The Penguins got fleeced on Kessel...

As a pens fan... yeah we got fleeced big time

How the hell did we get fleeced? Our team is vastly better than it was last year when he was on it

I’m not the type to dwell but someone like Hinostroza instead of Galch would have been ideal. But totally agree with you about how much better the team is this year. Side note: if you want to be stunned look at a comparison of Rust’s underlying numbers this year to Kessel’s last year.

Rust has more than replaced Kessel, he's better than him which I did not expect going into the year. I would've been absolutely fine if we would've gotten like Oesterle, Garland, and Grabner for Kessel but I think Rutherford knew that the yinzers would've had him tarred and feathered if he didn't get a household name back for Kessel. I don't know if Arizona preferred Garland and Hinostroza which I would've even at the time to Galchenyuk. I was really happy when we got him because he was one of my favorite players when he was with Montreal. I still think he's a very talented player it just seems like he isn't a fit here.

You could have got something for him. Galchenyuk has no value...

No we really couldn't considering Phil wouldn't be traded to any team other than Arizona and Arizona wasn't exactly dying to trade for him. I think whatever POJ turns into will determine who won the trade because Phil's not played his best this year either

Apparently (per our beat writer on the radio today) Pittsburgh is going hard after Zucker and I believe Russo said Guerin has an offer from PIT on the table, but Guerin thinks the Wild have shown enough that he at least wants to give them the opportunity to go on a run before making any moves. Now if we lose our next 4-5 games, that could change, but it sounds like Guerin wants to stand pat for now unless he got an offer that really blew him away (and I'm assuming the one he has isn't like that without knowing any details). I can provide a link to a podcast of the radio tomorrow in case I'm misremembering details, it's just not out yet.

I saw about Guerin wanting to give the team a fair shake out of the break before he goes in either direction but I feel like it’s basically a given if things go sideways for MIN.

kessels contract suuuucks. 7mill for a 45 point -30 lazy bum

My thoughts exactly, but apparently not his (or at least not his publicly). Maybe he is anticipating things going sideways internally and he's just using GM speak to keep trade value high for our players. Who knows, I guess.

The team is definitely better this year. But if you look at just the pieces in the trade we didn't get much for him Kessel. Now that we're trading galchenyuk for a bag of oucks it's even worse. Only bright spot is that it opened playing time and created opportunities for other players to excel

if we could have had Kessel for 2 mil a year to help the power play that would have been ideal. I mean he could have played like 4-6 minutes a night.

Well MN was 5 or 6 points out of a Playoff spot at the break. JEE has taken a huge step this year with Kunin and Fiala also improving. Most of the rest of the players have been about whats expected of them. The only bad things going for them are Koivu, Dumba, and Dub forgetting how to play hockey. They have the depth to cover an injury to anyone except Staal. The GM riding the season out a little further is the smart thing to do. Also they don't have a head coach under contract for next year. A different HC might have a different system than BB runs and Donato/Zucker are more important for him than say Greenway, Foligno, and Hartman.

I’m super curious to see what the package for Zucker could be if it all comes to fruition. I think it could be a little unorthodox for what MIN fans could be thinking since Guerin has such a great handle on the Pens farm system.

I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just saying I personally believe it's inevitable that we don't make the playoffs again and it's possible Guerin feels the same way as me.