The Pittsburgh Penguins' 2009-10 Season Preview

(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

I will be previewing all 30 NHL clubs. I will be looking at their available salary cap room, the additions and deletions from the 2008-09 rosters, and where I think they will stack up in their division and conference for the 2009-10 campaign. 

Let's get a move on with the Pittsburgh Penguins, who play in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference.

The Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings accomplished something that hasn’t happened in the NHL since 1984.  Over the past 25 years, there have always been at least one different team in the Stanley Cup finals and not unlike 25 years ago, the Penguins were able to beat the Red Wings, just like the Oilers defeated the then-four-time Stanley Cup champions, the New York Islanders. 

The Red Wings were not unlike the Islanders, a veteran group of players that had been very successful for a long period of time before meeting the Oilers during the 1984 Stanley Cup Playoffs.  Just the season before, the Islanders defeated the Oilers in the 1983 Stanley Cup Final four games to zero.

The Penguins also compare very well to the Oilers, led by a young duo of superstar centermen, the franchise had been built primarily through the draft and it took a couple of years for the Oilers to achieve success during the playoffs.

Only time will tell if the Penguins will have the same success as the Oilers did in the ‘80s but the similarities between the two franchises is striking.  Led by Sidney Crosby, Marc-Andre Fleury and Evgeni Malkin, the Penguins appear to be set for years and years to come. 

This will also mark the last season for the Penguins in the famed “Igloo.”  The Consol Energy Center will be ready for the Penguins to move into the 2010-11 season and the experts believe that the home opener next year will also see an another Stanley Cup banner raised to the rafters.

Let’s take a look at what moves G.M. Shero made and see which players will be a part of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009-10.

Significant Additions

Some of the significant additions that the Penguins have made during the off-season are as follows:  Wade Brookbank (Carolina), Chris Conner (Dallas), Nate Guerin (Philadelphia), Brent Johnson (Washington), Chris Lee (NY Islanders), Jay McKee (St. Louis), Mike Rupp (New Jersey) and Wyatt Smith (Colorado).

Significant Deletions

Some of the significant roster deletions that have moved on from Pittsburgh are as follows:  Philippe Boucher (Retirement), Mathieu Garon (Columbus), Hal Gill (Toronto), Connor James (Germany), Chris Minard (Edmonton), Joey Mormina (Philadelphia), Janne Pesonen (Russia), Jani Rita (Finland), Rob Scurderi (Los Angeles), Jeff Taffe (Florida) and Andy Wozniewski (Boston).

There are seven former Penguin Players that have yet to sign deals with another franchise.  They are:  David Brown, David Gove, Adam Heinrich, Miroslav Satan, Petr Sykora, Bill Thomas and Mike Zigomanis. 

The Projected 2009–10 Pittsburgh Penguins roster

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