Revisting Why the Pens Will Not be Back Next Year.

I wanted to write a follow up article on my Why the Pens Will Not be Back Next Year article. In the previous article I pointed out the oncoming exodus of players from Pittsburgh via-free agency and how the team was going to screw itself over by locking up a few superstar players to long pricey contracts.

I of course was mauled by every Penguins fan on the internet as a bias and ignorant Devils fan. There is no way they can sign two players to contracts that could total over $17 million. Marc-Andre Fleury will not be worth $5-6 million. They will resign Hossa and all their other free agents.

Well look who is laughing now. Malkin signed a $9 million contract when I said he would get $8+ million. Marc-Andre Fleury got a $5 million contract when I said he would make $5-6 million. Hossa left Pittsburgh for, as he put it, a real cup contender.

How many of their 16 Eastern Conference Champion team’s free agents did they sign? THREE! I said they will not even be able to resign a chunk of their players and they just resigned Pascal Dupuis, Mark Eaton, and Brooks Orpik.

To rub salt in the faces of those experts that said the Marian Hossa trade was amazing, I would like to point out the Penguins gave up two former first round players, a first round pick in 2008, and a former third round draft pick.

What they got was a rental player who did not win them a Stanley Cup, then bolted for another team.  Now the Penguins are out four players that could have filled out their roster this season.

Some say that Pittsburgh will not stumble at all because the team resigned their “core players.”

Six players do not make up the “core” of a hockey team. There are three forwards, two defensemen, and a goalie in that “core” and that makes up one shift. What are you going to do with the other 30+ minutes of the hockey game? You need at least 10 or 11 players to have a “core” of a team.

The Penguins are seriously lacking third and forth line players. If you look at the Penguins stats from last year, there was a serious drop off of point from outside the top five forwards. Ryan Malone had 51 points, and the next closest foward was Jordan Staal and his 28 points and -5 rating.

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