As The Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports, the Pittsburgh Penguins appear to be keeping their trade deadline acquisition around a while longer, re-signing forward Rickard Rakell. Mike DeFabo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette adds that the contract is expected to be for six years at $5MM per season. Pittsburgh had acquired Rakell at the trade deadline from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for a 2022 second-round pick, forwards Zach Aston-Reese and Dominik Simon, and goaltender Calle Clang.
Rakell’s extension at this rate is an interesting one, the winger having recorded as many as 34 goals and 69 points in 77 games in 2017-18, but has not come close to either of those marks since. This season, Rakell scored 20 goals to go along with 21 assists in 70 games, four goals and 13 points of which came as a member of the Penguins in 19 games after the trade. Dealing with injury, Rakell played in just two of Pittsburgh’s seven postseason games. If the forward can get back to the player he was from 2016-2018 and be a reliable 30 goal scorer, then the contract should pose great value for the Penguins.
After carrying a $3.79MM cap hit, the extension brings Rakell up to $5MM, leaving Pittsburgh with just over $10.3MM in available salary cap space, without factoring in a new contract for RFA forward Kasperi Kapanen. The deal does not necessarily foreclose the possibility for re-signing superstar Evgeni Malkin, however the earlier news that Malkin would test free agency does put his future in the steel city squarely in doubt. Still, without Malkin, the remaining space would allow the team to pursue an extension with Evan Rodrigues, who is also slated to hit the open market on Wednesday afternoon and potentially even pursue a few extra additions to round out the roster.
Cool, Rakell was great for us.
But, he needs a center…
Hopefully, Geno VERY QUICKLY realizes the grass isn’t greener or he’s going to find a Matt Olson in his stall.
Pens can’t afford Kadri after this signing, but they can’t keep all of these key pieces and then use Carter as 2C. Need to keep Geno and if not, sign Trocheck or find enough assetss to land Miller.
With the cap space available think miller makes more sense honestly GMJR will take petterson or dumo back in a deal possibly kapanen even (who was prob only issued an offer to trade) but will prob hold out for marino and at that point the pens hands are tied if they don’t resign Geno
Unless they are willing to trade a d man just so they can make a run at giroux
Unused Malkin money!
Is it a coincidence or correlation that this comes out after the Malkin news? Either way, not a bad contract for a good quality secondary piece.
I can’t find a landing spot for Geno that makes more sense than PGH.
If he wants money to go to a rebuild like OTT or DET or BUF, OK…but he says that’s not what he wants.
I guess FLA if he wants to play on a cheap, short term deal. Maybe COL on a medium term, medium money deal if Kadri leaves.
The teams with a better chance to win than PGH (likely) can’t offer as much money or term and the teams who can give him a better contact have lesser odds.
Ottawa, Detroit and Buffalo have won the same number of playoff rounds as Pitt in the past 4 years.
Pitt is a college team.
that hasn’t won an NHL playoff round in 4 years.
College football or basketball teams rarely win in the NHL playoffs.
And if you can’t discern between a team that makes the playoffs every year and lottery teams…so be it.
So when the wheels fall off & the team sinks out of contention this will be the 3rd contract (Rust, Letang) they will have to buy out or otherwise bundle with picks to offload in an attempt to rebuild and exit cap hell.
Rebuilding teams carry bad contracts all the time.
I cannot in any way wrap my head around the “don’t maximize the Crosby era because we have to think about the Filip Hallander era, too” mindset.
The swing for the fences move is to offer up Zucker, either Dumo or Pettersson and next year’s first round pick to Seattle for a puck.
Then use the money to extend Jarry, sign Geno (or his replacement), add a second line LW and a third pair D man. Might still need one more LW if there is any cap room left after that, as no one appears to think Sam Poulin can help us.
I’m really pleased with this being done. I see him on Sid’s line with Guentzel. Rust and Zucker on second line