Having seen the list - makes one wonder who will be here and who will not be here come October 1. Clearly with the salary cap the Mgmt has to make key decisions on their own players on the UFA and RFA lists. Moreover, there are some who will not be back regardless. According to Cap Geek, the Pens are 7.8 Million under the cap without any of the 10 UFA & RFA signed leaving 15 skaters & 2 goalies signed. Above & beyond this - there are several players mgmt must weigh the +/- on. Players who have contracts that expire at the end of next season; Malkin, Letang, Orpik, and Kunitz. Do you do anything now i.e. LT contracts or wait? Further, there are some who may have simply played their last game with the Penguins logo. Fleury is fairly obvious. My hunch is he will be moved on or before the NHL Draft. Letang is another that is a mystery (tremendous skater with moments of brilliance and other times abject mind-boggling bad decisions)..... Keep him or move him???? My hunch is if the price is right.... they will move him. Big decisions. One of the things I really noticed is the fact that while the Pens have speed - they do not have great size and the smaller forwards were getting man-handled. Other teams were much larger and when the Pens stop moving they get pounded. Against Boston the fore-check was horrendous which is a glaring problem. Defensively, they are sorrily lacking and have not addressed glaring needs for 2-3 years and it is VERY noticeable. On top of all this - is the coaching situation. As some have stated Blysma is staying but one has to think that their needs to be some major adjustments that must take place. Who really knows what will happen! It is not a good that they were totally unable to respond or correct anything in the four game span against Boston & the Pens struggled to get past the Islanders in the 1st round. Since the cup the Penguins are 20 wins & 21 over a 4 year span which is not impressive at all. They struggle greatly when they get to the playoffs where they play against more elite tallent and better coaching. On top of this it does not look like the Pens pick until the 3rd round of the upcoming draft.... wow.... gaping holes for the future!!!! The have picks in the 3rd, 4th, 6th and two 7th round picks..... pretty thin!!!!!! Ray Shero has a host of HUGE decisions.... Love to root for the Pens and trust he makes them a better team!!!!!!
Posted on: Sat, 08 Jun 2013 23:01:27 +0000
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