Penguins One-Timers: Blocking Youngsters; Increasing Trade Values
As NHL general managers begin packing up their offices and cars to get time away from the office in August, the prospect of those team-changing trades diminishes by the hour. Despite the Pittsburgh Penguins pulling off the blockbuster to acquire Erik Karlsson in August 2023, it would certainly seem talks this summer have become little more than dismissive waves.
While the league-wide focus on the Penguins’ trade talk has focused on the productive veteran wingers Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust, the Penguins have a glut of veteran depth forwards.
While the Penguins’ bottom six has been ineffective over the last couple of seasons, general manager Kyle Dubas has continued tinkering and adding pieces via trades and free agency to fortify the bottom of his roster.
However, now the roster is packed. Actually, it is over-packed.
Such roster decisions and paring down would not be much of a problem for a team without Stanley Cup aspirations, but it would also seem that Dubas has quickly added worthy young players who could be solid contributors. Those young players are ready or close to ready for NHL ice.
Adding young players is what the Penguins wanted, but it would seem their transition is colliding against itself. The effort to acquire future assets for accepting salary-dumped veterans and polish up other veterans to use them as trade bait for even more future assets is now directly colliding with the very results of those efforts.
A George divided against itself cannot stand? (Seinfeld reference)
A couple of weeks ago, Pittsburgh Hockey Now examined the Penguins roster only to realize that the forwards crew has 18 or 20 players who could make the roster. In fact, our colleagues at Puckpedia.com show the Penguins with 13 forwards on the NHL roster, but have put Rutger McGroarty, Ville Koivunen, and Filip Hallander on the minor league roster.
Tristan Broz is also on the preseason minor league roster, and there are also a pair of first-round picks, Ben Kindel and Bill Zonnon, who will be in training camp and surely wouldn’t mind earning an NHL paycheck as a teenager, too.
It is a genuine, if not blunt, question–Why are veterans such as Kevin Hayes, Noel Acciari, and Danton Heinen still on the Penguins roster? Certainly, the question is not to impugn those players, but it is to call into question the obvious incongruence between their career stations and the Penguins’ path.
There is a difference between putting challenges in front of the young players so that they earn their NHL position and blocking them. Dubas doesn’t worry about putting veterans on waivers, but ownership might not enjoy having millions in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton or paying those veterans to play elsewhere.
While the Rakell or Karlsson trade talk will draw headlines, just as important will be the inclusion of the maturing prospects.
Considering the Acquitted
The topic that no one really wants to touch. Five players were accused of sexual assault following Team Canada’s victorious 2018 World Junior tournament. Justice Maria Carroccia found Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Cal Foote, and Dillon Dube not guilty in decisions that were blistering to the Crown’s case and not kind to the accuser, either.
The resulting fallout put facts, emotions, and politics in a street fight.
The NHL finds itself in a hard place because there will be a vocal segment of hockey fans who will hold the accusations, casting guilt upon the players. We don’t yet know how large that segment is or if the verdicts will satisfy the court of public opinion.
The next steps are murky. The NHL released a statement, which subtly laid the groundwork for commissioner Gary Bettman to rule the players ineligible for an immediate return:
“The allegations made in this case, even if not determined to have been criminal, were very disturbing, and the behavior at issue was unacceptable. We will be reviewing and considering the judge’s findings. While we conduct that analysis and determine next steps, the players charged in this case are ineligible to play in the League.”
However, the NHLPA is already fighting for their immediate reinstatement. After all, they were not only found Not Guilty, the justice stated there was evidence of consent, which was essentially calling them innocent–but only of criminal behavior. Perhaps morally is another matter.
The lack of morality in the situation is what Bettman can use to essentially suspend the players by keeping them ineligible. However, they’ve already lost a year of their careers, and one would expect them to fight any further delays.
Like you, I have opinions on the matter, and my opinions vary on different defendants. But I also know my two cents are not worth a penny.
Public perception of guilt or acceptance of the verdicts might be the biggest factor in what comes next.
Goaltending
We laid out the trade value for goaltender Tristan Jarry on Saturday, but that was in no way an advocating of dealing Jarry away, at least not yet.
Read More: Reviewing Goalie Trades: What is Tristan Jarry Worth?
With any luck, Jarry could become one of the Penguins’ sought-after trade chips. There are lesser-talented goalies than Jarry putting up much better numbers with far more defensively structured teams than the Penguins. Far be it from anyone to expect new head coach Dan Muse to become the second coming of Anne Sullivan and miraculously teach the team a fastidious defensive conscience without a significant personnel overhaul.
Teams are also desperately shopping for goalies. But Jarry’s salary ($5.375 million) further compounds the risk of a goalie who passed through waivers last season amidst a disastrous campaign.
Perhaps there can be some improvement? After his recall, Jarry seemed to get over his mental block of whiffing on the first shot and was significantly better in his final 14 games than he was in the first few months.
The better Jarry plays this season, the more valuable he becomes. While some combination of Arturs Silovs, Joel Blomqvist, and Sergei Murashov work toward being the NHL goalies, if Jarry can regain his best form, he could elevate himself to a trade asset rather than a veteran, merely in the way of the next generation.
Categorized:Pittsburgh Penguins
Easiest way to increase trade value is to run an offense that juices Karlsson’s point totals, which will make him easier to flip.
Sharks did it and still managed to suck, so yes we can kill two birds with one stone.
I’d imagine if some of those bottom 6 forwards aren’t traded by summers end they have no future value either. So waiving one or some shouldn’t matter come the beginning of the season. In most cases the assets have already been added.
The NHL needs to stick to hockey. They have proven themselves to be woefully inept judges of morality.
I’m not saying teams should rush out and sign them but it should be up to the individual teams, not the NHL.
If they had been found guilty, that’s a different story but they were not found guilty.
Acciari, Hayes and Heinen are on final year of contract. Their value will increase at the trade deadline, if the Penguins play them. Same with Jarry and maybe, hopefully Graves. The kids will have to wait until the new year, if the Penguins want to receive anything for these assets.
I feel if Sullivan was still the coach, the vets would get the tiebreaker because they are vets. The philosophy surrounding these new group of coaches hopefully will see it differently.
NHL should worry about policing goons like Wilson and Trouba.