Now that the Penguins are in their offseason, I wanted to take a look at some possible free agents for the Penguins this summer. I truly believe that the Penguins biggest priority is assessing their own players and deciding who to keep. I would think that Tyler Kennedy as an RFA is going to stay. If the Penguins give him an offer sheet of at least 110% of what they paid him last year, any team that would want him would wind up losing some signficant draft picks to acquire Kennedy. If they can get him for reasonable money, I love the idea of keeping him, and going back to the three center model with Kennedy and Cooke flanking Staal. If they get the sense he may want to go to arbitration, then some of the UFA wingers below may make sense. The top line of Crosby, Kunitz and or Dupuis/Jeffrey/FA and a second line of Malkin Neal and Tangradi/FA would make sense to me also. I think this alignment gives the Penguins three lines who can come at you with offense. I hope our fourth line ends up being Rupp, Asham and Adams, but I get the feeling that the Penguins will not heavily pursue Asham. Given the fact that the Penguins could use a bit more scoring, but have some cap issues, I looked at UFA wingers that could add some punch, but potentially still be in the ball park of what the Penguins could afford. My list of possibles is as follows:
Teddy Purcell-RW-17 G, 51 points, and +5-currently makes 750K;
Sean Bergenheim-LW-14G, 29 points and currently makes 700K-he has 7 playoff goals currently;
Ville Leino-LW-19G, 53 points, +14 and currently makes 800K;
Nikolai Zherdev-RW-16G, 22 points, and +5-he currently makes 2M;
Alex Tanguay-LW-22G, 69 points and even player-he currently makes 1.7M;
Curtis Glencross-LW-24G, 43 points, and he is a +6-he currently makes 1.2M;
Chris Higgins-LW-13G, 28 points and a +5-he currently makes 1.6M;
Raffi Torres-LW-14G, 29 points and a +4 player-he currently makes 1.0M;
Drew Stafford-RW-31G, 52 points and he is currently a +13 player who makes 1.9M- Stafford will likeyl get offered big money;
Each of these players could potentially fit in under the cap for the Penguins dependent upon which of their group that they keep. The Penguins top three lines LW is set it would appear with Kuntiz, Neal and Cooke all playing LW. The most intriguing players to me from this list include Teddy Purcell, as he would seem to be relatively affordable, is a natural right wing and has some scoring ability. I really like the idea of Curtiss Glencross, who plays a solid forechecking game, is effective on the penalty kill and pumped home 24 goals last season for Calgary. Ville Leino would be an intriguing option as well. As much as Philadelphia likes Leino, they may really need to put their money into a goaltender, making it tough to retain Leino as well. Alex Tanguay could be a unique option as well, perhaps the Sykora like veteran looking for a Cup run at a reasonable rate. Finally Sean Bergenheim would be an interesting option, and his playoff performance has been lights out. Stafford a RW, who put up 31 goals would be a great fit, but I think he will command too much money. I am not sure that any of the other UFA wingers would have a chance at fitting under the salary cap, even if the Penguins were interested, UNLESS they made a trade that opened up cap space. I also like the idea of getting rid of Niskanen's 1.5M salary and letting some of the young guys come up from Wilkes Barre. If they felt that they needed a veteran defenseman to shore up the blue line, Nick Boynton from Phildadelphia who makes 500K could be an option. I don't know what the Penguins are thinking, and who they think they want to keep. I have to believe that they want to give Tangradi and Jeffrey a real shot at regular ice time this year, and it is time to find out for sure what they are. They also seem to be enamored with Letestu, Connor and Johnson, so they have some young guys who would be cost effective to plug into the lineup. It will be an interesting off season, where they have to balance the group of current veterans, as opposed to younger cheaper home grown options, while hoping to add one more sniper for the top six. As I look at the players who are available to the Penguins in a price range they can likely afford, I would be most interested in a guy like Glencross, while doing our best to sign our UFAs.
No comments:
Post a Comment