The Pens are ready to take the next step forward and be the competitive team they have been building for. This has been highlighted by a strong offseason and the contraversal trade with Dallas swapping 1^st round picks for the upcoming season.

 

After a disappointing playoff performance year 2 GM Kennedy decided to tear down and rebuild around the young core. With not great cap and a hindered bank account the organization felt they were on the path of being a perennial fringe playoff team. This was not the goal when GM Kennedy took over 3 seasons ago. Our goal was to build a perennial contender.

 

Now lets not get ahead of ourselves this team has a lot to prove before getting even a playoff team label much less a perennial contender label. First the Pens loaded up at the draft (already covered Pens Draft Review article) because they knew moving forward they would be shipping out draft picks in order to help address immediate areas of need. Then they went into Free Agency with a lot of cap and cash but a lot of holes to fill around their young core.

 

The current roster looks like this. UFA, Player already in place, Trade

 

Ladd- Cammalari-Tarasenko

Smith-MacKinnon-Williams

Yakupov-Granlund-Donskoi

Hendricks-_________-__________

                   _________-__________

 

Giordano-Markov

Parayko-Ceci

Greene-Trouba

Merrill

 

Varlamov

(Zatkoff) looking to upgrade

 

To start the season the team is slotting Cammalari as their top C even though he has a poor FO rating. “ It’s a move we are willing to roll the dice on, we really want to slot Cammalari and his 88 PA 84 SC in between Tarasenko 91 SC and Ladd’s 83 SC. We feel this will give us a dominant offensive line to set the tone of the game.” That line is followed up by another offensive 2^nd wave with Building Block MacKinnon between Smith and Williams. These are arguably 2 of the most threatening top lines in the league with 5 of the players having SC ratings over 80  (94,84,83,81,80) and Williams is just off with his 78 SC. For now the 3^rd line consists of Yakupov-Granlund-Donskoi all three still have lots of potential and ceiling and are expected to develop into top 6 roles in the upcoming seasons. For now only Hendricks is on our 4^th line. He was recently acquired for a 7^th and fines cash. With no forwards with great DF ratings we wanted to bring in Hendricks 91CK and 90 DF. There are still 2 spots available and some bench spots but with the cap getting tighter management is trying to play it smart and take advantage of the upcoming waiver draft which they have 2^nd selection in the 3 rounds to address those spots and possibly upgrade through the seasons as teams drop out of the race and begin selling off.

 

Then we turn to the defence. We went into FA aiming for Markov or Giordano. But when Bruins GM took over the market the Pens took advantage of the situation by making a trade with the Bruins and got the top Defensive FA ½ retained which just opened more cap then expected which we then used to go after the other top Dman in FA. They now are one of the top pairings in the league. Parayko has good offensive numbers and not horrid DF numbers but is paired nicely with Ceci who has some offense but is mostly suited as the shutdown guy on this pairing. Greene was brought in for scraps because teams were turned off of his poor DF rating. But his 79 CK 83 SK 83 PH and 73 PA make him a very good offensive Dman we plan on pairing with shut down Dman Trouba. And Merrill is there so we don’t lose him through waivers, we think he is going to have a much better year in Jersey. Management commented “ we want to keep ice time for the big guns down to get us through the season, we plan on doing that by not just having a shut down pairing but 3 pairings that can provide good offensive push yet be defensively responsible. We especially feel our bottom pairing Greene-Trouba will take advantage of other teams bottom 6 and can provide us some unexpected secondary offense.”

 

When the goalie market went sour in free agency and the Pens went over their budget they set aside for a tender they were forced to address the position via trade and bring in Varlamov. This opened up big time cap and allowed the team to bring in that extra top 6 talent in Ladd and also Markov for the blueline. For now they made a move to aquire Zatkoff for cash as a backup but plan on upgrading the backup spot as the season progresses. Zatkoff is on a cheap 2 yr deal and might get lucky.

 

The underlying stat with this team is that there isn’t a player under 77 SK. This team can skate, especially with our blue line. The Pens have assembled a fast offensive run and gun team. The PK still needs to be addressed and there will be some major juggling with the PP but management feels we have done a good job acquiring the best players for the roles we need filled. We have brought in quite a few rentals but will still have enough youth we are very confident will continue to develop for the seasons to come. Future move to watch for would be acquiring another legit top C, this would move Cammalari to the wing and Williams down to play with Granlund and Donskoi giving some VERY nice secondary support. But that is easier said than done.

 

This will hopefully be the season the Pens finally step out of the basement and begin their climb to the top of the standings. If we do not make playoffs, this year will be a complete failure. Hell if we don’t finish higher than Dallas we lose the bet and Junya wont be humbled, this would be letting the league down……