Penguins add to forward depth with Bonino, Fehr

PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Penguins bolstered their bottom-six forward group Tuesday by signing free agent Eric Fehr and acquiring Nick Bonino from the Vancouver Canucks along with defenseman Adam Clendening and a second-round pick in the 2016 NHL Draft in a trade for center Brandon Sutter and a 2016 third-round pick.

Fehr received a three-year contract with an average annual value of $2 million.

Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford said he discussed a possible trade with Vancouver since about a month before the 2015 NHL Draft in late June.

"The two deals went hand-in-hand so we can add more depth," Rutherford said. "We have enough good players now that guys are going to have to compete for those spots [in training camp] and compete for them all year. If a guy falls off, there's a guy waiting to jump right in there.

"I like the fact that we have enough guys that each guy can push each other."

Three weeks after obtaining forward Phil Kessel from the Toronto Maple Leafs, Rutherford addressed a remaining offensive question. Forward Daniel Winnik signed with Toronto as a free agent, leaving a void at fourth-line center, where it was assumed a prospect, possibly Oskar Sundqvist, would play.

Bonino has 48 goals and 121 points in six NHL seasons, 15 last season with Vancouver after an NHL career-high 22 for the Anaheim Ducks the season before.

"I would imagine that I'd be in what I guess you could call a third-line center role right now," Bonino told the Penguins website. "But at the end of the day, teams have four lines that need to be able to score in this league. So I'll definitely be looking to contribute as best I can."

Fehr also could settle as the third- or fourth-line center, once Fehr returns from injury. He had elbow surgery June 3 and is expected to recover in 4-6 months. The Penguins consulted Fehr's surgeon and were informed he was in the top 20 percentile of individuals who have the injury, in regards to his recovery.

"I'm not quite back to my full training, but I've obviously been training legs and conditioning and everything," Fehr told the website. "I'm starting to feel a lot more like my normal self. I'm obviously out of the sling and cast and moving around pretty well, so that's exciting for me. This is just another motivating factor for me to continue to push hard and get ready for the regular season."

Fehr scored 19 goals and 33 points in 75 games with the Washington Capitals last season, his second-best statistical performance (21 goals, 39 points in 2009-10).

"I'm not exactly sure how the coaching staff plans on using me, but I definitely feel that I can be valuable in the middle at the center ice position and play against other teams' top lines, but also add some offense," Fehr said. "I think I've got a little bit more to give in the scoring department, and I'm hoping that I can pick that up in Pittsburgh. Depending on whether I'm playing center or wing, I'm just really looking forward to contributing on offense as well as defense."

Rutherford said he was impressed with Fehr as the Capitals third-line center last season, when he scored three goals in four games against the Penguins, and could see him filling the same role in Pittsburgh, but left the possibility for him to play as a top-six wing.

"Eric is definitely comfortable as a two-positional player," Rutherford said. "He could possibly jump up into the top six, if that situation presented itself, but he's coming off of a year where he played center. He was good on faceoffs. He was a good shutdown guy, actually a very good shutdown guy in that third center position with the Capitals.

"So he's a guy also, at one time he had a 20-goal season, I think 21 … but also really good on the defensive end of it and can kill penalties."

Rutherford also said Bonino could play wing, but he is likely to see a majority of time as a bottom-six center.

"Certainly his strongest position is at center," Rutherford said. "That would be the preference, but with the depth we have at forward now and the guys that are two-positional players, I guess there's a possibility he could move to the wing. Nick is a very smart player. He really has good hockey sense. He can play in all situations. He can play the half-wall on the power play. Obviously it would be hard for him to get on the first unit, but potentially a second-unit guy.

"He also kills penalties and he's a guy that almost got 40 points last year and 15 goals. When you look at the structure of our salaries and our cap, it's important to get those bottom-six cap hits in better shape, and that's what we were able to do with these two deals."

The trade opened salary-cap space that made it possible for Pittsburgh to sign Fehr, Rutherford said. Rutherford, who traded Sutter to the Penguins for forward Jordan Staal in 2012 while general manager of the Carolina Hurricanes, complimented Sutter's hockey sense and character.

"He's, believe it or not, actually one of my favorite guys, and I've ended up trading him twice," Rutherford said. "I appreciate what he's done. He was one year away from being an unrestricted free agent, and I felt with this opportunity, that it was a chance that we were able to get somebody for him in Nick Bonino and Adam Clendening.

"[Sutter's] just a hockey guy. He's an easy-going guy. He understands how things work. He understands things aren't always going to go right. He can adjust to that. … Brandon's just one of those guys that understands the game and is such a likable guy."

Rutherford said he expects Pittsburgh's top three lines to produce in a similar fashion to when they had Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Staal centering those lines several seasons ago.

"I can't predict how guys are going to play, none of us can, but certainly based on what I've seen, we have the guys that we can put out there as a unit of three that should be able to shut guys down," Rutherford said. "Fehr's coming off a terrific year shutting down the other team's top line and he's at the point in his career where he should be able to continue doing that for several years."

The Penguins don't have much salary-cap space remaining (about $1.8 million, according to war-on-ice.com), Rutherford said, but they could add a forward if needed.

"We're up against the cap," Rutherford said. "We certainly have room if we want to add another forward. We still want to keep in mind that we have some young forwards coming. We do know that injuries are going to play a part here and those guys are going to get their opportunity.

"But based on what we went through last year with a number of injuries and everything, I like our depth at forward now."