Dallas easily passes on that one

Kings decline, Iafallo is worth way more.

Carter has a NMC, and won't waive to rebuilding teams.

Maybe, in that case remove 1/2 of the prospects

Avs match but are mad and look for revenge at some point.

I agree on Iafallo, but I saw him getting dumped on a lot of Kings ACGM's so I wasn't sure what the deal is. What do you think he is worth?

Don't think kings take that and don't think Newhook happens. Avs either trade him or sign.

Also don't think Bert takes that deal. He's looking for term

I think after our goalie woes, you can't afford to move our defensive forwards and defensive defensemen. If Moore can prove to be as effective as Iafallo, I would move him for a solid 2LD defensive defenseman or to offset Peterson's contract. The Kings restocked their cabinets, so I'm not sure picks are really important now that their compete window has opened.

7.75 million in dead cap is tough man - considering the situation the Pens are in. Signing two LHD seems a bit overkill when POJ is right there on the bench - who without a doubt proved he deserves a spot. Smith didn't even play yet he's on the 2nd pair on his off side? Seems kinda risky, especially since neither of those guys on that pair play any defense.

You're essentially paying Iafallo 5.5mil - Rust is at worst an equal player and you can keep him for 5mil and keep the pick. Plus I would assume the Kings want more. Carter probably blocks.

No shot that Flyers help the Pens lol

You didn't see hm getting dumped on any Los Angeles ACGMs created by Kings fans.

I can see Iafallo getting traded for picks to create enough cap space to sign Vlad Gavrikov or Ryan Graves to address our LhD weakness and Joonas Korpisalo to address the starting goalie vacancy. In that case, he would be worth a top-half 2023 second and (projected) top-half 2024 third as a bare minimum (the Arvidsson cost). Otherwise, my friend @tryger has the right approach and value.

I was thinking a 2nd or 3rd plus POJ possibly.

Iafallo has a better contract though than Rust and I think would add some much needed grit to the lineup. And I think POJ is solid, but not untouchable for a trade. I think Smith has a higher ceiling than POJ personally. Riskier play for sure, but at this point if we want to win a cup we will need to take some risks and count on some players exceeding expectations

If we're taking a player, he should be someone we're pretty sure can step right in at #2 LhD. POJ doesn't seem to be that, and you don't have a 2023 second (yet).

All of those teams likely pass.

I wouldn't trade Iafallo for anything less than a 1st round pick and a "good" prospect. Even then, I would think twice.

I think he has a better contract than Rust for sure - but you need to account for Rust's retention too. You're essentially paying Iafallo 5.5mil in this scenario - and would probably have to add like a 2nd I would imagine to get the Kings interested. The Pens won't be competitive after like 2(3 max) more years anyways so the fact that Rust has 4 more years doesn't really matter to me. Iafallo adds grit more than Rust? I might need an explanation on that one haha. It's not that I think Iafallo's bad, I just don't think there's any improvement there, or additional cap space - which is usually the only two reasons to make a move. I don't think POJ is untouchable for a trade either - but you didn't trade him. If you could trade him for a good current player then I'm all for it. But in this scenario he's sitting on the bench behind two more expensive 30 year olds. And I know everyone wants us to get younger haha. You're probably right about Smith - and I want him to get playing time as well - just looks like you're really throwing him into the fire here.

I just think with the amount of dead cap space you have here you need to play those young cheap defenseman and use the cap space to improve the bottom 6 which needs help - especially since the top 6 isn't as good as it was last season. Like you said take the risk and play them - plus POJ isn't even a risk at this point we know he's good enough.

To be fair, based on this past season, POJ is already a 2nd pair LHD. The POJ/Petry pair had great numbers - and individually POJ scored points at a rate similar to guys like Hanifin and Reilly

I will defer to your judgment because so far, you've never given me reason to doubt it, and you've seen him play much more often than I have.

POJackoff was horrible back there. Such a weakling and no hockey IQ, need him off the team

Man I wish my parents had as much faith in me as you do lol. To be fair, he's only played one season, I'm sure there's plenty of people who have struggled after having a good rookie campaign. So I'm not saying it's without risk.

But based on what he has done so far in his brief career - it's fair to consider him 2nd pair worthy.

EDIT: my parents and I actually have a great relationship - that was just a joke that probably sounds very weird given tone doesn't transfer well over typed words haha

Dude we know that POJ slept with your wife and you don't watch hockey. I'm sorry that happened but please keep your bs out of my mentions. Please, at least formulate a coherent argument and we can have a fair and rational discussion about a topic or player. Not whatever nonsense you keep typing

You are rude

The truth is somewhere in the middle. POJ had really good flashes where he showed potential to be a really good puck moving D and offensive producer. He also had stretches where he was pushed off the puck very easily and made some awful turnovers/defensive lapses. Not saying that's a reason to give up on him, he showed great potential and it was only his first year. But it is a concern. I wouldn't say he proved he can be a 2nd pair guy for a whole season because he looked just completely burnt out towards the end, but if he hits the weight room and gains some strength then I definitely think he's got potential to be a very good 2nd pair player. Third pair playing sheltered minutes he's more than fine, but obviously the goal is for him to be better than that.

But every player has stretches in a season where they have some issues - you can say that about basically anyone not named McDavid. Especially for a rookie - we need to be realistic in our expectations. I'm not sure we could have asked for much more from him. And POJ really only had one stretch of problems - and it's when he forced onto the top pair for a little bit. I think that's excusable in my opinion. He turned the puck over just slightly less than Pettersson - who we all know had a great year. I'm struggling to see where he looked burnt out though? From the trade deadline to the end of the year the 2nd pair with POJ/Petry had a 55% GF and 55% xGF and he scored more 5v5 points than Letang. Thats the same xGF% that 2nd pair had for the year as a whole, which would indicate no decline at the end of the season.

I guess I'm just struggling to see any tangible evidence that he struggled on the 2nd pair? The POJ/Petry pair wasn't any worse than the POJ/Ruhwedel or POJ/Rutta 3rd line pairs. Is he perfect, no. Do I want him on the top pair, no. Do I think he is a perfectly good 2nd pair LHD - I have yet to find anything that says otherwise. Theoretically he should only get better too. Entering prime age and just finished his first season

I don't think he's a complete bust or anything, but I think it's fair to say that he would benefit a lot if he worked on getting a little stronger this offseason. All things considered that's not a huge fundamental issue and it's one that's easy to fix. But he definitely was worse end of the season. First half I thought he was a great puck mover and played very smart defense. Rarely saw him making any turnovers and played really solid defense. Towards the end he made some egregious turnovers and defensively looked really worn out. I will also add I don't think the Penguins current system and style of defense they play is really friendly for young D. I mean look at Marino, he's been thriving with Jersey, which I'm sure also has to do with self improvement and the new system. Just constantly having the D activate and pinching is not ideal for a young D trying to get a feel for the league. And when your smaller it's tougher to win the pinches. So I also blame the system a lot and Sullivan not putting POJ in the right situations as a factor as well. All this aside though, every player has flaws they should work on and I don't think it's unreasonable to say it'd help him to become a little stronger.