Dave Molinari of Pittsburgh Hockey Now: The Pittsburgh Penguins could have some holes to fill out depending on whether or not they acquire Erik Karlsson. They don’t have much cap space to work with but could look to bring in some players to training camp on PTOs.
Some potential options could include Zach Aston-Reese (LW), Anders Bjork (LW/RW), Jujhar Khaira (LW), Brett Ritchie (RW), Devin Shore (LW/RW) and Colin White (C).
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Dan Kingerski of Pittsburgh Hockey Now: The Pittsburgh Penguins have added a goalie depth this offseason and with potential backups in Casey DeSmith, Alex Nedeljkovic and Magnus Hellberg on NHL deals, something has to give.
Sources say that it could be DeSmith, who was 15-16-4 last season with a .905 save percentage.
The San Jose Sharks don’t have a lot of goaltender depth.
The Penguins are about $2.3 million over the salary and have a second buyout window as an option due to Drew O’Connor‘s arbitration hearing.
Potential trade candidates.
Drew O’Conner – The 25-year old doesn’t have a lot trade value on his own and wouldn’t clear much salary.
Bryan Rust – $5 million through 2024-25 with a no-movement clause.
Jan Rutta – Didn’t play a big role with the Penguins but would have some trade value.
Jeff Petry – Carries a $6.25 million salary cap hit and is likely part of the Erik Karlsson trade talks.
Daily Faceoff: Jason Gregor and Frank Seravalli on the possibility of the Pittsburgh Penguins having both Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson on their blue line.
Seravalli: “The understanding is at least and Rob Rossi from The Athletic has been reporting on this, they’ve brought Kris Letang into the mix and essentially gotten his blessing to say, hey, what would it look like if Erik Karlsson was here?
And Erik Karlsson has had some of those conversations with the Penguins as well. What does that fit look like? That’s were it really starts to get interesting, right?
Gregor: “Oh yeah. Like if you’re Kris Letang, like I, people are like, well, you can’t have too many good players. I’m like what? Why not?
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Like, look at St. Louis when they won. Look at their blue line. You know, (Scott) Niedermayer and (Chris) Pronger played pretty well together in Anahiem if we want to go two elite blue liners. Victor Hedman, they brought in Ryan McDonagh. He did pretty well in Tampa Bay.
If I’m Kris Letang, I’d be doing cartwheels if they’re going to bring in Erik Karlsson.
Seravalli: “It just takes a lot of heat off of you. It takes the pressure off to feel like you need to do everything.