Pens sign Fehr, trade Sutter......
- Thread starter Ten Thousan Marbles
- Start date
Nothing not to like about these moves. For as much as Sutter brought to the table at times, he was generally an overpaid 3rd line center....and Cup contenders do not generally sink so much money into a performer like that.
Bonino can reasonably be expected to produce 40-45 points with the Pens, and his addition could make Kunitz expendable. He has 2 more years left at 1.9 million.
Fehr is exactly the type of depth player at a good price that they've been missing.
Both of these acquisitions can play center or wing and net impact of these moves is only 600k more in cap space spent.
If Rutherford can unload Scuderi, he gets and A+ for the off season.
Bonino can reasonably be expected to produce 40-45 points with the Pens, and his addition could make Kunitz expendable. He has 2 more years left at 1.9 million.
Fehr is exactly the type of depth player at a good price that they've been missing.
Both of these acquisitions can play center or wing and net impact of these moves is only 600k more in cap space spent.
If Rutherford can unload Scuderi, he gets and A+ for the off season.
Kunitz expendable would have to be approved by Sid. Unloading Scuderi would warrant an A if that was all they did this summer, so A+ is downplaying some nice moves by Rutherford.
Per normal, perfect analysis, Va. I'm still infuriated that Rutherford played so close to the line w/ D-men last season -- really an offense worthy of termination, imo -- but he's had a damned good summer. And that's coming from someone who really liked Sutter.
Looking back on Rutherford's last 13 months since taking over...
I would agree the mismanagement of the cap alone would put a lot of GMs on the scorching hot seat. However, I also don't know any GM that would plan the cap in anticipation that 4 of his top 6 D would be going down for extended periods of time, at the same time in the stretch run of a playoff chase. Not trying to let JR off the hook, but I'd chalk more of that situation up to bad luck than poor planning necessarily. The D actually performed very well vs. the Rangers and I credit Johnston's staff for that, but the D was going on fumes and not playing minutes suitable for their roles (insert criticism of Lovejoy trade here).
I still like the Hornqvist for Neal trade even if Spaling didn't pan out as hoped (moreso due to his price tag than actual performance in a 3rd/4th line role)
Winnick just never meshed but the jury is still out on the Peron deal. For the first month of his arrival, it looked like a great trade but the guy just couldn't buy a goal down the stretch. We saw the same thing from Neal when he was originally acquired from Dallas and it proved to be the exception rather than the rule to his production with the Pens.
Last summer, JR took over a team that probably needed more tweaking than overloading but really didn't have much time to familiarize himself with the roster before having to make some moves. He was left with a mess by Shero thanks to quite a few bad deals and poor forward depth in the org. This off season, I can't imagine a better series of moves to upgrade the team to this point. It would still be great to unload Scuderi and may be make a run at Franson. The D will be a question mark until the health of Letang and Maata does not make it so.
