I'm not willing to give up Puustinen and Murashov to subtract from the roster. I like the McNabb idea, though.

I know murashov is a tough loss, I'm going all in on Blomqvist... and I like puusty but he is replaceable also koivunen is looking really solid

but that rakell contract at the moment seems very hard to trade, and if Dubas doesn't manage we need a huge bounce back season from him.

SJ will take Rakell, Smith 2024 2nd and 2025 1st for a 5th

Rakell ain’t that big of a dump, if he’s even a dump at all. Would be better off just keeping him. I’m not sure what penguins fans fascination with trading guys like Reilly Smith and Rakell as massive cap dumps just to sign similar players to worse contracts. Its mind boggling.

4x5M for a 37 pts player at 30. He's not getting better or younger. so yeah he's a cap dump.

Rakell isn't playing at the World Invitational over injury issues. I'm willing to bet it was the one that sidelined him in Nov-Dec and he's been playing through it for months. He comes back healthy and suddenly that trade looks Hextallian. And while Puustinen is replaceable, I'm not certain anyone we have is going to slot in as effectively as Puusty, or anyone we could get on the market would be available at as low of a cap hit Puusty would get.
"Lets trade a top 6 winger, a cheap middle 6 winger when we have suspect depth, and a goalie prospect with potential for nothing because that top 6 winger had one bad year due to injuries!" Masterful gambit, sir.

The dude was playing injured all year. He’s not a cap dump. That’s just dumb. He had 60 pts the year before. To treat him like a cap dump because of one so-so year when he was injured the whole year is ridiculous lol

Sharks should be all over that in my opinion. They want to add a goalie and Rakell is a declining but solid vet

ehhhhh that's way too much

trust me as a pens fan teravainen is much better than smith and rakell.

smith had a great start but after like game n.12 he stopped producing. he is a good player didn't really work with us. it can be even more than a 5th for him but I dindn't want people to focus on the trade rather on how good or bad this team would look like.

rakell had a down year also injured. he also is a good player but in all honesty the contract doesn't look great.

yeah ok but I already overpaid on this trade, your proposal was wayy too much

I'd tend to agree with you. but tell me this isn't a much much improved team in respect of what we had last year.

(we have Blomqvist over murashov either way and we signed a much better player in free agency without giving up assets)

I think it would depend whether it's a better team or not. On paper, we're better. But we were also better on paper this year compared to last, and that didn't end up being the case.
There's still a lot of uncertainty. If Reinhart doesn't maintain his career level away from Florida, that's another big contract on a player that isn't living up to lofty expectations. If Yager doesn't impress, the best option to replace him with got traded away as a sweetener in a deal I think has a high chance of blowing up in our face.

Poor asset management for the sake of making the team better is risky. Every move is a bet, and this would be betting that the cap space for Reinhart is worth giving up good assets for pennies on the dollar. Front offices have information we don't, so I find it hard to believe 31 other NHL teams would look at Rakell and conclude that the Pens would have to add value to move him.

Teravainen only had like 16 more points than Rakell who had a down year, playing with injury, and played less games. He’s not much better…definitely not better enough to warrant trading a top goalie prospect and Puustinen to dump Rakell for him.
I’m not bothered by the smith trade here, that was just more in general because a lot of people trade him then sign Debrusk to a worse contract. But it’s been happening a lot with Rakell too with people dumping him then signing guys like Teravainen or Debrusk. At least go after a big name if you’re going to dump him lol

yeah I wouldn't sign de brusk either.

I saw it more like rakell for Reinhart which is obviously a huge upgrade and smith for teravainen which also is an upgrade.