Penguins GM Hextall talking trade, and to Tristan Jarry about an extension
Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The Pittsburgh Penguins are about $1.5 million over the salary cap and GM Ron Hextall said that he’s going over some trade possibilities that would make them cap compliant.
Hextall said they aren’t the only team looking to move salary and will continue to look to see if anything makes sense.
“There’s a lot of teams over. I guess, some teams, you kind of wonder what they’re going to do. We’re obviously in that situation,” Hextall said. “There’s only a few suitors wanting to take on money, so it’s a tough market right now. The last couple years, basically with a flat cap, have been challenging for all of us.”
Hextall adds that there have been some talks with goaltender Tristan Jarry, who is a free agent after the season.
“We’ll see where it goes. There’s no real urgency there from either side,” Hextall said. “But we’ll continue talking and see if we can get something done.”
Another year of Matt Dumba speculation
Michael Russo of The Athletic: 28-year-old Minnesota Wild defenseman Matt Dumba is entering the final year of his contract that carries a $6 million cap hit but a $5.2 million salary. The Wild have dead salary cap hits of $12.7 million and $14.7 million in 2023-24 and 2024-25 due to the Zach Parise/Ryan Suter buyouts.
The Wild have some defense prospects on the rise and they may not want to re-sign Dumba.
“If I worried about that, I’d probably be in a shell hiding somewhere,” Dumba said. “I’ve heard about the numbers. I’ve heard about the cap space. Every year of my career, I’ve been on the (trading) block.”
Wild GM Bill Guerin said the sides haven’t really talked and he doesn’t think they need to be distracted with it at the moment.
“I can’t say that we’re going to start talking or get a deal done.
“We, as an organization, are in a unique spot with our cap space situation, so it’s hard to do certain things. But you never know.””