Here is something that Penguins fans need to think about. With Rob Scuderi looking to test the free agent marketplace and likely getting a very lucrative offer by doing so, the Penguins are a little light on the blue line in following the 2009-2010 season if he leaves with only Brooks Orpik and Alex Goligoski under contract beyond next season.

Sergei Gonchar and Mark Eaton will both be unrestricted free agents after the 09-10 season winds down and Kris Letang will be a restricted free agent. Ben Lovejoy is a restricted free agent this season leaving some major question marks about where the Penguins are on defense moving forward.

Time to think out loud here.

While the Penguins would love to resign Sergei Gonchar to an extension, his role with the club would look to diminish sizably starting even this season with Letang looking to take over the role of quarterback and Alex Goligoski looking to emerge. Any deal with Gonchar would likely be for two years at around $3 million just because the Penguins will need cap room to deal with future free agents. It could also be why the Penguins focused heavily on defense in this year’s entry draft selecting four blue liners with their seven picks with most forward positions locked up and several prominent forwards looking to move into the lineup.

The more I look at this, the more I have thought that if the Penguins focus on someone to sign it should be Scuderi over Fedotenko. But I just don’t know how likely that will be and how much exactly the Pens are willing to part with to keep the Scud Missile. The team gave Brooks Orpik $3.75 million a year and Scuderi was at least as productive as Orpik this season in his given roll.

With only $41.5 million committed to players in the year after next perhaps a Scuderi contract would be light in the first year and a little more back loaded. But then again, maybe they could do the same thing with Feds too. We will have to wait and see today.

Here are some options I guess:
Scuderi – 3 years @ $8.25 million (2, 3 & 3.25)
Fedotenko – 3 years @ $9.00 million (2.5, 3 & 3.5)

Just thinking out loud. Because that would put the Pens at about $54.86 this year and just $47.508 million for the 10-11 season with Kris Letang, and Matt Cooke needing contracts at the end of that year.

The Penguins are pushing the cap and as they do, signing both Fedotenko and Scuderi becomes less likely now that they have secured the services of Bill Guerin (1 year deal for $2 million) and Adams (2 yrs for $1.1 million). Guerin came in a little cheaper than I thought he would but by my calculations puts them just under $51,220,000 committed to next year’s team. With a cap of just $56.8 millions that means just about $5.6 million remains and with Fedotenko and Scuderi both seeking multi-year deals (and both demanding more money) than last year the odds of resigning them both or even one of them seems remote.

Fedotenko will probably want something in the realm of $2.5-$3 million (he made $2.25 last year) and Scuderi will command at least $2.5 (I think) to stay. That would put the Penguins right up against the cap. It is possible, but with uncertanty about how the cap will go next year after this one and with some other players also up for new contracts, the Penguins might well be leery about offering such contracts.

Free Agency starts tomorrow and the Penguins have a lot of work to do. But do not be surprised if you see some Wilke-Barre Baby Pens getting the call up to save cap room next season.

With the draft done the Penguins now have to concentrate on two days of intense negotiations with three free agents they would love to resign. Now, as much as I like each of these players and the roles they filled this year, none of them are that important that the Penguins should give up the sod farm to sign them. However there is no disputing that each of them fits well into the Penguins system and have played well with the team Chemistry.

First up is Rob Scuderi. It appears that Scuderi will not be signed to a contract by the July 1st deadline and will test free agency to see what teams will offer him. A deal with the Penguins would probably be $2 million a year (at most $2.5) for two or three years. Someone will probably offer him $4 million because that is what happens to free agents who are coming off a Stanley Cup victory especially ones that played the way Scuderi did. The problem is that teams have to consider that the salary cap only went up $100,000 next year and believe it or not will probably not increase much the next year after that and may even go down depending on the economy. These realizations may keeps teams at bay from offering such huge contracts to a defenseman that while he is a good shut down guy is not irreplaceable.

Scud will likely see who offers him the big money. If it is a perennial looser he may forgo it to come back. He may also decide to come back if the offers from other teams are not much more than $2.5 million or even $3.

Well, what about Ruslan Fedotenko? It is amazing how playing along side of someone like Evgeni Malkin can make teams that last year wouldn’t touch Fedotenko with a 50 foot pole all of a sudden have an interest in him. Ruslan was a good forward playing for a bad Islanders team however and people got to see what he was really capable of this year. Rumors are that the Penguins offer to Feds was not where either he or his agent wanted it to be and it is doubtful that the Penguins will budge much on their offer. Fedotenko will also likely test the free agent market to see what he is offered.

Then there is Billy Guerin. Guerin’s hefty salary this year means that in all likelihood to return he would have to take a million dollar pay cut to stay with the team and would probably only be offered a one year deal on top of that. Guerin’s gritty but old. He has another year or two left on his aging frame and someone is bound to offer him comparable money to what he was making this past season. The question is does Billy want the money or does he want to win?

Well, we will have to see.

Now here is the real problem for each of these players. If they decide to play the game of testing the free agent market they could loose out. The Penguins are not going to sit around and wait. They will be tendering offers to other free agents when the market opens up and there are players out there to be had in the Penguins price range. The question is whether or not the Penguins see them as a better fit for less money than any of these three.

The double edged sword can cut either way so be careful guys.

Blue liners were on the Penguins menu in this year’s NHL entry draft taking four defensemen with their seven picks.

30th overall the Penguins nabbed Saint John’s defenseman Simon Despres who was fairly highly ranked as a skater coming in (8th among North Americans) and is a big presence on the blue line.

Then in the second round and with the 61st pick the Penguins tapped the son of former Penguins defenseman Ulf Samuelson in a move that probably stunned a lot of people. Samuelson according to what I have been told and even read in comments from the Ulfster himself did not think his son would go so high. Most people seemed to have Philip slated as a late third or fourth rounder. Philip will be attending Boston College next year so he is some time away from ever seeing NHL ice.

In the third round the Penguins nabbed Ben Hanowski, a Right Winger out of Little Falls Minnesota.

In the fourth it was a another Right Winger named Nick Petersen who plays for Shawinigan. But then it was back to defense taking Alex Velischek in the fifth. If that last name sounds familiar, it should. He is the son of Randy Velischek who played ten years in the NHL for teams including New Jersey. Randy was never known for his offense, putting up Hal Gill like numbers but his son is definitely more offensive minded.

With their second pick in the fifth round the Penguins selected center Andy Bathgate out of the OHL who is the grandson of Andy Bathgate who played for the Penguins in 1967.

To round out the picks the Penguins took Viktor Ekbom, a defenseman from Sweeden.

Almost all of these guys have some rounding out to do before the Penguins will even think about tapping them for NHL experience.

The question has been asked a lot; what exactly would be the salary cap for the 2009-2010 season? There was a lot of speculation that it might even go down a little but that really was not expected. Today, on the same day as the entry draft, the league answer that question with a $100,000 answer.

Yep, that is the increase for next season. Teams will now have $56.8 million to spend rather that $56.7 million. That puts the bind on any team with multiple important free agents to sign. Teams like the Penguins. So if players like Guerin and Fedotenko were expecting to get huge raises to stick around you can pretty much kiss those thoughts goodbye guys!

Reports are that the the Penguins have already talked with Fedotenko’s agent and extended an initial offer for next season. We’ll see if they can fit him in under the cap and who else they are actively chasing down to resign in the coming days. Guerin will likely not resign until after the 1st when he sees what other teams will offer his veteran and experienced frame. But I still hold out hope that he will take a pay cut to stay on a team like the Penguins.

If you were in Pittsburgh, odd are you were watching Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals on June 12th. The ratings are in and they are staggering. Nielson reports that 485,000 televisions local Pittsburghers were glued to the set to watch; good for a 42.2 rating locally.

Regionally the ratings were great too as 61% of folks were watching the game in numbers that you would normally expect to see from an NFL Super Bowl match up involving the Steelers.

All this means that hockey is widely popular here in the the Pittsburgh area and that advertisers probably got more than their money’s worth. I just don’t see them having paid anywhere near the rates that such ratings would have demanded.

The NHL must be very happy. I know the Penguins are.

Now if only the NHL can use this to help them get back in ESPNs good graces?