The Penguins intend to wait a while before deciding if they’ll proceed with any significant discussions about an extension for defenseman Marcus Pettersson, relays David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period (Twitter link). The 28-year-old has become a key cog on Pittsburgh’s back end in recent years and is heading for a raise on his current price tag of just over $4.0.25MM. However, the Penguins need to determine if they’re going to be a team that’s vying for a playoff spot in the second half of the season or a possible seller if things aren’t going so well. If it’s the latter, they could decide the better move is to move him as a rental player at the trade deadline where there would be a strong market for his services. Accordingly, don’t expect a decision on that front for a while yet. Pettersson has four points in nine games so far this season while averaging over 21 minutes a night of playing time.
More from the Metropolitan Division:
- Despite a slow start to the season that saw the Flyers collect just one win in their first seven games, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports that head coach John Tortorella has the complete and total support of the team. The veteran bench boss is in his third season with Philadelphia with the expectations potentially being a bit higher last season after the rebuilding Flyers nearly made the playoffs last year. Tortorella is signed through 2025-26 but was inherited by GM Daniel Briere who was a special assistant to the GM at the time the 66-year-old was hired.
- Rangers winger Jimmy Vesey took part in the morning skate today in a non-contact jersey, relays Mollie Walker of the New York Post (Twitter link). The 31-year-old has yet to play this season due to an upper-body injury sustained in the preseason, landing him on LTIR in the process. Vesey was a capable depth scorer for New York last season, recording 13 goals and 13 assists in 80 games, the best offensive numbers he had since the final year of his first stint with the team back in 2018-19. Because of the LTIR placement, he has to miss 10 games and 24 days, meaning the earliest he can be activated is their November 3rd contest.
The Pens forward group has actually been OK, getting decent production from each line.
The goaltending is what it is, no outside help is likely.
Letang stays. Stuck with Graves. But I’d move as many of the rest of them as possible…ASAP…in order to try to get back into contention.
Pettersson and Grezlcyk should be rentals who can fetch stuff. St. Ivany could be appealing to a cap strapped team.
But, if at any point, Karlsson starts playing OK enough that another team would want him, we can eat half of his cap hit and roster 2 or 3 players with the savings. He just mopes.
Then become a dumping ground for teams looking to get out of D man contracts, taking picks in return and see if you luck into a Bad New Bears/Mighty Ducks motley crew that rebound into just the right mix.
They will be sellers, unless something drastically changes