Repeat After Me - "In Shero We Trust"

After the lows (the shocking news of Marian Hossa's departure) and highs (Geno's 5 year extension) we went through yesterday, it looks like we've got another reason to celebrate today. We've locked up the Flower!!! From TSN.ca:

A day after signing core players Evgeni Malkin and Brooks Orpik to long term deals, the Pittsburgh Penguins took care of their goaltender on Thursday.

Sources tell TSN Marc-Andre Fleury has signed a seven year, $35 million extension.


The deal includes a no-move and limited no-trade clause that triggers in 2010-2011

The no-move prevents the Penguins from placing Fleury on waivers, while the limited no-trade still allows for some flexibility with Fleury controlling the list of teams he would consider in the event Pittsburgh wants to trade him.

SWEET! :) For this one, I'll send you over to The Flower Shop for a little celebratory post from good Friend of The Show Loser Chris.

After Hossa bailed for Detroit, we begged for a winger for Sidney. Well, now Shero got us two - the Pens signed Miroslav Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko to patch the hole Hossa left. Also from TSN.ca:

Both deals are one-year contracts, with Satan earning $3.5 million next year and Fedotenko $2.5 million.

Miroslav Satan
(From Wikipedia: The proper Slovak pronunciation of his name is "SHAH-than", but North Americans usually pronounce it "Shuh-TAN".)
Haha, I've always used the latter pronunciation. I didn't realize it was incorrect until I searched for the best way to type out the pronunciation for you and found this information... Whoops!

Satan, twice selected to the All-Star game, scored 16 goals and added 25 assists in 80 games last season for the New York Islanders. The native of the Czech Republic has 685 points in 947 career NHL games.

Ruslan Fedotenko
(pronounced ROOS-lahn FED-uh-TENK-oh)

Fedotenko marked 16 goals and 17 assists in just 67 games last season, also for the Islanders. Fedotenko was sidelined for parts of the year with a knee injury.

Maybe neither one is a comparable match to Hossa, but they're both pretty good players in their own rights. Remember that both Sid and Geno have the uncanny ability to make guys around them better players (Tampa Bay is about to find this out with Ryan Malone), so I think these two guys will fit in nicely. It looks like Shero did have a few backup plans after all, so we'll just have to wait to see how this all plays out in the end. Shero's next move may just be a contract extension for GRONK! No matter what happens, the Pens are going to have a different look next season, and sometimes different is better. :)

Before I forget, both the Saint and Geno are up for ESPY awards. Some of you mentioned it in the comments sections of the last couple of posts, but I keep forgetting to add it to a post. Now you guys need to VOTE FOR SID AND GENO!!! (Use my link - the one on the Pens' website is broken.) Thanks to Friends of The Show Narmeen A. and Susan W. for sending me the emails that reminded me to post this! ;)

You can thank Friend Bobby T. for this picture. It's from the latest Hockey News. Click it to enlarge it for the wallpaper size.

Friend Jennifer B. sent in a tip for us:

Didja know that there is a free Penguins podcasts on itunes? It's called Penguins Rink Rat Report. If you put that in the search box when the results come up you'll want to hit "subscribe" it should give you access to all the podcasts for the entire 2007-2008 season. The most recent podcasts are interviews with each of the draft prospects and then one from today with Ray Shero. There's no way for me to give you a link, unfortunately so if you have trouble finding it let me know. I do know that even if someone doesn't have an iPod, you can access iTunes and download the podcasts.

I highly recommend downloading iTunes and subscribing - there are some really good interviews on these Podcasts.

Also - don't forget to send in your pictures for our TSCS Summer Project! I'd love to see some pics of you guys sporting your Pens gear in front of exploding fireworks, hint hint! But remember, the only "requirement" is that you have something Penguins-related in a picture with something related to your city, state, province, and/or country.

Thanks to all the Friends who helped out with today's post!

You Take The Good, You Take The Bad

...you take them both and there you have the facts of life...

(Haha, just so you know, my Inbox is blowing up as I type this.)

First, we're starting with awesome news: GENO IS OURS FOR 5 MORE YEARS!!!!!!!!!! Suck on that, Russian hockey team willing to pay him more money than God! Rumor has it that Geno's deal mirror's Sid's deal. :) :) :) :) :) This is a HUGE relief considering that over the past 24 hours, it almost seemed like ALL the players were looking for work elsewhere.

YYYYYEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Haha, last year we were so worried that the Pens would be moving to Kansas City that we didn't see it coming this year when they moved to Tampa Bay! :P Let's review: scout Greg Malone, his son Ryan Malone, Gary Roberts, and Adam Hall made deals with the Lightning, Jarkko Ruutu is now an Ottawa Senator (borrows line from Michelle: Et tu, Ruutu???), while Ty Conklin and Marian Hossa signed contracts with the Detroit Red Wings.

Robs is now playing for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Bugsy's also now a Bolt - an overpaid Bolt, but a Bolt nonetheless.

Hall is one more flightless bird headed south for the winter.

Ruuuuuuuu, however, is northern bound.

Sid is shown at a practice with Conks, who's going to Detroit with Hossa.

Okay, so Marian Hossa is no longer a Penguin. That's bad enough, but the fact that he's now going to be sporting the logo of the team that handed us our first Stanley Cup Finals loss is just unreal. I realize that the NHL is a business, but this move cuts like a knife. What bothers me most about this is that he proclaimed his allegiance to the Pens and made statements to the press that he'd take less money to play for a good team, only to take a one year $7.4 million deal with the Wings. Well, now I have one more reason to hope that Detroit doesn't win the Stanley Cup next season.

Get used to seeing him in a red shirt. (>_<)

Who knows what's going to happen in the next couple of days, but GM Ray Shero has got some serious work cut out for him. Losing Malone, Roberts, Hall, Ruutu, and Conklin might have stung a little less if Hossa had decided to sign on the dotted line. But now, well, this leaves Shero with some serious gaps to fill.

The most pressing issue now is that, without Malone and Hossa, Sid is in desperate need of a winger. Pascal Dupuis worked well on Sid and Hossa's line, but the majority of the production from that line came from Sid and Hossa. One name that has been tossed around in the past two days to fill that now vacant spot is Jaromir Jagr. There's no doubt he would be a skilled candidate able to capitalize on the Saint's mad play-making skills, BUT Double J comes with more baggage than Pittsburgh International. It goes without saying that a lot of Pens fans are still smarting from that "I feel like I'm dying alive" fiasco. Though, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what the fans think about a player - if he is the best fit for the group, he should be brought into the organization.

When Jags was a Pen, he was all business in the front, but all party in the back.

With that said, this is also the guy that called our captain a whiner and a diver. Could Sid get past that and be able to develop chemistry and play well with someone who attacked him in the press? Could Jagr swallow his pride and relinquish his position as captain to be second banana to someone whom he clearly doesn't respect? It's definitely an intriguing idea, though I don't know how likely it is to happen.

On the plus side, IFHSA™ is not a Penguin! He has signed a 4 year, $15.5 million deal with the Dallas Stars. Haha, sorry, Stephanie S.!!! You have all of our condolences. ;) Well now the Pens should be able to offer Brooks Orpik and Marc-Andre Fleury a little more money to get them to stay. And the Pens picked up forward Eric Godard to a 3 year deal worth $2.25 million.

DON'T GO, BROOKSIE!!!

Flower's arbitration hearing will be coming soon unless [*fingers crossed*] they can work out a deal.

We're just going to have to take a deep breath and wait. Ultimately, I still believe the Pens will be okay. We've got Sid until 2013, and now Geno until 2014. We're super lucky to have not just one elite player willing to sacrifice for the sake of his team, but two. Shero should have no trouble building a great team around them. :)

Free Agency Frenzy 2008

I'm sure once this day is over, we'll have something to talk about. Because there could be a lot of somethings when it's all said and done, I'm going to wait until the end of the day to post the details of today's events. (Of course, if there's anything absolutely mind-blowing that happens, I may post it here as a late edit so we can get the conversation started.)


You can track all the signings and follow all the details in real-time here.

(Thanks to good Friend of The Show Stephanie S. for the link.)

Tampa Bay Lightning Acquire Rights To Two Pens

From NHL.com:

The Tampa Bay Lightning have acquired the rights to left wings Ryan Malone and Gary Roberts from Pittsburgh in exchange for a conditional draft pick in 2009, owners Oren Koules and Len Barrie announced.



“We said earlier this week we would be aggressive in our pursuit of free agents in order to win and compete,” Koules said. “This trade today doesn’t guarantee anything, but we believe it gives us a leg up in our attempt to sign these two impact players.”

OOOOHHHH BOY, Tampa Bay is going to be gooood this coming season. The Penguins picked up a conditional draft pick in 2009 for the trade. If the Lightning is able to sign Bugsy, the Pens' draft pick will be Tampa Bay's pick in the third round. If the Lightning cannot sign him, the Pens' will get Dallas's fourth round pick.

Yikes! I'm not looking forward to having either of these guys on the opposite bench. But it's just part of the business, and now I will take this opportunity to wish the best of luck to both Robs and Bugsy. Thanks for everything. You'll be missed.

Thanks to grriamafrog for leaving the link in the last post's comments section.

(LATE EDIT: In the event the NHL.com link isn't working, here's a link to this story on TSN.ca.)

No Good News - Yet

The Pens' salary cap for the 2008-09 season will be $56.7 million. Evidently, Brooks Orpik wants a bigger cut of it (from The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette):

The Penguins found out yesterday that they'll be able to spend $56.7 million on players during the coming season. They also learned that they still haven't offered defenseman Brooks Orpik enough of that money to convince him to stay. ..."We did receive an offer, which we turned down," Gross said. "But we're still talking."

This doesn't necessarily mean that Orpik's not going to sign with the Pens. It's likely just the beginning of an offer/counteroffer process for Orpik to see how much money he can squeeze out of Ray Shero and for Shero to see how much of a discount Orpik is willing to take. Still, with all the uncertainty surrounding this team with 12 guys set to become UFAs on Tuesday, it sure would be nice if Orpik signed a contract over this weekend.


Evgeni Malkin, on the other hand, still plans on offering the Penguins a discount, despite the recent decisions made by Marian Hossa and Gary Roberts (also from The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette):

...management's personnel plans took a hit when right winger Marian Hossa informed the team he plans to explore free agency July 1, likely shrinking the chances he will re-sign from nominal to pretty much nil.

That almost certainly will bring about a major adjustment to the Penguins' offseason plans, but what it did not change was Malkin's willingness to take a reduced salary -- probably something in the neighborhood of $8.5 million -- for the sake of the franchise.


"Evgeni understands that some players will not stay for many reasons," said J.P. Barry, his agent. "He simply hopes that his approach helps the team either re-sign existing players or bring in new players so they can be one of the best teams in the league.

"We have provided Ray our proposal and I will continue to speak with him this week as he works at putting together the best team possible, given salary-cap constraints."

I've come to the conclusion that even if none of the 12 UFAs re-sign with the Pens this summer (a highly unlikely scenario - I'm sure we'll get to keep at least one, haha!), if we can get a contract extension signed, sealed, and delivered to Geno, this off-season can still be called a success.


The Pens will be okay. Shero has proved time and time again that he knows what's up. He'll be able to fill gaps left by Hossa and (probably) Malone. Just look at what he's done in the past. Last season, Shero brought veteran Robs in to show the very young, inexperienced Penguins what discipline, commitment, and grit really are and how to achieve longevity in the NHL. This season, it was clear Sidney needed a winger capable of capitalizing on his unmatched play-making ability, so Shero orchestrated the coup that scored Hoss at the trade deadline. I have no doubt that Shero will be able to come through for the team again.


[*Sigh*] So let's review what we know so far:

• Gary Roberts & Kris Beech = basically gone.
• Ryan Malone & Marian Hossa = one foot out the door.
• Brooks Orpik = undecided.
• Jarkko Ruutu = talks are set to begin before July 1.
• All the rest of the UFAs = ???
• Evgeni Malkin = more wanted than Osama bin Laden.

Sidney Crosby = A PENGUIN UNTIL 2013.


I guess it's not all bad, eh? ;)

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Many, many apologies for not following through with my promise to discuss RFAs yesterday. It may seem like I'm a day late and a buck short now on some of this stuff (mostly because I am), but in my defense I started writing this post yesterday morning and ended up taking ill later in the day (I think it was something I ate, blech). I had hoped to be able to finish the post later in the evening, but when I came home from work, I became one with my couch and never even powered up my laptop at all last night. But, hey, I guess it's better late than never, right???

(Written Friday:) Right now what I'm going to do is get you up to speed with as much information about all the contract talks as I can so we can all talk about everything in the comments. There are a lot of rumors circulating on the Internet and on XM satellite radio about the future of the Boys on the Penguins' roster. The most laughable one is that Penguins are mulling the idea of trading Evgeni Malkin. These rumors can be traced back to Pierre McGuire and Mike Milbury. And in the interest of not reinventing the wheel, I will direct you to a great write up about it on the Bleacher Report. Click here to read it, then come back for the discussion. Go ahead... I'll wait. ;)

He cleans up well, eh?

Are ya done? Okay now, in my opinion, I think it would have to be a trade for an elite player and several first round draft picks to make Ray Shero even entertain the thought of trading Malkin right now. Geno is just too good to let go, and if his improvement from last season to this season is any indication, he's only going to get better. Trading Geno now would be like selling all of your Apple stock in September 2001. (← Just so everyone is perfectly clear about what I'm trying to say, the iPod made its debut the following month.) McGuire's being awfully shortsighted by not taking into consideration how much the Pens relied on Geno this season after Sid got hurt. MAKE NO MISTAKE - there would have been no post-season for the Pens if Geno hadn't taken the reins (well, that and Ty Conklin's goaltending domination). PERIOD. There's no way Shero's going to let Geno go without a fight.

(Written Saturday:) Since I wrote this, Friend of The Show Allison Y. has sent me this article from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review where Geno himself makes McGuire look like a complete idiot:

Evgeni Malkin did not leave the NHL Awards Show at Elgin Theatre on Thursday night with either the Hart Trophy or the Lester B. Pearson Award.

But he said the prize he really covets -- a long-term contract extension with the Penguins -- is on its way.


"I'm thinking maybe five or six years," said Malkin, set to enter the final season of his three-year entry-level deal. "I'm an easy guy to deal with. I'd love to stay in Pittsburgh."

SWEET!!!!! While sometimes you'll hear guys praising the city they play for one day then talk about how they couldn't wait to get out of there the next, I think Geno really does want to stay in Pittsburgh. If you'll recall, earlier this season, we were told that his parents loved the 'Burgh so much that they were actually house shopping and considering a move across the pond.

Allison also sent me news that the Pens filed for arbitration with Marc-Andre Fleury:

"By filing for salary arbitration, it gives us extra time to continue to negotiate a contract with Marc-Andre," Penguins general manager Ray Shero said in a team-released statement. "As a result of the filing, Penguins fans are assured that Marc-Andre will be under contract to our club for next season. Marc-Andre has done a tremendous job for us. We remain committed to negotiating a contract with him in the near future."

As I was driving home from work yesterday trying not to focus on the pain in my stomach, I heard on XM Radio that "word on the street" is that Shero low balled an offer to Ryan Malone. I wasn't all that concerned, thinking it was probably just the beginning of an offer/counteroffer process to find out exactly what kind of hometown discount Bugsy was willing to take... until I woke up this morning and saw an article that Friend of The Show Daily Su sent me. From Puck Daddy Greg Wyshynski:

The Sweater Ted recently examined the same sort of situation happening for the Pittsburgh Penguins and two of their UFAs: Forward Ryan Malone and defenseman Brooks Orpik, both of whom could command significant raises this summer.

Check out those tats!

In Malone's case, the Columbus Blue Jackets have been mentioned several times since the Stanley Cup finals ended. Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Post Dispatch reports on his blog this afternoon that the whispers remain strong, especially with Evgeni Malkin nearing a contract extension with Pittsburgh. Even if that contract fails to reach Ovechkin-levels of years or dollars, the Penguins still can't break the bank for a player like Malone with no less than a dozen other UFAs to consider.

Ohhh, I think I'm getting sick again... This seems to fall in line with the idea that Shero's real goal this summer is to sign Marian Hossa to a long-term deal. Haha, Friend of The Show Michelle B. literally just sent me this article basically stating the very same thing:

The Penguins have made signing right wing Marian Hossa to a long-term contract their No. 1 priority, according to several players, agents and team officials who spoke to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on the condition of anonymity.

He's a keeper, but will he stay?

All other offseason moves will be determined by the Penguins' success or failure in this pursuit of Hossa, who scored 12 goals and recorded 26 points in 20 Stanley Cup playoff games skating alongside star center Sidney Crosby.

For an idea of exactly how much work Shero's got cut out for him, TheNHLarena.com has this complete list of who's under contract, who's a UFA, and who's an RFA. I'll do my best to keep The Show as up-to-date as I possibly can throughout this summer, so please keep sending links my way - I know I'll get by with a little help from my Friends. :)

I found this yesterday and thought it would be a good way to go out today with a laugh: Which do you think is taller, "Mini-Me" actor Verne Troyer or the Stanley Cup? Click here to find out.

Thanks go out to Allison, Su, and Michelle for the links. :)