Agreed

Not sure Grandlund is a true center. Face off 39% = not good, and only over 101 face offs. Not much for hits or blocks either.

Where's Rowney?

I think Cullen retires or goes to MIN, and would prefer Rowney playing 4th C over Pirri since he took limited faces-offs (243, though at 57%), very little block shots or hits, though I like the versatility to playing all forward spots, but if he cost 1.5m I'd rather save that and chase a better 4th center in a trade or go with Rowney and Aston-Reese or whoever is next up.

Scott Wilson started as 4th center when injuries shifted the other centers up, and then pushed him out to the wing eventually. I'm not sure Rutherford isn't happy to move Wilson to 3rd center with Rowney at 4th.

Totally agree on NOT needing Duchene though. Need limited cap hit, face offs, blocks, hits, PK, a 30ish points, 3rd line Center.

No, what the team needs is three scoring lines. Which was better, 2016 when HBK was kickin or 2017 when Bonino struggled offensively and the 3rd line didn't produce many points?

Rowney is a great callup. Don't think Pitt wants to replace Cullen's production with the lack of offensive production from Rowney. I'd be fine with not signing Pirri but he is available, will be cheap and we would have the cap space to still add at the deadline.

Having 3 scoring lines is great but you still need someone to win faceoffs on the PK. Right now the only person you have that can do that is Cullen is his chances of not retiring are slim. Minnesota is pretty set on defense so I doubt they'd want Pouliot and getting granlund would take more than him and swapping a some draft picks.

I completely agree with your concept. However, I'm not so sure I like the trade. Blueger played pretty well in the AHL after coming back from injury, and I think he's a likely candidate for the Pens to bring up mid-season if there are injuries at center. I don't hate the Pirri signing, but you're overpaying for a 4C. I'd replace Cullen (who I'd bet is retiring) with Rowney, but that's basically a wash.

Regarding having 3+ scoring lines: That's largely dependent on Sprong and/or ZAR being able to make the jump to the NHL mid-season. A completely separate need is for a 3C/4C who is defensively responsible and can play on the PK.

You're totally ignoring the part where the had two good defensive centers who won a lot of faceoffs and won the 2 cups. Sure offense helps but unless you can keep the other team from scoring you don't get the chance to win. Pens tried to out score teams since 09 while CHI, LA, and BOS shared 6 cups. Now that they play a 2 way game they started wining cups again. Stocking up on scoring gets you the Presidents Trophy, not the Stanely Cup. Ask the Capitals.

Cullen scored 4g, 6a and 2g, 7a the 2 cup runs but had 52 and 56% FO%.
Bonino scored 18pt and 7pts, but his had 48 and 52%. FO%. You want to replace that with a guy who's wins 36% and is a liability on D because you think they'll out score oppents again?

You do realize they were missing Letang (their best Dman) the entire playoff, had to depend on players who shouldn't have been playing the minutes they were, that Murray (their best goalie) missed more then half the playoffs, and that only 7 players (4 defensemen) played every game ... and despite all that the still won the cup and could have swept the Finals if Murray didn't have 2 terrible games in NSH? In Murray's defense his Dman were not stepping up and Bonino was out because he broke his foot blocking a shot on the powerplay.