The Penguins and Jake Guentzel have not made progress on extension talks, reports Chris Johnston of The Athletic (subscription link). The 29-year-old is a pending unrestricted free agent and is on pace for a career-high 89 points after recording 36 and 40 goals over the past two seasons. Currently on a contract that carries a $6MM AAV, he certainly has been a value contract for Pittsburgh during that time and he’s well-positioned to make a few million per season more on a long-term deal. With the Penguins currently on the outside looking in at a playoff spot, Johnston suggests it would be difficult to see GM Kyle Dubas letting him go straight to free agency unsigned in July. If that’s the case, he’d be a significant addition to the trade market closer to the March 8 trade deadline.
More from Pittsburgh:
- After clearing waivers yesterday, the Penguins didn’t immediately send Ryan Shea down to the minors which was a bit odd. However, it was a short-term decision to keep him up as Pittsburgh has now loaned him to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, per the AHL’s transactions log. The 27-year-old has played his first 22 career NHL games this season, averaging 12:28 per night and figures to have a more prominent role in the AHL after putting up 60 points combined over the last two seasons.
- Pittsburgh Hockey Now’s Dan Kingerski wonders if the Penguins could be a dark horse team to watch for on the trade market. If they don’t wind up re-signing Guentzel and the salary cap goes up as expected, they could have the flexibility to add another big contract over the summer, even after taking on the bulk of Erik Karlsson’s deal this past offseason. Accordingly, that could make them a player for an impact rental player on a possible sign-and-trade deal or one with some term remaining in the coming weeks.
I’m sure the new President and GM will make some outstanding moves ahead of the trade deadline. He’s really smart, ya know?
Watching their supposedly elite core win jack ****ing nothing has made Leaf fans a tad bitter, it seems.
That’s just leaf fans for you. Our Canadian sports media is dominated by the leafs and when that “elite” core wins 3 in a row in preseason the cup is coming home. If they lose 3 in a row sell Marner he’s trash. Hard to come by 90 point forwards!
Not a Leafs fan… but it’s good to see Kool-Aid tastes the same in Pittsburgh and Toronto. Seriously, you clowns sound just like Leafs fans.
We’ve won Cups since the moon landing.
Also, FWIW, Kool-Aid is mass produced in factories with strict quality control standards so, yes, it probably does.
Also, it seems odd that me trashing Leaf fans sounds a lot like Leaf fans who drink Kool-Aid.
D- trolling effort here overall.
More Leafslike all the time… yeah, but, remember when… seriously… I despise the Leafs… but I find it hilarious that you toads in Pittsburgh are now going to trumpet Dubas… ugh!
Pitty is my second favorite team…wouldn’t be calling anyone in Pittsburg toads… I mean cmon whoever you cheer for have they had a better team than Lemieux/Jagr era Penguins or the more recent Crosby/Malkin/Letang/Fluery era? Pretty hard teams to top. I personally don’t think Dubas is a great GM but how much experience does he have? 1 Team prior as GM. He built a decent team in Tor except not a team that can win a cup so far. I am not going to rag on Pittsburg trying maximize the Crosby era. And yeah I mean Pittsburg has a bonafide Dynasty and I for one at a tad sad she’s starting to close.
Dubas is better than Hextall. Thats legitimately all we care about at this point.
Although, admittedly, the bad contracts he was able to dump (ok, consolidate) in the Karlsson trade was impressive.
I think the same paradigm must apply in a lot of cities, mcdavidlikeamac. Here in Boston, if one of the pro teams wins three games straight (or the Patriots two), the sports writers start talking about lining up the duck boats for the championship parade. If they lose three in a row, then they’re all bums, and management are all bums, and the team should be broken up while the losers still have a scrap of trade value left.
Hextall??… isn’t that the guy who gave away McCann for Hallander and a 7th? That’s almost as bad as paying Hallander and a 7th to give McCann away.
Ron Francis has entered the chat.
I wish more teams would do this but i imagine ownership plays a major factor in it. If they dont think he is likly to resign or if they bearly make the playoffs your much better off trading pieces like this, Even if its just to retool in the following offseason.
Jake will be going nowhere. Not with Sid’s next deal still waiting to be signed.
$8 M AAV x 8.
Maybe $8.5 M to stay just under Sid’s number.
I’m worried Guentzel wont be the same guy without Sid. But I guess at this point you just worry about that later, like everything else.
I know they won’t deal Guentzel, but probably they should. It’s pretty apparent that the bet failed for the second straight year, and while he’s a fine player (I don’t buy for a minute the “Oh he’s no good without Sid/Geno” garbage), he’s going to be a little long in the tooth by the time the rebuild’s over.
I didn’t say “no good”. I’m just not sure he’s a 40 goal scorer without Sid or a set up man of his caliber.
If they are truly out of it at the deadline, they need to trade guentzel. It’ll be for the greater good. He could still potentially resign, but there are some good options this year to go after either way.
Toads is certainly too much… honest. But seriously, if we return to the “here and now” board… the point is this… the Penguins now have a President/GM who seems to have a conviction that he can “deal” his way to success. This is exactly why he’s in Pittsburgh rather than Toronto. But if you think getting fired in Toronto was “4-D” chess… you probably think you’re on the way to past glory. Good luck. And to be clear… I despise the Leafs, and their fans, as much as any team in sports… my opinion of Dubas is based on his superficiality and vanity.
Dubas only option taking the Pittsburgh job was to try to deal his way out of the awful mess that Hextall made. Which…he did.
Will it work? Not looking good so far, but they weren’t going anywhere standing pat. He certainly didn’t have a ton of options either with all the bad contracts.
People also ignore the fact that that is exactly what he was hired to do. If his plan was to start the rebuild this year, they wouldn’t have hired him in the first place…
I agree wholeheartedly… he’s gonna have to deal, and that’s what he was hired to do. But that doesn’t mean he’s good at it. In Toronto fans were convinced he was a “genius”… but I can’t say why. Now it’s Pittsburgh’s turn.
Agreed: Dubas was hired on the all-in mentality. It’s even more of a mistake than it was last year, but that’s what the organization wants. And what’s his incentive to buck FSG? He’d be fired long before a rebuild was complete.
Didn’t make the playoffs last year, haven’t won a playoff series in 5 years, currently have 6 teams ahead of them for the second wild card spot, a core made up of 36 year olds, the worst farm system in the NHL, zero young talent on the roster and no 1st round pick next year?
TIME TO GO ALL IN!
Go get ’em Kyle!