3 Penguins Thoughts: Trade Chatter, Reality, & Understanding Boko

One of these days, you and I are going to find ourselves in agreement, and in response, thousands of Pittsburgh Penguins fans will immediately change their opinion rather than face the apocalypse such an agreement would surely bring.

I’m kidding. I think. Though I have watched larger X accounts flip-flop to be on my opposing side. Otherwise, it would be dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria.

Fighting is one of those issues that I support, but find stiff opposition. Hear me (and Sidney Crosby) out.

Friday, the Penguins re-signed Boko Imama to a minimum one-year deal, bringing back the heavy-handed winger who is the only skater in the organization willing to trade knuckles with Metro Division tough guys, goons, and thumpers who use the gentlemanly rules of hockey as merely a suggestion. Imama took a couple of ill-advised penalties last season, which caused former coach Mike Sullivan to ease up on his ice time. Still, Imama is the only Penguin besides Crosby adequately able to stand up for Crosby, and also able to have less-than-polite conversations with Metro Division players such as Tom Wilson, Matt Rempe, and Nic Deslauriers.

It was a far too common sight to watch willowy former Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson need to drop the mitts against heavyweights who outweighed him by 50 pounds.

In fact, Imama’s presence makes such conversations less necessary. Wilson, especially, is on better–never his best–behavior when someone can mete out some frontier justice.

In response to a renewed debate late last season, I asked Crosby about fighting in hockey on March 25. His response:

“It’s been something that’s been part of the game. And it doesn’t mean that it’s automatic because it’s been part of the game that it should (continue to) be, but I think it’s it’s an element that’s been there for a long time, and I think it makes a difference,” Crosby told PHN. “So, I don’t think there’s a ton of staged fighting now. I think it’s in a good place where it’s something that’s done in a matter of shifts to respond to something. And if that’s the way it stays in the game, I think it’s good.”

And thus is part of the explanation to many Penguins fans who grew up despising the dark arts of hockey. After all, the star-laden Penguins were the target of the big men who played physical games, sometimes within the rules and sometimes outside them.

Understanding why Dubas re-signed Imama is to understand the larger game of hockey. A few fights will help sell tickets. A tough player will be able to settle some scores as the Penguins’ young players get rude introductions to the NHL game. And, Imama can remind opponents that even if he’s not in the lineup during a particular game, the team can choose to have a long memory for the next meeting.

However, it’s important to understand that no tough guy can prevent hockey from being physical. Crosby and the Kids (not to be confused with Josie and the Pussycats) will still get hit. Players will still commit penalties–do you really think opposing players are “afraid” to play hard? No, what Imama does is limit such transgressions, or in the event they still occur, give the team a bit of confidence that someone bigger than them has their back when the excrement ricochets off the fan.

And there’s plenty of bovine-produced fertilizer in the Metro Division.

2. Rakell, Penguins Trade Chatter

This week’s report out of Los Angeles was just the latest echoes off the walls that the LA Kings are interested in Rickard Rakell. Based on history in Detroit and Edmonton, Rakell would seem to be the type of player that new Kings GM Ken Holland likes. Holland appreciates a slick offensive player with playmaking and finishing skills who plays a prototypical Scandinavian game.

Unlike many trade rumors, this one has some legs. We heard rumblings in February, though nothing solid enough to be reportable, that LA had an interest in Rakell. Further, LA does have some young players who could interest Dubas.

No, a player of the caliber of Quinton Byfield would not be part of any deal, but 24-year-old Alex Turcotte and 23-year-old Alex Laferriere might hit the sweet spot with additional future assets included. LA also has a handful of prospects who are developing well, too.

LA should also have plenty of motivation to add offensive talent. The Edmonton Oilers have rudely dismissed them from the playoffs within a week of the green flag in three straight seasons. To quote one of Tom Hanks’s iconic Saturday Night Live sketches written by Conan O’Brien, “Helloooo … and goodbye.”

To be a solid team blocked by better teams presents three options: Suck it up and take it, start over, or try to get better. Rakell would make LA better, immediately.

Also, Dubas should have every reason to trade Rakell this summer so that the Penguins move further into rebuild territory rather than middling. The last point probably can’t be overstated.

3. Mario!

I could score a lot of points with many of you if I hopped on the Mario Lemieux ownership train. Heck, like every other kid in Pittsburgh in the late 1980s and 1990s, the guy was my childhood hero. His brave salvo into ownership was risky, and his fight for a new arena was a year-long arduous fight that culminated in walking out of a meeting with then-Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell and telling the pilots of Ron Burkle’s plane to gas up and prepare for a flight to Kansas City.

Read More: Confirmed: Lemieux ‘Probably’ Interested in Ownership; Why Jagr is Back in Pittsburgh

Thank god Rendell buckled, or my life might have been relegated to meaningless employment in the radio or sales industry. The first time I tried to interview Lemieux after a game, I had to steady my arm because my hands were shaking (I was a fresh-faced early 20s reporter looking straight up at the 6-foot-4 or 5 Lemieux, who looking down at me with a little bemusement, like, ‘Cmon kid, ask your questions’).

To say I have a bigger debt than most to Lemieux would be accurate.

However…

There’s always a but, right?

The Penguins’ valuation is somewhere around $2 billion and going up. Even if Burkle is included as the major driver of the group, being a billionaire isn’t what it used to be. I mean, have you seen the price of high-rise condos in New York and California since we pumped trillions of dollars into the economy over the last 10 years?! How’s a guy supposed to live?

Read More: FSG Reassures Penguins Employees, ‘Multiple Groups’ Interested in Minority Investment

Burkle is worth about $3 billion. If the Penguins are worth about $2 billion, it would seem a lot of work needs to be done on their part to get the necessary funding. Generally speaking, billionaires have money because they know how to make it, not spend it. Burkle would have to liquidate a lot of his current assets to get the cash necessary, or leverage himself to an uncomfortable degree.

Mario is a hockey icon. That reaction to him marching to center ice in Montreal at the beginning of the Four Nations tournament was jaw-dropping and as blisteringly loud as any I’ve ever seen. To have him back in the game would be nothing but a good thing.

If it happens, great balls of fire. But damned reality gets in the way of everything good, doesn’t it?