything else to squeeze out of this current era unless he pulls something completely out of his ass and an opposing GM is feeling particularly dumb on draft day

We needed to move on from JR but Hextall was an abysmal hire by bad stakeholder in ownership and it torpedoed the twilight years of the Crosby-Malkin era. Dubas was a good hire who stepped into what was probably an unsalvageable dog’s dinner of a situation but his attempts at keeping us competitive have been a failure nevertheless and has strapped us with two pretty bad contracts and inflexibility on the blue line. The big hope with Dubas right now is that he can spearhead the rebuild well when it comes. I’m not sure there’s anything else to squeeze out of this current era unless he pulls something completely out of his ass and an opposing GM is feeling particularly dumb on draft day
- Victoro311

Sorry, we fired Fletcher.

We needed to move on from JR but Hextall was an abysmal hire by bad stakeholder in ownership and it torpedoed the twilight years of the Crosby-Malkin era. Dubas was a good hire who stepped into what was probably an unsalvageable dog’s dinner of a situation but his attempts at keeping us competitive have been a failure nevertheless and has strapped us with two pretty bad contracts and inflexibility on the blue line. The big hope with Dubas right now is that he can spearhead the rebuild well when it comes. I’m not sure there’s anything else to squeeze out of this current era unless he pulls something completely out of his ass and an opposing GM is feeling particularly dumb on draft day
- Victoro311

Dubas didnt step into a great spot, but it also wasnt a terrible situation. He used his cap space to bring in Smith, Graves & Accari. He re-signed Jarry to a big, bad contract. The Karlsson trade (which was probably neutral) aside, he could have done a hell of a lot more than he did with about $16M in cap space on those 4 guys.

I'm still hopeful he can do something big this offseason but it is unclear if he was a good hire. Remember, he had the perfect situation in Toronto and completely fumbled it there.

Dubas didnt step into a great spot, but it also wasnt a terrible situation. He used his cap space to bring in Smith, Graves & Accari. He re-signed Jarry to a big, bad contract. The Karlsson trade (which was probably neutral) aside, he could have done a hell of a lot more than he did with about $16M in cap space on those 4 guys.

I'm still hopeful he can do something big this offseason but it is unclear if he was a good hire. Remember, he had the perfect situation in Toronto and completely fumbled it there.
- MacPatty

Graves is really the only bust. Smith seemed like a good cheap pickup but hard to know he would be a whiny little female dog.

Was there really a better option than Jarry? He didn’t need to go 5 years but there wasn’t a lot of options.

Accari should be a winger and eller was a good pickup. Sucks to give up our first this year but EK was a good get when considering all factors. Would we even be in the wild card hunt if we still had Petry as 2RD?

Graves is really the only bust. Smith seemed like a good cheap pickup but hard to know he would be a whiny little female dog.

Was there really a better option than Jarry? He didn’t need to go 5 years but there wasn’t a lot of options.

Accari should be a winger and eller was a good pickup. Sucks to give up our first this year but EK was a good get when considering all factors. Would we even be in the wild card hunt if we still had Petry as 2RD?
- 10inchTerror

It didn't seem like there was. For whatever reason the goalie market has been pretty dry the past couple years

It didn't seem like there was. For whatever reason the goalie market has been pretty dry the past couple years
- Tojo.

There wasn't a ton out there but I thought it was a no brainer for us to pursue Varlomov. Id have also much preferred Anderson and his contract. Jarry is exactly what we knew he was, unfortunately for a lot longer than we needed.

It didn't seem like there was. For whatever reason the goalie market has been pretty dry the past couple years
- Tojo.

Still dry. Look at the UFA list. For the trade Jarry people (I'm not one), who are we going to get? After those latest Dubas comments, It doesn't sound like Blomqvist will even be here at the start of the season.

It didn't seem like there was. For whatever reason the goalie market has been pretty dry the past couple years
- Tojo.

There’s only 15-20 legit number 1s and some teams have 2 of them.

Still dry. Look at the UFA list. For the trade Jarry people (I'm not one), who are we going to get? After those latest Dubas comments, It doesn't sound like Blomqvist will even be here at the start of the season.
- madmike71

I don’t see blomquist being ready. I’d like to see him get called up for a couple games this year and see how he does but that’s probably it.

I don’t see blomquist being ready. I’d like to see him get called up for a couple games this year and see how he does but that’s probably it.
- 10inchTerror

Sounds like that's the plan. Sign Ned or another Ned and get Blomqvist a look when one of those guys gets hurt.

EROD is on fire tonight.