This Report Just Told Us Everything About the Penguins...

This report just told us everything we need to know about the Penguins, and more importantly, about how Kyle Dubas views the Penguins. And the reality is, this is not a good team, and at this point in the season, other than young players and also seeing the end of heroes play for that organization, this is all about what they can get at the deadline. And I think it's quite a lot as we're going to go through on this episode of NHL Digest. I think the Penguins are prime right now. See what they do, but they have prime right now to absolutely dominate the NHL deadline, which isn't really what you want to hear as a fan, but looking at where the Penguins are right now, last place in the Metro division, other than the lottery, this team, it doesn't seem like there's much hope with them going anywhere, and I do think, while it is a little early for me to say this with absolute confidence, you watch them play, and I am starting to feel like Sidney Crosby has lost a step. Not that he's not still an incredible hockey player, but he's not the player he once was. And for the Penguins, especially considering how much they've struggled to put other young players around him, that is pretty much a death sentence. And maybe it is for the best, as we're going to talk about in this video. They can get quite a lot on the deadline, which does now seem to be the direction they are going, perhaps sooner than people would have expected. This comes from an article written by PGH Hockey. Now, and it's a quote from Elliott Freeman, I think they can change the roster pretty quickly. I mean, it all depends on a lot of those guys have no trade protection. So what are they willing to do? Freeman said on the Fan Hockey Show. The other thing too is Dubas has shown that he has a pretty high line. Some of these guys he's talked about or haven't talked about, he says he won't trade them unless he gets a certain level of return. So perhaps this is not a... fire sale situation. But considering how competitive the NHL is, where most teams are not willing to move off pieces, it seems like with the Penguins, if you come to them with the right price, like what they're looking for, they are willing to make moves. And to start this, I do want to go through just a couple guys who I think can get good returns and then finally finish this off talking about the crown jewel, Eric Carlson. But before I do that, I do want I do want to highlight a couple of players I'm not going to be talking about. We'll see what happens as the season goes on. I'm not saying this is definite, but David Pagnotta had to say on the Penguins as of right now, he's not expecting Malkin, Crosby, or even Letang to be considered to be traded at this moment. And I do kind of agree with that. I will say it'd be interesting to see with Malkin in particular, right? Because he has mentioned wanting to play into the future. He still looks pretty good despite being 40 plus years old. I wouldn't be surprised if other pieces start to move, maybe by the deadline. He's like, okay, I just want to take another shot at it. But. Until we get there, I don't expect or want to focus on any of these players. Of course, trading any of these guys in particular, Crosby or Malkin, I don't know how much value Letang has because of his contract at this point, but moving those guys would obviously get you a lot more in return. But for now, I do want to focus on the players that I think have a really good chance of moving, and we're going to start that list with Rickard Rakell, who perhaps isn't having the season we are used to in terms of his standards, right? The points per game, 0.56, that is a lot. A little down, but still has been a legitimate top six forward producing wise. Again, I don't think he's going to flutter out. I do think he's going to get hotter as the season goes on. You just look at his career. The one concern is the health, but when he is healthy, this is a guy who produces a whole lot last season, 48 points in 60 games the year before 70 points in 81 games. This is the type of player teams like to play with their top players. type of player GMs absolutely fall in love with. I think the Penguins price should be a first round pick for a player like this or a prospect of equal value. And honestly, looking at the Penguins situation, they've done an incredible job stacking up second round picks, third round picks. They have all their own first round picks. What this organization probably needs more is prospects that can help in the near future because you just don't have a lot of guys coming up. The guys who have come up or close to coming up aren't really those difference making players. So perhaps more. High leverage, high value prospects or young players who could use a change of scenery is more what they should look for. But that first round value seems like it makes a lot of sense for Ricard Raquel. And I think they will get it. And the same goes for Brian Rust. Teams are in need of offensive help. All the time. And the key thing with these guys is you can retain money on both of them. So teams won't have to pay full price and they have multiple years. And that's where the first round pick seems so logical, right? If there was one year left, you kind of question it because of how much the salary cap is going up. These guys are locked into place and you can retain money on top of it. And with Pittsburgh in particular, I'm going to get into one second. It makes a whole lot of sense for them to use their three retention slots. These two players going into the future, I think you should retain on them. And if so, I think you will get those high value picks. Russ so far this season was injured to start the year, but has three goals to assist on pace for 0.71 points per game. That's really been the normal for him. Last season, he had 65 points. The year before, 65 points. So he's been more consistent of the two. A little older, though, I think they both will get value. And we're talking first round picks. We're talking late first round picks, like contending teams, trading. Good assets for these guys, right? You're not getting picks that are going to be 15, 16, anything like that. But in terms of that range, I think both these guys will get that return. And while I was talking about the Penguins retaining money, this is a team that you look at the salary cap, it's almost shocking how much money they have. Next season, they're expected to have $59 million worth of cap space. It's worth noting with how much the salary cap has gone up, they will have to spend $30 $40 million just today. To hit the cap floor. So if they move players like Rust, like Raquel, that goes up. Like say you don't retain money on either one of them. You have to spend $40 million. And looking at their roster, other than Malkin, who I don't quite know if. Would return. Maybe he'd want to go somewhere else, especially if the team decides to go in the rebuild direction. You look at Sidney Crosby, who I do anticipate to be back. Other than that, not a whole lot for them to spend on. As a result, it makes a lot of sense for the Penguins to get more value. And when we talk about those first round prices for those players before, maybe you get even more if you, say, retain half that contract. I think they're worth that just straight up, a first round pick for what they're doing right now. So if you retain money, so you're getting them at two, three million dollars, I think the price goes up even more for the Penguins. Definitely what you want to see. They're in a weird situation, too, where I wouldn't be surprised if they even do more deals like retaining contracts for the future because the Penguins have a whole lot of cap space. And again, they have to get to that cap floor. The next player I think is interesting. Some people might not give enough attention to here is Samuel Gerrard. I know he hasn't been incredible in Pittsburgh. Seven points so far, a minus seven playing 19 minutes per game. Perhaps at this point in Samuel Gerrard's career, that's a little too much. Getting exposed a bit there at points in time. But I think this is a defenseman who has value. There are a couple teams out there that I think need some left-handed defensemen. In particular, too, we always talk about the top contenders. They might not be able to spend the money on Girard. Notably, if they do trade both Rust and Ricardo Kell, that'll be two of the Penguins' three retention slots. You wouldn't want to spend your third one on Girard because the third one we're going to talk about, Eric Carlson, as we get there, that's going to definitely require one of those spots. So the $5 million contract kind of I think if you can make him $2.5 million he'd be really valuable to other teams here. And maybe it's a situation where Russ or Raquel doesn't require that retention, right? But even with that being said, I look at Gerrard and what he's done for a team that kind of needs help on their second pair or third pair on defense. I think of teams like maybe the Nashville Predators or teams that aren't quite those elite contenders, but expect to maybe be in the playoffs and can use some reinforcements. Maybe a team like the... Sharks, if they wake up here at some point, I can see Gerrard getting a second round or third round pick depending on how he plays and how the market shapes up. Not huge, but a solid return. Another player I look at on the Penguins roster that can get a sneaky good return is Justin Brzezow And I know you look at the stats this year, one goal, only played four games so far. It's not great. You'll look at what he did last season though. And the fact that he is such a tall player, such a big forward, GMs tend to salivate over these guys. We saw McCarron last year get a second round pick. I wouldn't be shocked if Brzezow got like a second or a third, depending on what teams need. You look at what he did last season, 64 games, had 34 points. I don't expect him to repeat that, but say he can get 15 or so goals, 10 assists maybe. This is a player that I think GMs will really value, especially as a guy who can play big, scary minutes in the playoffs. So that's one to keep an eye on. And now we're going to finish this video off talking about Eric Carlson, the crown jewel for the Pittsburgh Penguins. It is worth noting when we talk about this return. While he has played like a true number one defenseman. I don't think that's for debate. He has 18 points, point per game so far this season, playing 23 plus minutes per game. Minus six, honestly, isn't all that bad considering how much the Penguins have struggled. Maybe you want to put him with a better defensive partner. He's been playing with absolutely rotating door of garbage with the Penguins, to be perfectly honest. The left side has been absolutely horrific, which we're going to talk about when we get to the return. The one thing to note though, with Eric Carlson, because he is so old, right? 36 year olds, because he is a free agent and because he does have a no trade clause that perhaps limits the, uh, the. It's for Penguins a bit more than what you typically would expect. Still, it's probably going to require them to retain half his contract with, again, Penguins can absolutely do, and it is the last year of his contract, so you don't have to worry about it next season. With all that being said, the team I think makes the most sense here is the Carolina Hurricanes. We know they've coveted this player in the past. I think that the Hurricanes will get this trade done, and I think Nikita is going to be the player that makes the most sense going in return. defense is horrible. They really don't have any young quality defenders of note. So Nikita, he can be that guy. We know that he's fallen out of favor in Carolina. That's why he got that one year $3 million deal because he thinks he's more of a top four And honestly, he thinks he deserves a chance as a number one defenseman. And he wants to get paid like he is a top four defenseman at the very least. It's worth noting when it comes to negotiations with Carolina And this player, this is a guy. Who really wants more money to play to show he can play in a bigger role, right? He wants power play time. He wants 20 plus minutes a game. And if there is any team in the NHL that can offer him that next season to prove what he can do, it is. The Penguins. Now, I don't think it would be making sense for the Hurricanes to add more on top of this player, right? You're getting a 25-year-old defenseman who's shown in playing 18 minutes per game that he can put up points and be at least a number three guy. So considering that Carlson is in the last year of his deal, I do think that is a fair return. But let me know what you think. Do you think that the Penguins would have to give up a little more to get Nikita? Do you think that this is too much in a return For Eric Carlsson from the Carolina side, I'd love to know what you think. And if there are any other players you think the Penguins might give up, I'm sure some people are curious about Sidney Crosby, Malkin. We're not going to go there in this video. But I'm sure if this season continues to go the direction it is going for Pittsburgh, I'm sure we might have those conversations in the future. But that's going to do it for this episode of NHL Digest. If you haven't already, what are you waiting for? Be sure to subscribe to the channel for more content just like this. I'll catch you on the next episode.