The Pittsburgh Penguins were not expected to be major players in free agency, but have apparently fallen in love with one particular two-way forward. TSN’s Darren Dreger initially reported the deal, and the Penguins have now confirmed the signing of Brandon Tanev to a six-year contract with a $3.5MM AAV.
That’s a significant commitment to a player who made just $1.15MM last season and whose best season was 14 goals and 29 points, but the 27-year-old provides more than offense on the ice as Tanev finished with a career-high in hits with 278. That physicality, to go with the ability to show some offense and the fact that Tanev continues to improve every year suggests that Pittsburgh believes that his best years are still to come. The hope is that Tanev can provide the team with an energy booster in the bottom-six, but who can also help those lines add some offense.
Pittsburgh likely wouldn’t have been able to make a deal like that work, but general manager Jim Rutherford freed up quite a bit of cap room in the last week by trading off defenseman Olli Maatta as well as finding a trade partner for Phil Kessel and his $8MM salary.
The Jets were thrilled with the 27-year-old’s play, but with Tanev having received quite a bit of attention on the open market, Winnipeg realized early on that they wouldn’t have enough money to keep him in the fold considering the team would already be up against the cap once the team re-signs some of their core, including Patrik Laine, Kyle Connor and Neal Pionk.
6 YEARS?
Same thoughts I had. Yikes.
I don’t mind the money but I’ll never understand why team commit three plus years to bottom 6 players. They’re so interchangeable
GMJR strikes again! Revoke his Hall pass!!! Good thing Hainsey wasn’t available for a 5-6 year deal at $5MM+, eh?
Good player. Good fit. I like his addition to the team. BUT…
Got twice as much term and twice as much money as he should have…bad contract. If not for the Zuccarello deal, this would be the worst deal so far.
He’s going to need to end up being the Hagelin or Kunitz type of grinder who ends up in a top 6 role to make this deal look good.
Having said that, I could see him as Malkin’s LW with Galchenyuk on the RW as the guy who forechecks and backchecks and chips in 15 goals. So…who knows.
Then again, I could also see him and Hornqvist as $8.8 million worth of 4th line wingers.
This is the type of contract in one to two years that teams regret giving out and become desperate to get out of the deal. I agree with JD, I will never understand why teams give out 3+ years to bottom six guys. I could maybe understand rewarding your own guys with that type of deal, but I don’t see any reason to make a “big” splash in free agency with this type of deal. I imagine Pittsburgh must really think he can fit alongside one of Crosby or Geno otherwise the length of the deal is extremely questionable.
Found this gem on McKenzie’s timeline…
“Mike M
Replying to @TSNBobMcKenzie
Every player in the league just googled “Brandon Tanev agent”.”
He will be on the trademarket before January 2020.
So if you duct-tape together Tanev and Galchenyuk do you get 1 good forward? I kinda thought the Pens were working through eliminating their brutal contracts, not creating more of them.
3.5 mil is not a brutal contract
Tanev’s cap hit is the same as Bryan Rust’s. I’d bet on Rust getting traded.
Holy hell thats a bad contract.