Mailbag: Figuring out Penguins goaltending plan
NHL.com's Dan Rosen answers weekly questions
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How much longer until the Pittsburgh Penguins trade Marc-Andre Fleury? -- @RamsPens
It's a fair question given the play of goaltenders Fleury and Matt Murray, and the fact we know the Penguins can't protect each of them in the 2017 expansion draft.
I am a firm believer Pittsburgh will move Fleury at some point. Any answer I give to your question of how much longer until it happens would be purely speculative. However, I don't think Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford is in any rush at this point to make a move because even though Fleury has struggled, Pittsburgh knows better than most the value of having two quality No. 1 goalies on the roster. Who knows what would have happened last season if the Penguins didn't have Murray to fill in for an injured Fleury? They needed Fleury at the start of this season because of Murray's injury from the World Cup of Hockey 2016. It makes sense to keep them in a tandem for as long as they can unless they can find a trade offer worth taking. Fleury is better than he has shown and I think he'll have a good game soon when given the chance. He's simply just better than what we've seen in the past few weeks, and nobody can argue with me on that. Maybe they trade him around the 2017 NHL Trade Deadline or perhaps around All-Star weekend, which is another good time for teams to assess what they have and what they need.
Any team taking on Fleury would have to take on the remaining two years of his contract too, which means they would have to be in a situation where they need to fill a No. 1 goaltending spot. There aren't many teams out there with that need now. There are some teams that may want to have a different No. 1 goalie (looking at you, New York Islanders and Dallas Stars), but that would require a domino move to get Fleury and that's hard to pull off, too. Patience is going to be required here as well as the understanding the return on Fleury might not be what some people envision, because the supply and demand doesn't work in the Penguins favor now.
Who gets paid more at free agency, Ben Bishop or Kevin Shattenkirk? -- @kinglewimcmxc
I'll say Shattenkirk, because I think he'll get more than $6 million per season on a long-term contract in the way Keith Yandle got $6.35 million on a seven-year contract from the Florida Panthers. I don't think Bishop is going to get more than $6 million per season. At least I don't think he should get more than $6 million. I also think Shattenkirk, who at 27 is two years younger than Yandle, will get a six-year or seven-year contract. Bishop might get a five-year contract, but I think that's too long for him or any 30-year-old goalie. I can see Bishop getting somewhere in the neighborhood of five years and $27 million to $30 million, although I'd probably try to get him on a three-year contract and would be willing to pay him $6 million per season. He's making $5.95 million now.
Where do you see Fleury and Bishop going? -- @whoopoi
While we're on the topic, why not tackle this one too, in a purely speculative way again, of course. It's speculative because GMs are loathe to reveal details for fear of losing leverage.
As I mentioned above, I can see the Islanders and Stars eventually wanting to change in net with new No. 1 goalies. Either could work there, but I don't see the Penguins trading Fleury to another team in the Metropolitan Division, so Bishop would be a more realistic fit since he can sign with the Islanders in free agency or, potentially, get traded to them before the deadline and sign an extension. I think the former is more likely than the latter. All of this only works if the Islanders find a taker for Jaroslav Halak. He is signed for one more season at a NHL salary cap charge of $4.5 million. He's hard to trade, but not impossible. Maybe the Tampa Bay Lightning would take him as a backup to Andrei Vasilevskiy if the Islanders retain some salary. Maybe the Penguins would, too. Halak surely wants to be a No. 1, though.
If the Stars can find a way to get out from under one or both of the contracts for Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi, each signed through next season, it opens the door to acquire Fleury in a trade or Bishop in some manner, through a trade and an extension or through free agency.
The Vancouver Canucks could be an intriguing option for either of them too, especially with Ryan Miller in the final year of his three-year contract. The Canucks, though, are a team caught somewhere between rebuilding and attempting just to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs. I'm not sure what the plan is going to be there come deadline time and next season.
Most pleasant surprise this season, player, coach or team? -- @MacVincent89
I'll answer for all three:
Player: Alex Galchenyuk, Montreal Canadiens
It's unfortunate Galchenyuk has a lower-body injury that will keep him out indefinitely because he has been essential to the Canadiens success as a No. 1 center. They finally gave him the chance to be a full-time center and he has run with it. His development in his five seasons in the NHL is proof patience and some tough love can go a long way.
Coach: Guy Boucher, Ottawa Senators
Boucher has had a successful return to the League so far, guiding the Senators into second place in the Atlantic Division despite adversity in net with Craig Anderson's unfortunate situation (his wife Nicholle's cancer) and injuries to some key players (Marc Methot, Bobby Ryan). The Senators have allowed the first goal in 18 of their 26 games, but are 9-8-1 in those games. They've shown remarkable resiliency, and it's a credit to Boucher.
Team: Columbus Blue Jackets
I could have put John Tortorella in as the coach instead of Boucher but I wanted to give full marks to his team as a whole. The Blue Jackets continue to play a strong overall game with excellent special teams and goaltending. The development of some of their young players like Alex Wennberg and Zach Werenski has allowed some of the veterans like Brandon Dubinsky and Jack Johnson to stay somewhat out of the spotlight despite slow starts. They're good at the start of games, outscoring the opposition 25-11 in the first period. They don't have a drop off in the middle of games and they are strong in the end too, with a 28-20 edge in goals after the second period. Brandon Saad is producing. Boone Jenner is coming around. Sam Gagner has been a great find and is rediscovering his mojo in Columbus. I didn't see this coming from the Blue Jackets. I don't think anybody did.
With Jonathan Marchessault out, what's the season outlook for the already depleted Florida Panthers? Playoffs still attainable? -- @themoose0221
Yes they can still reach the playoffs, but they better stop finding moral victories and start stringing together some actual victories soon. The Panthers fired Gerard Gallant as coach because Florida wasn't meeting the high expectations set by management based off of their success last season and all the changes made in the summer. That's fine. But now after losses to the Chicago Blackhawks, Senators and Boston Bruins, close games that could have gone either way, I've heard coach Tom Rowe talk about an "unbelievable effort," how they were "excellent" in the third period and how the penalty kill was "great." I've heard players talk about how the loss wasn't for lack of effort. If expectations are high, and Gallant was fired because the Panthers weren't meeting them under him, than they need to stop talking contently about facets of the game and start putting it all together so they can start to meet those expectations. They can do it, even with Marchessault out of the lineup. They have the defense and goaltending and enough offense to get the job done, especially if they keep playing low-scoring games. But they need to start meeting their own expectations.
Announcers refer to "selling the call" and a refs' "make-up call," so aren't you feeling the NHL integrity is damaged? -- Mister_Mxy
First off, to make the suggestion a player acted to get a call without being caught for doing so, or that a referee gave one back to a team after missing a call at a different point is purely speculative by anybody. Referees call embellishment when they see it fit to do so. People will argue with them when they do or don't because they saw it differently either through bias or something else. I honestly don't believe in the make-up call theory. I don't think referees think that way. But regardless, these are humans making decisions, not machines. To think humans can act like machines is a foolish expectation. So, no, I don't even remotely feel the integrity of the NHL is damaged. I don't know why anyone would, based on what an announcer says.
