Contest

PHN Penguins GM for a Day Contest: Contestants Day 1

Published

5 years ago

July 15, 2019

We are pleased to present Pittsburgh Hockey Now’s first contest and the first annual Pittsburgh Penguins GM for a Day contest. We had close to 25 submissions and we’re going to publish the top-six in multiples of three; we’ll publish three today, Tuesday and publish the rest on Wednesday. And we have a bonus submission from an 11-year-old which was so well written, we have to publish it.

Voting will begin via social media on Wednesday afternoon and run through Friday afternoon, probably. We do reserve the right to pause the festivities if the Penguins make the big splash. We will create a voting post on the website, too. The winner gets their choice of one of the fabulous Penguins bobbleheads from Dan Kingerski’s collection, or a $25 gift certificate to Redbeard’s.

Since almost EVERYONE broke the rule about making trades, we’re going to consider that like traveling in the NBA; only super-ridiculous examples were flagged.

Have some fun–compliment, argue and praise our submissions in the comments section, BUT be respectful.

The Penguins officially have about $1.5 million of salary cap space, but realistically they have about $2.3 million. The Penguins still have three restricted free agents: Zach Aston-Reese, Marcus Pettersson, and Teddy Blueger.

So, here we go!

Contestant #1: Herman Eng

Here are the offers that I would make to reshape the Pens roster – mainly defensively.

Jack Johnson & Justin Schultz to Buffalo for Rasmus Ristolainen
There has already a ton of rumors that GM Botterill has been looking to move Ristolainen
I can accommodate and provide the Sabres with another Skinner scenario where they can try to sign Schultz long term.

The deal should net Pens $3.35M in Salary Cap Savings.

Secondly, I would make a deal with the Devil(s) –

Tristan Jarry and Bryan Rust to New Jersey for RFA Miro Mueller (LD) and a 3rd / 4th rounder in 2020.
Cory Schneider is not doing his part in making the team competitive.
I’m going to offer GM R Shero an opportunity to re-acquire players that he previously drafted.

This deal should net Pens roughly $4M in Cap Space – Devils have plenty and need to convince T Hall to stay.

The third offer that I would make to give Pens that pushback/harder to play against –
Alex Galchenyuk and Erik Gudbranson to Minnesota for Jason Zucker and Jared Spurgeon
Minnesota GM Fenton has been itching to deal these two players – I’d oblige.

The deal would add about $1.8M to Pens Salary Cap but I’d already freed up a bunch of Cap.

All told, Pens would have plenty of Cap Space to sign our own RFA
and a little wiggle room to make changes during the season.

ZAR – $1.25M (2 years)
Pettersson – $2M (2+ years)
Blueger – $1M (2+ years)
Mueller – $1.25M (2+ years)

The Pens reshaped 2019-20 defense would look like:

Dumoulin-Tanger
Pettersson-Ristolainen
Mueller-Spurgeon
Ruhwedel will continue his role as 7th D-Man.

Submission #2: Chris Isaac

Thank you for the opportunity to be a Pens GM for a day.

Offer Jack Johnson to Anaheim for a 7^th round draft pick in 2020
Offer Tristan Jarry and Samuel Poulin for the rights to Nikita Gusev
Offer Gusev a two-year contract at 4M per year
Offer Dominic Simon to the Buffalo Sabres for a 3^rd round draft pick
Offer Gulbrandson to Ottawa for a 6^th round draft pick
Offer Petterson a 3-year deal at 2.7 per year
Offer Bleuger a 3-year deal at 1M per year
Use some of the unused cap money to sign OR trade for 3^rd pairing defense help and depth

Potential Lines

McCann Crosby Guentzel

Gusev Malkin Rust

Galchenyuk Bjustdad Hornquist

Aston Reese/Kahun Blueger Tanev

Dumoulin Letang

Petterson Schultz

Rikola Ruhlwedel

Trotman and free agent pickup or trade pickup to compete for 3^rd D pairing spots

Bonus Submission: Fiona Patton, 11-years-old

I am a huge fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and I love the idea of being in the same spot as Jim Rutherford for 24 hours! I have a couple of ideas on what I might want to do, and here are a few.

One thing I might want to change is Carl Hagelin. He was an amazing player, but I get how he wasn’t quite “clicking” with the team. Now he is in a totally different environment, which is well, different and sad for me because I cried when I found out he got traded. Anyway, he was just amazing for the team and didn’t get the season off to an amazing start, but everyone deserves a second chance!

Another thing I would like to change is the popularity of some of the young players on our team. Yes, everyone loves Sid, Geno and Letang, but why don’t we try selling some more jerseys at games for players like Bryan Rust, Chad Ruhwedel, Juuso Riikola, or Brian Dumoulin. All of these men are amazing players, but just don’t get a lot of popularity. I get it, their young, and we have other key players like Crosby, Malkin, or Guentzel, Letang, Shultz, ect. Give them some promotion!

I hope you enjoyed my ideas and reasoning. I would really enjoy this opportunity!