Signings

The Penguins have just announced they came to terms with both Billy Guerin and Craig Adams. Guerin was given a 1 year deal that is going to pay him 2.85 million this year and Adams signed a 2 year deal for 1.10 million a year. I am not sure how i feel about either of these signings. There is no question they were both big parts of the the Penguins Stanley Cup run this year, but i think at the price the Pens paid for both of them they could have done better. I was hoping they would sign Guerin for between 2 - 2.5 million for one season. He was very effective for the Penguins this year but i am concerned that a 38 year old will struggle after having such a short off season. I hope he proves me wrong and scores 40 goals this season. The Adams signing I completely disagree with. Adams is a good player and a nice 3rd line player for us, but i would have rather seen the Penguins let Adams walk and bring up a player like Wallace from the baby Pens to take his spot at the leagues minimum pay. I say this because with the star players we have our cap space is so tight, that the money we are paying him should have been used to help land a true scoring winger. Bringing up a player like Wallace and letting Adams walk would have saved $300,000.00 to spend on a scoring winger. I can't wait to see what happens once free agency starts on Wed.

Time to Grade Ray Shero's Season

At first glance it may be hard to give Shero anything but an A+ grade considering his team just won the Stanley Cup. But when you look at some of the decisions he made last off season i think his grade may fall a bit. Lets take a look case by case of the moves he made during the season.

1. Tried to sign Hossa to a long term deal, but failed to do so. I don't blame this on Shero he made a great effort Hossa just didn't want to stay here.

2. Shero traded Malone and Roberts away for draft picks. I am still not sure how i feel about this move, i would have liked to have seen Shero at least offer Malone a contract before trading him. That being said i would have never paid Malone what Tampa did. So in summation trading Roberts and Malone away to replace some of the picks we gave up in the Hossa trade gets a B grade from me that would have been an A+ if they would have offered any contract to Malone that he turned down.

3. Shero didn't sign Rutuu because we wanted a 3 year deal. This move gets a D, Rutuu was a valuable player to this team and we saw just how much they were missing him early in the season.

4. Shero signs Orpik to a 4 year deal worth $4,000,000.00 a season. This is definitely an A+ signing, Orpik is one of the most physical D-men in the league and the only one that plays this style on the Penguins team. Also he is continuing to improve defensively over the years.

5. Shero signs Matt Cooke to replace Rutuu. I like the signing of Cooke but he is not the same player as Rutuu is. This move gets a C.

6. After Shero was unable to land Hossa he made no play for any of the other noteworthy scoring wingers that were available in free agency, even though Crosby had no worthy wingers to play with. This move gets an F

7. Shero signed Satan and Feds saying that they would replace the goal scoring we lost with Malone and Hossa leaving. From the second i found out we signed Satan i was disappointed and was happy about Feds but thought it was ridiculous to say he would put up Hossa or Malone type numbers. This move recieves a D.

8. Early in the season Shero traded Sydor who requested to be traded to Dallas for Boucher. To me this was a terrible trade, we already had 8 NHL contracted D-Men and had Gogo ready to come up from the baby Pens. They should have traded Sydor for a prospect, draft pick, or any player not making as much money as Boucher. This move also gets a D.

9. Shero trades or back up goalie, Ryan Stone, and a 3rd round draft pick to Edmonton for back up Goalie Mathew Garon. This would have been a good trade is Garon could stop a puck or we at least didn't give up the third round pick. Grade on this trade C.

10. Shero trades Whitney to the Ducks for Kunitz and Tangretti. I think Shero made the right move trading Whitney but i don't think he got enough for him. Honestly i wouldn't have minded the trade as is if Kunitz wasn't making $3.75 million a season. For a winger that in my opinion is a second line player at best this is a lot of money. Shero either needed to get a better player for Whitney or dump some Salary on this trade. This trade will land up hurting us in the 2009-2010 season when we still have no scoring wingers because we couldn't afford to fit any of them under the cap. This trade gets a C.

11. Shero trades a 5th round pick away that turned into a 3rd round pick after we advanced through the 1st round of the Playoffs for 38 year old scoring winger who brought a veteran presence to this team Bill Geurin. This trade unquestionably gets an A+, without Geurin we probably lose in the Washington series.

Overall grade for Shero C+, you won't see a grade like that to often for a GM who's team just won the Stanley Cup. But then again most GM's are not fortunate enough to inherit a team with Malkin, Crosby, and Fluery on it.

If Shero handles everything right this off season we will not only win another Stanley Cup but the Presidents Trophy as well.

Trade Talks

I just heard that Heatly has demanded to be traded out of Ottawa. Man would he be a nice fit to play with Crosby, he is a sniper that would probably put up 60 goals with Crosby playing center for him. All that being said, I am sure Ottawa wants a ton in return for him and even if the Penguins were willing to give a lot up for him i don't think they could fit him under the salary cap unless they would trade Staal away for him.

Penguins new first line

It is my understanding that the Sedin twins are both free agents this year and will only go to a team that will sign both of them. I am not sure what kind of salary they would require but they would look really good playing the wings for either Crosby or Malkin. Not sure who will be on the Penguins radar come July 1st but I believe they have to get at least one scoring winger and a true power forward. Does anybody think Jagr may actually come back to finish his career here in Pittsburgh?

Free Agents

The Penguins have 10 free agents this year and i am sure they are happy to see at least half of them go.

Here is a list of the Penguins notable free agents.
1.Rob Scuderi
2.Philippe Boucher
3. Ruslan Fedotenko
4. Mathieu Garon
5. Hal Gill
6. Bill Guerin
7.Miroslav Satan
8. Petr Sykora.

Out of this list there are only 3 players i would like to see stick around and those are Scuderi, Fedotenko, and Guerin. And even these players i would not over pay to keep considering none of them have a skill set that is irreplacable. Scuderi is worth about 2 Million a year anymore than that and he is being over paid. Fedotenko's 2.5 million he made last year is just about right for a player of his caliber i would sign him for one year at the same salary or 2 years at 2 million a year. And Guerin is a nice fit in the Penguins locker room and proved he can still play through the playoffs but i would not sign him for more than one year and would not pay him more than 2.5 million a year. All that being said they only one of the three players mentioned above i expect to see here next year is Fedotenko, the other two i expect to find better offers elsewhere.

When you look at how much money we had tied up in the players listed above and how little they contributed last year i feel confident that the Penguins will sign better players with the money losing these players has made available. If Shero uses this money wisely we will be looking at a team that will win the presidents trophy on the way to repeating as Stanley Cup Champions.

Travis Stouffer Knew

When the Penguins were floundering in late Febuary sitting in 10th place and made only two small changes to there team by hiring an unproven coach and trading a 3rd round draft pick away for a 38 year old winger that no other team wanted who could have predicted that 3 months later the Penguins would hoist the Stanley Cup. I will tell you who Travis Stouffer, the day the Penguins got Geurin, Travis called me and said the Penguins are going to win the Stanley Cup which i could only reply I hope your right. Travis was one of the only people I talked to that actually believed this, most people in the media were slamming the Penguins saying they won't even make the playoffs.

When you look at what this team had to do to make it to the playoffs. And then to have to beat the unbeatable Detroit Red Wings in a rematch of last years finals makes this Stanley Cup victory remarkable.

Penguins Win The Stanley Cup

How amazing did it feel when time expired last night. Going into this series i thought we had a good chance to win but didn't want to get my hopes up to much because i still thought Detroit might be the better team. I am glad the Penguins proved me wrong. The last two games of this series were amazing for the Penguins, they were complete team efforts we had all are D blocking shots 3rd and 4th liners scoring goals and 1st and 2nd liners blocking shots.

Malkin won the Conn Smythe award, which i thought either him or Crosby were very dissevering of. Malkin really proved a lot to me this post season, he showed up every game and put up a ton of points. I thing what was most impressive about Malkins game especially in the finals was his defense. Even games when he wasn't getting points he has tracking Red Wings players down and stripping them of the puck. Congratulations Geno, you were screwed out of the regular season MVP award that they gave to AO but you won the Stanley cup and the playoff MVP award. I hope you rub that in AO's face the next time you see him.

Congratulations to everyone in the Penguins organization on an amazing season and hopefully the beginning of a pile of cups this core group will win.

Pens take Game 6

This was one of the most exciting games of the playoffs, the Penguins dominated the Red Wings through 2 periods of play but then allowed them to make it interesting in the third period. So with this Penguins win they have forced a game 7 back in Detroit. This will be the first time since 1992 that the Penguins will have a chance to clinch the cup, and I for one can't wait for the puck to drop on Friday night.

Does anybody think Crosby is hurt? I find it odd that he only had 17 minutes of ice time in a game that was do or die for the Penguins, and even when he was on the ice i didn't think he looked like himself. Lets just hope he is battling a cold and that's what was slowing him down last night. I expect a big game from him on Friday night, he has been silent for this entire series this will be a statement game for him and hopefully land the Penguins a Stanley Cup and Crosby a Con Smyth award.

Penuins vs Red Wings

To those of you who have been following my blog throughout the playoffs i apologize for the lack of posts during the Stanley Cup Finals series between the Penguins and Red Wings. My work schedule has been crazy and that is my best excuse for the lack of updates. Anyways i have had a chance to watch the first 5 games and have been very impressed with the steps the Penguins specifically Malkin and Crosby have made since last years finals. Even after Malkin had such a great series against Carolina i questioned if he would be able to be that good against a great team and he has.

Just like last year this series may end in 6 games, but if it does it should not be compared to last years finals. It has been much more competitive this year, last year the Penguins were lucky to win 2 games this year they could have easily won 3 of the first 5. That being said i fully expect the Penguins to come home and win game 6 sending the series back to Detroit for game 7 where anything could happen.

If we do lose this series the blame should fall squarely on Fleurys shoulders. He has been terrible this series especially in Detroit where 7 of the 10 goals he has given up where very soft. Also Kunitz has been a huge disappointment through the entire playoffs and especially in the Finals. If I was coach Bylsma i would consider sitting either him or Dupuis in game 6 and inserting Sykora back into the lineup. If you put Sykora in for Dupuis this gives you a 4th line with some serious scoring punch with Satan and Sykora playing wing for either Crosby or Malkin. Also in game 6 i would like to see more of Crosby and Malkin playing on the same line. Bylsma should use those two as much as possible and not worry about burning them out. If we lose the series is over, if we win they get two days to rest.

LETS GO PENS!!!