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The Confluence

Shero has his work cut out for him in Penguins’ free agency

by Tony on 06/22/09 at 10:42 AM ET
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There’s no “Hossa-gate” this year for the Penguins.  Piece of cake for GM Ray Shero, right ??

Every offseason has it’s own challenges for the ownership and management of NHL teams, especially in today’s salary cap restrictions.  This offseason will be no different, if not more difficult, for the Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

That Stanley Cup the Penguins just won on June 12th ??  Well, that’s really an afterthought now, in terms of focusing on the draft and free agency.  Shero cannot rest on the Penguins’ laurels, there is simply too much upheaval on NHL rosters nowadays.  That is certainly the case for the Penguins, who will have 15 Unrestricted free agents and 4 Restricted Free Agents on July 1st.

Shero definitely wants to have a better start to free agency this year, compared to what happened last year.  Going back a year, having already traded away the rights to Ryan Malone and Gary Roberts on June 28th to Tampa Bay, he lost Ty Conklin to Detroit and Adam Hall to Tampa Bay as free agency began on July 1st.  The only addition the Penguins made on the 1st was enforcer Eric Godard, replacing Georges Laraque, who would sign with the Habs on the 3rd.  But Shero and the Penguins would get a massive rejection on the 2nd, when Marian Hossa decided to sign with the Wings.  The decision alone was bad enough, but the big problem for Shero was that he and the Penguins were forced all of a sudden to scramble.  With forwards such as Michael Ryder signing with the Bruins on the 1st, Shero turned his attention to Marcus Naslund, but he ended up signing with the Rangers.  Going to Plan C, Shero signed veteran wingers Miro Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko on July 3rd.  Hopefully, things will go more accordingly to their plans this time around.

It’s got to be an extremely difficult thing for NHL GM’s, juggling roster decisions from several different angles.  They’ve got to consider things such as:

- How many of their upcoming UFA’s do they plan to even offer contracts to, and which ones do they let go ??
- Are there any trade discussions, whether that’s in preparation for the draft or afterwards ??
- Are there any players at the minor league level that may have a chance for a roster spot at the NHL level ??
- Are there players coming up to the final year of their contract that you want to extend ??
- And finally, what UFA’s are you planning on targeting when free agency starts ??

Piece of cake, eh ??

There will be 15 Unrestricted Free Agents for the Penguins on July 1st, barring any signing beforehand.  Here they are, segregated by position:

FORWARDS

1.  Craig Adams - He filled a much-needed grinder role after being picked up off waivers, as well as having Stanley Cup experience.  Thing is, grinders aren’t that difficult to acquire, and at age 32, re-signing Adams would probably be cost-prohibitive for the Pens.

2.  Ruslan Fedotenko - What a difference a few months make.  If you would’ve asked me in February if I’d like to see Feds re-signed, I’d have said a resounding no.  Since that time, however, Fedotenko has found an uncanny chemistry with Evgeni Malkin.  If Feds had a litte better hands, he would have been among the scoring leaders for the Pens in the playoffs.  It’s been rumored that Feds has been offered a three-year contract, but that has not been substantiated.  I think this will get done.

3.  Bill Guerin - I have to admit, I wasn’t that thrilled when the Pens acquired Guerin at the deadline.  Not that he hasn’t been an excellent NHL’er, but maybe that his best days were long gone.  That still may be true, but boy did Guerin fill a big role down the stretch for the Penguins, not only on the first line with Sidney Crosby, but in the locker room as well.  According to Hockeybuzz’ Brian Metzer and Andy Strickland, Guerin and the Pens have already started discussions on a new contract.  Now, Guerin is going to have to take a significant pay cut over his $4.5M contract of a year ago.  But if that’s amenable to Guerin, I see him returning at least for one more year.

4.  Miro Satan - Satan just didn’t fit into the Penguins’ system, whether that was Michel Therrien’s defensive system or Dan Bylsma’s aggressive system.  He was a healthy scratch in most of the playoffs, and he most likely will not be offered a contract.  Reportedly, he’s been offered a contract in the KHL.

5.  Petr Sykora - Hate to see Petr go, but much like Satan, it became apparent pretty quickly after Bylsma was hired that Sykora didn’t have the speed and physicality to excel in Bylsma’s system.  Consequently, Sykora wasn’t in the lineup for most of the playoffs.  He also has reportedly been offered a contract for the KHL, but he also wants to see what becomes available in the NHL.

6.  Mike Zigomanis - Normally you wouldn’t be discussing re-signing a forward with two goals in the previous season, but Zigomanis is a special case.  Up until the time of his shoulder surgery, Zigomanis led the NHL in faceoff percentage at 62.9%, and doing that right-handed as well, which is something that the Penguins sorely needed.  He can fill the fourth line center role well, especially now that Max Talbot looks to be destined to the second line again, at least to start the season.  I can see the Pens re-signing Zigomanis.

7.  Others (Connor James, Chris Minard, Janne Pesonen, Jeff Taffe, Bill Thomas) - Pesonen created a lot of anticipation coming from Finland as the reigning scoring champ.  He barely got a cup of coffee with the Penguins last season, so it remains to be seen, if he’s re-signed, whether his playing time will increase in Pittsburgh.  Minard, as well as Pesonen, was among the AHL’s scoring leaders, but didn’t do much at all during his times with the Penguins.  All five of these players, if they’re even re-signed, will have a hard time finding a roster spot with the Pens.  By the way, James and Thomas are Class VI free agents, which means any player who is age 25 or older who has completed three or more professional seasons, whose contract has expired and in the case of a player other than a goaltender, has played less than 80 NHL Games.

DEFENSEMEN

1.  Philippe Boucher - Acquired from Dallas in the Darryl Sydor trade.  Mostly a depth defenseman, he didn’t get much playing time in the playoffs, playing in only nine games.  His $2.5M salary, combined with the recent re-signing of Alex Goligoski, most likely will result in Boucher playing elsewhere next season.

2.  Hal Gill - Gill provided the physical defenseman role that the Penguins sorely needed at the ‘08 trade deadline.  He’s slow as molasses, but he did a good job along the boards and behind the net.  The problem is that the Pens are so strapped against the cap, I’m not sure that re-signing Gill is in their plans, especially with young defenseman such as Goligoski and Ben Lovejoy in the wings.  Don’t see Gill coming back.

3.  Rob Scuderi - Once seen as a below average defenseman, he’s not regarded among the most sought after defensemen in free agency.  After a regular season where Scuderi was a +23, he excelled in the playoffs against stars such as Mike Richards, Alex Ovechkin and Eric Staal.  The issue for the Pens is that his last contract of 750K is going to be tripled, probably quadrupled, early in free agency, and I’m not sure that the Penguins can afford that.  However, this is where Shero may do some wheeling and dealing to free up cap space in order to sign Scuderi, along with some others.

GOALTENDER

1.  Mathieu Garon - Garon played 18 games for the Pens after the trade involving Dany Sabourin, going 8-9.  While he provided veteran mentorship for Marc-Andre Fleury, his $1M salary will result in his ticket out of Pittsburgh.  In addition, it appears that the Penguins think John Curry is ready to become Fleury’s backup.

The Penguins also have four Restricted Free Agents, two of which may play prominent roles in the Pens’ plans this coming season.  In addition to rugged wingers Paul Bissonnette and Tim Wallace, right-handed defenseman Ben Lovejoy may be ready for a roster spot this coming year for the Pens, as well as the aforementioned Curry.

There’s also a good possibility that there might be some players currently at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton that might very well battle for roster spots in Pittsburgh this coming year.  In addition to the aforementioned Curry, Lovejoy and Pesonen (assuming they’re re-signed), Luca Caputi has been making his way up the Penguins’ ladder.  He might be ready to fill a power forward role.  That may have also been the case for Erik Tangradi, who came over in the Ryan Whitney/Chris Kunitz trade.  However, Tangradi suffered a hand tendon laceration injury, so it appears that Tangradi will stay in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for the foreseeable future.

And having said all that, we have no idea who Shero and the Penguins’ scouting staff is targeting in free agency, such as scoring wingers or physical defenseman.

Piece of cake.

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