Pittsburgh Penguins Contracts and the 2010 NHL Free Agent Market

By PenguinPoop.com  
Thursday, May 20, 2010   8:26 pm

Pittsburgh Penguins GM Ray Shero has a lot of work ahead of him in the NHL free agent market trying to put together a team that has the best chance to win the Stanley Cup. Ray Shero can sign Penguin players up until July 1st,  after that he can sign anyone who is still a free agent.  Here at PenguinPoop most of us have been following the Penguins since the ’70’s.  All of us have different opinions on just about every aspect of the Pittsburgh Penguins 2010 free agent agenda and we thought we would mix it up a bit by putting a bunch of them together right here starting with STH35 who has been a Penguin season ticket holder for 36 years:

For reference:  Here are links to the 2010 Pittsburgh Penguins List of Free Agents and the Pittsburgh Penguins 2009 – 2010 Salary Cap Numbers

STH35: 

After looking over the UFA’s that are available, and knowing the money that the Pens have available under the cap, Ray Shero should have an interesting summer.

The Penguins are set in Goal. They have 10 forwards and 3 defensemen under contact that played significant time for them this season. That means that they need to fill out their roster with 3 forwards and 4 defensemen. The forwards can hopefully come from their own free agent pool. If Matt Cooke’s demands stay at $2 million or less, I have no problem giving him 3 years. Guerin can be brought back in a reduced role for a reduced salary from the $2 million he made this year. Have him play 55-60 games and be fresh for the playoff run. Tangradi, Letestu, or Johnson need to be ready for full time employment. There are no affordable UFA forwards that would fit well into the Pens plans.

If this can be done up front, it would leave $9-10 million to spend on defense. I would have problem bringing back Eaton and/or Leopold at the $2 million price tag. If you give the remaining $5 million to Gonchar, there is nothing left for depth. $4 million a year for 3 years is my best offer. If Anton Volchenkov or Willie Mitchell are priced in that range, I would certainly consider ...

Pittsburgh Penguins vs Montreal Canadiens Playoff Predictions

By PenguinPoop.com  
Thursday, April 29, 2010   1:07 pm

This has all happened before…

In 1998 the exact same group of teams from the Eastern Conference made it to the Stanley Cup playoffs. The exact same seeds advanced past the first round, 4th, 6th, 7th & 8th with the 4th place team going to the finals and played of all teams, the Detroit Red Wings. In 1998 the Montreal Canadiens eliminated the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round. The Penguins were a #2 seed the Canadiens a #7 seed.  You can look at this two different ways.  The Penguins were eliminated by the Canadiens that year or the Penguins are the #4 seed that made it to the Stanley Cup Finals.

We have a saying here at PenguinPoop that “We have more hockey knowledge in our body than you have in your entire pinky“, that just being a little humor and all, the “body” of people writing here at PenguinPoop have probably been to more Penguin games in their lifetime than any other collection of Pittsburgh Penguins’ writers on the internet. With that I give you some of our eight contributors predictions of how round 2 the Pittsburgh Penguins vs Montreal Canadiens playoff series will end up, starting with STH35 who’s been a Penguins season ticket holder for 36 years.

   STH35: As the penguins head into the Conference semis, they find themselves as the top remaining seed in the East. This means that they will play the lowest remaining seed with home ice advantage. That lowest seed is the Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens enter this round on a 3 game winning streak. That streak is about to come to an end. They were able to use Hal Gill to help shut down Ovechkin. Halak was outstanding in goal. They will try to use Gill to shut down Crosby. Even if that works, this is where the Penguins strength down the middle will prevail. The Capitals were not very physical against Montreal. The Pens will be. Especially the forwards. They will hammer away at the Montreal defense at every chance they get. Over the course of the series this will cause some defensive breakdowns and create scoring opportunities for the Pens. Halak will not be able to cover for all of them. The main concern for the Pens in this series will be handling the  speed of the Canadien forwards. The Pens defensive corps will be up to the task. When they aren’t, Fleury will be there to stop the puck. If all else fails. The secret weapons have arrived. Malkin’s parents are here. They always manage to bring out his best. The Penguins will not lose at home in this series and will win in 5.

 Phil Krundle: First off I’d like to thank Montreal for removing Washington from the playoffs so early. It’s not the the Pens would have had trouble removing them,I’m just happy I don’t have to listen to the idiot pundits talk about how great they are anymore. I watched the last four games and I saw the Capitals players bend over to block shots, but I can’t remember one that actually laid down to block a shot or pass. They just don’t have the heart needed to win. The Canadiens do. That will be the biggest obstical for the Penguins to overcome. The key to the Canadiens offense is their offensive defensemen. Andre Markov and Marc-Andre Bergeron if the Penguins can keep these two off the board the series will be over in no time. The Canadiens just don’t have a great offense.   Hal Gill is a great defenseman for defending the straight up no passing Washington Capitals style, we saw it first hand last year. He will be useless against the Penguins. I see many breakaways in the Penguins future, the great Canadien goaltender Halak who had to face many long straight shots will now have to move side to side to make saves and will see much more traffic. The Penguins cycling will do in Gill and Bergeron, who doesn’t see much ice time but may have to because the Pens will wear the Habs out. Look for most of the Penguins scoring to come in the third period. Canadien defenseman Josh Gorges somehow became the most overrated defenseman in the NHL overnight.

The Penguins are going to have an easier time of it with Montreal than they did with the Senators. Because of his size stick handling and passing, Evgeni Malkin will rule the series. Though I was wrong last series because of a 3 overtime game that could have went either way, I’m predicting the Pens in 5 once again. The 1 game that the Pens will lose will either be the first one they play or the first game they have a chance to clinch.

 Southside Shultzie: I’m pretty sure you all know how I stand vs teams from Canadia and especially their fans! Their pompous “it’s our game” noses in the air, their booing of our National anthem, their claiming that Canadian bacon is bacon (IT’S HAM!)! I’m also guessing you’ve all read about my last rant about the death of the “Canadian Clown” Don Cherry? Well….. take a deep breath 51st Staters and get ready watch a Royal Canadian Ass Whoopin’ x 2!!! “Oh no he’s not going to call a sweep is he?” says the drunk Habs fan as he drinks his inferior suds! Yes indeed I am! Not only that but I am going to call that BOTH Canadian teams remaining will be swept. The equation is simple, there is ZERO chance the Pens powerplay will go 2 for 32 agaaaaynnst your PK. All we have heard here on the good side of the border was how you were going contain Crosby like you did Slovechkin. To you I say GOOD LUCK! If you shadow Sid, Malkin et al will be scoring on you like you were a drunk prom queen! As for your other “Great White Hope”, I’m calling Can Yucks to be swept as well! So do yourselves a favor and wager heavily on my words! You can thank me by sending some silver polish! We are running out and you won’t be needing the stuff you bought way back in ‘93!

CANADIAN BACON IS NOT BACON!

 Jean Pronovost:  As we enter the second round of this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs, who would have thought that the Penguins would be the highest remaining seed in the East with assured home ice advantage all the way through the Conference Finals assuming they win their match up with Montreal. Well, I’m here to tell you that they will be moving on to the next round. The Penguins won the season series against Montreal this year 3 – 1 although Montreal did win the final meeting of the season back in February by a score of 5 – 3. Offensively, Montreal can’t match up with the Penguins’ firepower as they scored 40 fewer goals this season. Montreal only had eight double digit goal scorers to the Penguins 11, and they only had one player, Tomas Plekanec, score over 60 points. Where Montreal is dangerous is their team speed. They’re top line of Brian Gionta, Michael Cammalleri and Scott Gomez skated circles around Washington’s defense in the opening round. The Penguins defense has to make sure they are never caught flat footed and that they position themselves correctly to beat in coming Canadian forwards to loose pucks in the corners on dump ins. Defensively, Montreal will employ the shut down pair of former Penguin, Hal Gill and Josh Georges to try and shut down the Sidney Crosby line, and if you don’t think they’re up to the task, just look at the job they did against Ovechkin’s line in Round 1. Unfortunately, in goal right now there is no comparison. No one is playing better in the entire league than Jaroslav Halak. He held Washington to three goals on 134 shots in the final three games making some spectacular saves along the way. If Fleury was playing the way Halak is now, the Penguins would ...

Video: Suttons Suspendable cheap shot of Leopold

By PenguinPoop.com  
Friday, April 16, 2010   9:20 pm

Andy Sutton leaves his feet to elbow Jordon Leopold in the head.  Under the new NHL head shot rule Sutton will most likely be suspended 2 to five games tomorrow afternoon even though there was no penalty called on the ice.  Here is the video:

Pittsburgh Penguins vs Ottawa Senators Playoff Predictions

By PenguinPoop.com  
Monday, April 12, 2010   3:31 pm

We have a saying here at PenguinPoop that “We have more hockey knowledge in our body than you have in your entire pinky“, that just being a little humor and all, the “body” of people writing here at PenguinPoop have probably been to more Penguin games in their lifetime than any other collection of Pittsburgh Penguin writers on the internet.  With that I give you some of our eight contributors predictions of how the Pittsburgh Penguins vs Ottawa Senators playoff series will end up, starting with STH35 who’s been a Penguins season ticket holder for 36 years.

STH35: Predicting the outcome of the Senator-Penguin first round match-up is no easy task.  Ottawa has a decent team, the Penguins have a better one.  I wanted to say that the winner of the series would depend on what Penguin team shows up, but Ottawa has been more of a mystery than Pittsburgh.  They were 8-11 since the Olympic break.  The stretches went like this –  1-8 in the first nine, 7-1 in the next eight, and finished by losing their last two.  Not much consistency there. Eight of their last eleven losses came against non-playoff teams, including twice to Toronto.  The Penguins were 11-9 after the Olympics.  They were also streaky through that stretch — 4-0, then 2-6, and finishing 5-3.  It wasn’t really the wins and losses that were inconsistent that were bothersome.  It was the way they played — long stretches of poor play every game.  Undisciplined penalties took their team out of their game and giveaways galore — all things that can’t be done during the playoffs. I think the Penguins are good enough to understand the weak points in their game, and will do something about it.  Ottawa will not go down easy, as they do have some battlers in their lineup.  Penguins in six – another series won on the road. 

Phil Krundle: I’ve said it a few times this season the the Senators are great looking team, on paper that is. The offensive skill they possess makes them one of the top offensive teams in the NHL and this is what makes this match up scary. The Pens have had two different teams the entire season, one team that shows up and plays incredible hard hustling hockey and another team that lolligags around the ice. I truly believe that we will not see the Penguin lolligagger team on the ice in the playoffs. The Senators leader Daniel Alfredsson is one of the best divers in the NHL, but with the Penguins penalty kill playing the way they are, that should negate his Greg Louganis ancestry. Which brings up the Penguins powerplay. I have never been a person to yell shoot the puck at a Penguin game and I never will be. So I’m saying it now. SHOOT THE PUCK. Studies done by people high up in the NHL have determined that shooting the puck is the best way to score goals. This is odd to say with such a young team, but the Penguins have the upper hand in playoff experience. Throw in the the Senators poor defensive play and them not having a goaltender that has ever played a game in the NHL playoffs the Pens win a not very hard fought series in 5 games.

Southside Shultzie: There has been a phenomena for years where ex Penguins players score at will against us.  For that to hold true in the Pens opening playoff series vs Ottawa it will be up to Jarko Ruutu.  The torn ACL suffered by Alex Kovalev will prevent him from scoring at all this playoff season but don’t count out the Senators!  There is an old saying about an injured dog being the most vicious!  Jason Spezza has been a notorious pain in the arse for the Penguins as is Daniel Alfredsson.  That said, I’m calling the Pens in a hard fought 7 game series! I’m also calling that Ottawa’s 3rd jersey is among the worst in the NHL.  “SENS”?  If they wear that sweater I am calling for a shutout 4-0 by the Pens!

Jean Pronovost:  The Pens enter the 2009/2010 playoffs matched up against the Ottawa Senators for the third time in four years with each team having won one of the previous two meetings.  The Pens split their season series against Ottawa this year 2 – 2 with each team winning once and losing once at home.  The only game that I could find any kind of aberration in was the Penguins 8 – 2 victory at Mellon Arena on December 23, a game that featured the return of goalie Pascal Leclaire after an extended absence due to a knee injury followed up by being hit in the face with a puck while sitting on the bench.  His extended absence was noticed quickly as the Pens put 5 pucks past him in succession in the second period before he was ...

Latest Pittsburgh Penguins 2010 Trade Deadline Moves

By PenguinPoop.com  
Wednesday, March 3, 2010   4:51 pm

Up to the minute Pittsburgh Penguins Trade Deadline moves.

Click on the players name for his stats. 
This will be updated all day today.  You must “refresh” your page to see this updated.

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS MOVES:

• 3/3    Pittsburgh Penguins acquire a 6th-Round 2010 draft pick from Toronto Maple Leafs for defensive prospect Chris Peluso
• 3/2    Pittsburgh Penguins acquire 6ft 4″ Toronto winger Alexei Ponakarovsky  for defenseman Martin Skoula and 4th round prospect Luca Caputi. 
• 3/1    Pittsburgh Penguins acquire 6ft 1″ Florida Panthers defenseman Jordan Leopold  for a 2nd round draft pick.   Leopold’s salary and cap hit is $1.75 million and he will become a unrestricted free agent at the end of this season

EX-Penguin Player Moves:

• 3/3 Edmonton Oilers acquired ex Penguin Ryan Whitney & a 2010 6th round draft pick from the Anaheim Ducks for Lubomir Vishnovsky
• 3/3 Toronto traded ex Penguin Martin Skoula to the New Jersey Devils for a 2010 5th round draft pick

All Other Moves: ...

NHL Trade Deadline Predictor Extraordinaire

By PenguinPoop.com  
Friday, January 29, 2010   11:14 am

The NHL Trade Deadline this year is March 3rd, and as you know Ray Shero the Pittsburgh Penguins GM has been very active this time of year the last few years landing players and “rental” players to help the Pens make it to the playoffs. Everyone seems to have a prediction or idea about who the Penguins will be or should be acquiring and who the Penguins should and will trade.

This is your big chance to shine. What we want from you is a list of 3 players from any league that you think the Penguins will be acquiring before the deadline and 3 Penguins Players or prospects that the Penguins will be trading away. Please do not list upcoming draft picks as your picks.

All picks should be in by February 10th, if a trade is made before the 10th and you pick a player after the trade was already made, we will disqualify you. If you pick the player before the trade, it counts, so get your picks in fast. No changing picks once they are made.

All you need to do is leave your list in the comment section below, it’s that simple.

Anyone who gets all six will be crowned PenguinPoop Trade Predictor Extraordinaire and have your picture pasted on our front page for a week. 

Good Luck.

When do the Pittsburgh Penguins Play Next?

By PenguinPoop.com  
Saturday, December 19, 2009   2:55 pm

 The Pittsburgh Penguins will be playing Montreal first game Friday night at 7PM

Here is the Official NHL Schedule:

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