The Pittsburgh Penguins aren’t waiting around for restricted free agency. The team has re-signed Teddy Blueger to a two-year contract that carries him through the 2022-23 season. The deal comes with an average annual value of $2.2MM, locking the centerman in at a reasonable price. GM Ron Hextall released a short statement on the deal:
Teddy has proven to be a versatile, two-way center, as well as a fixture on the penalty kill. He is a valuable player for our team.
Blueger, 26, was a year away from unrestricted free agency, meaning the Penguins have bought out one of his open market years with this contract. Originally a second-round pick way back in 2012, he finally made his NHL debut during the 2018-19 season and has been a fixture in the Penguins lineup ever since. During the 2019-20 season he even received Selke Trophy votes as one of the best defensive forwards in the NHL, but it was really this season when he added 22 points in just 43 games that his true value as a two-way option came out.
There are few forwards in the league that receive tougher deployment than Blueger, who starts nearly three times as many shifts in the defensive zone as the offensive. The idea is that if he can be a positive with such defensive responsibility, the other centers on the Penguins—of which they have some good ones—will be free to contribute more at the offensive end of the rink. While some of his possession statistics are punished heavily because of that deployment, the Penguins still generally come out on the winning end of the goals scored battle with him on the ice.
With this new contract, his role in Pittsburgh likely won’t change, with heavy penalty killing and defensive minutes baked right into his role. Of course, with a Penguins team facing some real decisions in terms of who to protect at the expansion draft, Blueger may actually end up exposed to the Seattle Kraken. If he does, a $2.2MM contract might actually be pretty enticing to a team that could give him a bigger offensive opportunity. It’s not like Blueger doesn’t have the ability to contribute at that end, as he showed in college and the minor leagues. While there will be other interesting options available, this is exactly the kind of player that an expansion team may target now that he’s on a reasonable two-year deal.
I can’t see how the Pens give him that extension and then not protect him. It would have made more sense to not sign him if you were going to expose him—Seattle would have to figure out the future contract situation themselves. I get that they have a blank slate, but it’s one extra hurdle.
This may leave Brandon Tanev exposed and he’s a good player. The Pens are going to lose a good player no matter what. Ideally, high AAV or term being selected by Seattle would help the most—Zucker, Pettersson, Tanev.
You want to get crazy, don’t protect Jarry and see if Seattle bites there.
Agree with Jarry. They seem like a good fit to take a gamble and overpay Andersen on a short term deal. That seems like a lateral move at worst, and would potentially prevent Seattle from taking a player.
They going to lose McCann Peterson or Zucker. I ask them to take Zucker and throw a sweetener in.
JMartin hit it perfectly. Throw in a 2nd for them to take zuck.
Losing jarry could be traumatic with limited cap space to replace him . He could still be the long term answer and is on a great contract if so .
Pens need a vet backup to supplement him but should be given another chance after all the years of development put into him and his potential is still elite imo
While I agree Jarry has great potential, my concern is that he won’t realize it until after this current Cup window closes. If the Pens could clear enough cap space to acquire a at or near the top of his game they’d have a better chance to win imo.
Hopefully they can keep Blueger and Tanev. Love their efforts in the bottom six.
would def be sad if Tanev is taken.
And man GMJR got some major flack for some of his moves, but Mathy and Tanevs contracts really aren’t so bad once you see the guys on ice, ceci was an awesome pickup too
.. Jack Johnson was a big mistake, never really understood that move. The zuck trade was definitely a reach too wonder what he liked so much about him.
He had some blunders but overall not so many in hindsight
Rutherford got flack because a large portion of our fan based are dimwitted ingrates.
Seattle should be able to swing this AAV pretty easily.
This could be the way the Pens entice Seattle to take Blueger. Hextall isn’t going to sacrifice a draft pick so he does the next best thing and gets someone on a desirable contract. It would suck to lose Blueger, but as I’ve said before the Pens are going to lose a good player.
If this is the strategy, I hope there are other deals being worked to send Zucker, Pettersson, and/or Matheson out for some sort of cap savings.