Strangely optimistic for the future of the Pens

Created by: Pens3lieve

Team: 2024-25 Pittsburgh Penguins

Initial Creation Date: Mar. 19, 2024

Published: Mar. 21, 2024

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Legend

Left Handed

Original Team

Waivers Exempt

Right Handed

Position

Trade Clause

Max Perf. Bonus

Expiry Status

Term Remaining

McDavid, Connor

$12,500,000 ( Performance Bonus

$250,000)

NMC

UFA - 5

Description

Don't trade any players under 27, sign a bunch of guys to 1-year deals each offseason for the remainder of Sid's career while giving the kids the chance to play... flip everybody you can for younger players, then hopefully we'll only have to tank for a few seasons post-sid to get some top-5 draft picks to supplement our younger group of talent...

all trades i made below don't take too seriously... just in theory just like the Jake trade, we'll be moving guys on expiring deals for younger players, etc...also tried to take the quantity over quality approach, none of the prospects listed below are even close to top-5 within their own system...

Free Agent Signings

RESERVE LIST	YEARS	CAP HIT
Yager, Brayden	3	$950,000
Broz, Tristan	3	$800,000
Edwards, Ethan	3	$800,000
Salin, Otto	3	$800,000
Shlaine, Artem	3	$800,000
Murashov, Sergei	3	$800,000
Lucius, Cruz	3	$800,000

RFA	YEARS	CAP HIT
Andonovski, Corey	1	$775,000
Cajkovic, Maxim	1	$775,000
Gruden, Jonathan	1	$775,000
Hamaliuk, Dillon	1	$775,000
Rathbone, Jack	1	$775,000
Samorukov, Dmitri	1	$775,000
St. Ivany, Jack	1	$775,000
Puustinen, Valtteri	3	$950,000
Poulin, Samuel	2	$850,000
Joseph, Pierre-Olivier	2	$850,000
Bemström, Emil	2	$850,000
Stanley, Logan	1	$775,000

UFA	YEARS	CAP HIT
Barré-Boulet, Alex	1	$800,000
Brown, Connor	1	$800,000
Nedeljkovic, Alex	1	$1,700,000
Arvidsson, Viktor	1	$3,500,000

Trades

PIT

Salin, Otto [Reserve List]
Ziemmer, Koehn
2025 4th round pick (LAK)

LAK

Smith, Reilly ($2,500,000 retained)

PIT

Kings #8 and #14 prospects but rankings vary

LAK

PIT

2025 4th round pick (EDM)

TBL

Nieto, Matt
2025 7th round pick (PIT)

PIT

Edwards, Ethan [Reserve List]
Misyul, Daniil
Shlaine, Artem [Reserve List]
2026 4th round pick (NJD)

Additional Details:

#8/#14/#18 NJD prospects give or take
4th round pick is conditional, 3rd if NJD make playoffs, 2nd if ECF, 1st if SC Final

NJD

Pettersson, Marcus ($2,000,000 retained)

PIT

2026 3rd round pick (EDM)

PIT

Additional Details:

bad contract swap

MTL

Graves, Ryan

PIT

Krug, Torey

Additional Details:

not horrendous but still just a change of scenery for players on bigger deals

STL

Rakell, Rickard

PIT

Schmidt, Nate
Stanley, Logan [RFA Rights]

WPG

Buyouts

Jack Johnson: $916,667

Retained Salary Transactions

Jeff Petry: $1,562,500 (25%)
Reilly Smith: $2,500,000 (50%)
Marcus Pettersson: $2,000,000 (49.69%)

Draft	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7
2024
2025
2026

ROSTER

LONG-TERM OUTLOOK

EMBED

TEXT-EMBED

ROSTER SIZE	SALARY CAP	CAP HIT	OVERAGES	BONUSES	CAP SPACE
22	$87,500,000	$86,829,167	$0	$0	$670,833

Left Wing	Centre	Right Wing
Rust, Bryan $5,125,000$5,125,000 RW, LW NMC UFA - 4	Crosby, Sidney $8,700,000$8,700,000 C NMC UFA - 1	Anderson, Josh $5,500,000$5,500,000 RW, LW M-NTC UFA - 3
Bunting, Michael $4,500,000$4,500,000 LW M-NTC UFA - 2	Malkin, Evgeni $6,100,000$6,100,000 C NMC UFA - 2	Arvidsson, Viktor $3,500,000$3,500,000 RW, LW UFA
Puustinen, Valtteri $950,000$950,000 RW, LW UFA	O'Connor, Drew $925,000$925,000 LW UFA - 1	Brown, Connor $800,000$800,000 RW, LW UFA
Armia, Joel $3,400,000$3,400,000 RW, LW UFA - 1	Holmberg, Pontus $800,000$800,000 C, LW RFA - 1	Puljujärvi, Jesse $800,000$800,000 RW UFA - 1

Left Defense	Right Defense	Goaltender
Schmidt, Nate $5,950,000$5,950,000 LD/RD M-NTC UFA - 1	Letang, Kris $6,100,000$6,100,000 RD NMC UFA - 4	Jarry, Tristan $5,375,000$5,375,000 G M-NTC UFA - 4
Ludvig, John $775,000$775,000 LD RFA - 1	Karlsson, Erik $10,000,000$10,000,000 RD NMC UFA - 3	Nedeljkovic, Alex $1,700,000$1,700,000 G UFA
Krug, Torey $6,500,000$6,500,000 LD NTC UFA - 3	St. Ivany, Jack $775,000$775,000 RD RFA

Scratches	Injured Reserve (IR)	Long Term IR (LTIR)
Barré-Boulet, Alex $800,000$800,000 RW, LW UFA
Stanley, Logan $775,000$775,000 LD RFA

Taxi Squad
Yager, Brayden $950,000$950,000 ($0$0$0$0) C, LW, RW RFA
Blomqvist, Joel $886,667$886,667 ($0$0$0$0) ($57,500$58K) G RFA - 2
Ponomarev, Vasili $795,000$795,000 ($0$0$0$0) ($20,000$20K) C RFA - 1
Poulin, Samuel $850,000$850,000 ($0$0$0$0) C, LW RFA
Ziemmer, Koehn $875,000$875,000 ($0$0$0$0) RW RFA - 2
Koivunen, Ville $805,833$805,833 ($0$0$0$0) ($82,500$82K) RW RFA - 2
Pickering, Owen $918,333$918,333 ($0$0$0$0) ($250,000$250K) LD RFA - 2
Misyul, Daniil $867,500$867,500 ($0$0$0$0) ($57,500$58K) LD RFA - 1
Pieniniemi, Emil $870,000$870,000 ($0$0$0$0) ($80,000$80K) LD RFA - 2
Murashov, Sergei $800,000$800,000 ($0$0$0$0) G RFA
Edwards, Ethan $800,000$800,000 ($0$0$0$0) LD RFA
Salin, Otto $800,000$800,000 ($0$0$0$0) RD RFA
Lucius, Cruz $800,000$800,000 ($0$0$0$0) RW RFA
Shlaine, Artem $800,000$800,000 ($0$0$0$0) C RFA
Gruden, Jonathan $775,000$775,000 ($0$0$0$0) LW RFA

Top Comments

Mar. 21 at 11:08 a.m.

OldNYIfan

Once a Kings Fan Too

Joined: Jun. 2018

Posts: 40,373

Likes: 25,281

We'd rather have Arvidsson and Ziemmer than one season of Reilly Smith at $2.5 million. Depending upon how things go with Matt Roy, we might be able to afford $4 x 3 for Viktor.

Mar. 21 at 11:21 a.m.

DevilsFanInTX

Joined: Mar. 2020

Posts: 373

Likes: 168

I think NJ accepts. Petey fits nicely, especially retained.
A think a simpler deal would be a 2nd and 3rd but that prospect list wouldn't be an issue.

Mar. 21 at 11:23 a.m.

Pens3lieve

Hockey IQ

Joined: May 2019

Posts: 3,009

Likes: 1,484

Quoting: DevilsFanInTX

I think NJ accepts. Petey fits nicely, especially retained.
A think a simpler deal would be a 2nd and 3rd but that prospect list wouldn't be an issue.

yeah i didn't think i was asking for anything crazy, ofc knowing very little abt those prospects... i'm not opposed to picks, but dubas has indicated he prefers getting prospects to try to speed up the youth movement that has barely begun, thanks for the feedback

DevilsFanInTX liked this.

Mar. 21 at 11:25 a.m.

Pens3lieve

Hockey IQ

Joined: May 2019

Posts: 3,009

Likes: 1,484

Quoting: OldNYIfan

We'd rather have Arvidsson and Ziemmer than one season of Reilly Smith at $2.5 million. Depending upon how things go with Matt Roy, we might be able to afford $4 x 3 for Viktor.

fair enough, i was just looking for players with injury plagued or rough seasons to sign for a year for potential bounce back, sell at the TDL type stuff... friedman mentioned LAK as a team to watch for reilly smith but idc where me move him as long as he's gone lol

OldNYIfan liked this.

Mar. 21 at 11:26 a.m.

Haymaker26

Joined: Jun. 2021

Posts: 951

Likes: 409

I'm not particularly optimistic about this lineup.
Brown, Anderson, and Krug aren't exactly guys I think are better than what we have now.
Ludvig, St. Ivany, and Puljujarvi all strike me as guys you'd rather have as a 13th F or 7th D

Then with trade values:
I'm skeptical that Winnipeg is willing to part with Schmidt and Stanley for so little unless they're in a massive cap crunch this offseason.
Same thing as the Jets trade but the other way around for Marcus Pettersson. He's been a legit top pairing defenseman the past two seasons, and makes both Karlsson and Letang better. Quantity over quality is not the direction to go in for a player like him.

It's certainly different from the usual Pens ACGMs and there are some good ideas here. But will any of these deals fix the team's problems these past two years? Will they set us up for an easier rebuild? I'm not sure they'll do either.

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Strangely optimistic for the future of the Pens

Legend

Description

Free Agent Signings

Trades

PIT

LAK

PIT

LAK

PIT

TBL

PIT

NJD

PIT

EDM

PIT

TOR

PIT

MTL

PIT

STL

PIT

WPG

Buyouts

Retained Salary Transactions

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