big offseason so far in Pittsburgh

After losing a 3-1 series lead to the New York Rangers in the first round of the stanley cup playoffs, Pittsburgh Penguins fans are desperate for a change. Luckily they got it, you wanted change, you got it. Now let's get one thing straight I am a huge Pittsburgh Penguins but I do not think they need to change anything except for maybe their goalie situation. Although I did not ask for it I got the changes too. This is an article highlighting all of the Penguins offseason additions. 

First they re-signed Casey DeSmith to a 2 year deal. They had a pretty solid draft, drafting Owen Pickering, a CHL defenseman. Drafted Sergev Murashov a goalie from the KHL, drafted Zam Plante a forward from the USHL, drafted Nolan Collins a defenseman from the OHL, and finally a forward from St. Andrew’s College Luke Devlin.  The Penguins don’t often have a first-rounder, so it’s nice to see them be able to land a high-upside project like Owen Pickering. As he gets stronger, he could become one of the top blueliners to come out of this class, it’s just going to take some time. I also have a lot of time for Zam Plante, who is on the smaller side, but highly skilled and following a path not dissimilar to Jake Guentzel’s as he’ll play another season in the USHL before moving on to college. Nolan Collins and Luke Devlin are a couple of other players that come with size and are fun projects for a team to try to develop. They re-signed Alex Nylander to a one year contract. They re-signed Rickard Rakell to a six year contract extension. Rakell, 29, made a pretty big impact in a pretty short time with Pittsburgh. Penguins general manager Ron Hextall praised the versatility and offense that he brought, as the two-time 30-goal scorer chipped in 13 points while showing an ability to gel alongside both Malkin and Sidney Crosby. They re-signed P.O Joseph to a two contract. The best move of them all was deciding to bring back Evgeni Malkin. They got Malkin back on a 4 year 24.4 million dollar deal. Personally I loved hearing this news of getting Evgeni back. I would have hated to see Pittsburgh let him go. I know he has been injury prone but he is an incredible player who has a lot of value and we need the veteran trio of Crosby, Malkin, and Letang. They signed Dustin Tokarski, a goalie from Buffalo. I like the signing of Tokarski, as I said before I am not a huge fan of our goaltending situation. I am very curious to see if they will put him in the minors or be a backup. I do not like Tristan Jarry as a starting goalie, and DeSmith was an ok backup. Hopefully Tokarski brings some new skills to the table. 

They signed defenseman Xavier Ouellet to a 2 year deal. They signed defenseman Jan Rutta from the Lightning to a 3 year deal. I like the signing of two solid defenseman. Last year we had a great defensive scheme. Unfortunately it was tough with injuries so having two lower tier defenders I like. They signed forward Josh Archibald from the Edmonton Oilers. Archibald, 29, is a scrappy lower-lines player and primarily a right-winger. I like the signing of Archibald; he can prove himself well in the lower lines of Pittsburgh’s offense. They signed forward Drake Caggiula from Buffalo. Again a nice move for a lower line offensive player who can help the Pittsburgh offense. 

Now we get to our trades. The Penguins made a trade with the New Jersey Devils. The Penguins gave away defenseman John Marino for a Ty Smith a defenseman and a 2023 third round pick. I do not like this trade at all. John Marino is a great defender and I do not understand why the Penguins decided to ship him to New Jersey. Ty Smith and John Marino do have one thing in common that is having disappointing sophomore seasons. The Penguins see the good in Smith though and are excited for him to join the Penguins family. The Penguins General Manager Ron Hextall said, Part of the development process for young players, you’re going to have your ups and downs. It’s just part of learning, and part of developing into a pro. Our hopes are that Ty’s going to come in and build on his first year, learn from his second year and continue to become a better player.” Barring additional changes on the Pittsburgh Penguins’ blue line Hextall, in a reversal from a few days earlier, did not rule out going into training camp with nine defensemen on the major-league roster — Smith’s offensive abilities should make him a good partner for Jan Rutta or Chad Ruhwedel.  Both of them are right-handers who play a defense-oriented game that will allow Smith to be active, offensively. 

The Penguins made another trade on July 16th giving away another defender who I really liked. They traded Mike Matheson and a 2023 4th round draft pick to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Jeff Pentry a defenseman and a forward Ryan Poehling. Jeff Pentry is a great addition to the Penguins D-Line. Petry is also a far more accomplished defenseman than John Marino, whom he is replacing. Petry can kill penalties, run a power play and put points on the board at even strength.He’s an all-around defenseman who scored more than 40 points in his last four seasons before a dip to 27 points with last season. Ryan Poehling 6-foot-2, 197-pound forward is a natural center though not overly physical. In 85 career NHL games, he has 79 hits and 38 blocks. Last season, the down-line player was primarily a center but had 24 giveaways compared to 21 takeaways. Poehling could be a nice get, and it comes with little to no risk.

To build the impenetrable right side, Hextall had to give up his best left-side defenseman. After the second Penguins trade on Saturday, Mike Matheson is now a Montreal Canadiens defenseman. Matheson is also only 28, makes $4.875 million (which became a bargain), and is an elite skater. He was arguably the heir apparent to the Penguins’ top pairing if Brian Dumoulin does not rebound from a poor season in which injuries slowed him but never seemed to recover. Hextall said “When you’re trading for good players, you’re going to have to give up good players. Mike is a good player. We certainly valued Mike, but we just feel like Jeff at this point is a little better fit for us. He can play all situations. He can log big minutes. And we just felt like right now with our right side with Letang and Petry, and Rutta is extremely strong. 

But the left side is not so strong. Dumoulin was decimated by injury and looked like a 40-year-old defenseman last season. Marcus Pettersson is an acceptable NHL defenseman but is neither heavy nor strong near the net. His offense is also lacking. Pettersson isn’t capable of sliding up to the top pairing should Dumoulin be injured or stumble again. That leaves depth defenseman Mark Friedman and untested rookie P.O Joseph, who hasn’t yet cracked the NHL after three professional seasons. Hextall has been extremely aggressive and improved the Penguins. However, he’s also left one significant vulnerability. I thought Matheson could be the Penguins’ top defenseman in a few years. Matheson could have been the next Letang for the Penguins. Instead, Petry will be hanging up the skates. The team is genuinely in win-now mode. If Hextall can shore up the left side before the season, the Pittsburgh Penguins will be a formidable team. With all of these big bold offseason moves by Hextall I really hope the Penguins could get another stanley cup or at least go past the first round in the playoffs after being knocked out of the first round the last two seasons. I am not too confident on our defensive pairings but the offense has not been touched which is an excellent thing. Except with some lower line offensive players And hopefully will remain untouched for the remainder of the offseason.