The Pittsburgh Penguins have locked up one of their most versatile forwards, re-signing Bryan Rust to a four-year contract. The deal carries an average annual value of $3.5MM, and will carry Rust to unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2022. Rust was scheduled to become a restricted free agent with arbitration rights, but will now be locked into a contract with Pittsburgh until just after his 30th birthday.
Rust, 26, has moved up and down the Penguins lineup for the last few years, often riding shotgun with Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin. With that, he set a career-high with 38 points this season and saw the ice in every situation. A reliable defensive winger who can play both sides, he’s a useful piece for the Penguins to move around when needed. That said, this deal now brings with it some extra responsibility and expectations.
The Penguins are paying for UFA years in this contract, as Rust had just one year of restricted free agent status left and could have easily taken the team to arbitration for a hefty raise on the $640K cap hit he’s carried the last two seasons. The team is betting that he would have attracted several suitors, and offered him enough to make it worthwhile for him to sign away some of his free agent seasons. They should have a good indication of who would be interested, since they recently made Rust available in trade in at least negotiations over Max Domi. Whether GM Jim Rutherford would be open to trading Rust for other players isn’t clear, but with a cap crunch and improvements needed it would come as no surprise.
Rust’s deal leaves the Penguins with just over $5MM in projected cap space, but still some decisions to be made about roster players. Jamie Oleksiak was given a qualifying offer and is an RFA, but Riley Sheahan and Tom Kuhnhackl are both unrestricted free agents after going unqualified yesterday. The team could retain any number of them, but will have to be careful how much cap space is allocated to each. There is of course the chance that Phil Kessel and his $6.8MM cap hit is dealt in the coming weeks, but otherwise the Penguins look to be cash-strapped as free agency approaches. Rust’s deal does give them some level of cost certainty, but also complicates the cap situation for this summer.
As much as I hate to say it, I think they might’ve overpaid for rust
Agreed, unless he ends up seeing full-time duty alongside Malkin or Crosby. He’s a solid two-way player but is only able to put up points when playing alongside one of the two stars. If he’s permanently stuck alongside one of Malkin/Crosby (barring injury or just a complete loss of chemistry) he should perform well, perhaps in the 40-50 point range. If that’s the case, his contract will look like a slight steal.
I love Rust, but I agree*.
The mistake was overpaying Conor Sheary which then forced them to overpay Rust, as well.
*I actually think Rust is worth that much, but we was an RFA who hardly a lock to win an arbitration hearing and they should have been able to keep his cap hit lower to spend elsewhere.
Except that this contract is only a problem in year 1. Hagelin walks next year and this contract is less than a hit than his. Good move.