General Sports Water Cooler

That's crazy. Carter, Richards and Gagne all gone within two years. JVR and Giroux really need to step up.

teams been wanting to break up the young crybaby drunks for a while now...richards tweeting wars against the media finally put it over the top...kid just isnt a leader much less a captain...good riddance

a pylon was more productive in the playoffs than carter

schenn #8 and other picks for stamkos

very nice

they are clearly not finished

they cant make deals that yield a net loss of 40 goals out of the lineup without doing anything to replace them

Pierre McGuire would respectfully disagree with you.

Stamkos thing is shits and giggles.

The Carter deal is completely understandable. You never want to give up a young scorer but in order to fit a goalie in and really go for the Cup, you make that deal.

Richards, OTOH...while he may not have been captain material, on the ice he is absolutely one of the best two-way players in the game. I think he was significantly underrated in terms of his importance to that team, and this move IMO takes the Flyers backwards, period. They are now exceedingly small on their top two lines (I think JVR, hardly a power player, is the biggest genuine top-six forward they have) and while I like Blair Betts, dealing Richards very much hurts their PK too. Great two-way centers like him just don't grow on trees - I'll reserve judgment until I see what else they do this offseason, but I don't know how they replace him.

If I was Philly, I would have done what SJ did with Marleau - pull the C off his chest, but keep him. Marleau responded by playing the best hockey of his career.

Bryz is a good goalie, but he's won one playoff series in his career, and that was 5 years ago. He also has a history of trouble with the media and of not fitting in with his teammates. He's a good addition, but Philly overpaid for him and needs to add additional pieces to make the Cup run they're hoping for.

Philly is going to fall in love with Wayne Simmonds, BTW.

nhl offseason. ovi must really be hitting the gym, eating right and focusing on next season at this point. right? :(

It's an interesting year for Free Agency. There are a bunch of teams that HAVE TOO sign some big money people just to get to the Salary Floor. I expect the Pens to just let most of their guys (Dupuis and Talbot in particular) walk. Kennedy is a RFA, and if the money gets too rich, they might let him walk too.

Probably right, and like Colby Armstrong, he has more value in the open market than in Pittsburgh. If we could get rid of one guy, Matt Cooke, we could do pretty much what we like with the other guys. But as it is, Jagr is actually a pretty good alternative. Sid best get his head fixed though or we're screwed anyway. We will sign a lot of our lower end "two way" players and make do. We're set in goal and on Defense, and we do have some guns if everyone (read Sid and Geno) stay reasonably healthy.

Adams is unsigned for next year. And I assume you mean Letang and not former Pen Ryan Whitney.

The Pens have always managed their cap reasonably well. The $3.5m hit on Letang is an absolute steal. I think they overpaid for Martin, but not by that much, and in last year's market it took big $ to get him and Michalek there. Ultimately, the issue is obviously health and whether there's going to be any room for a couple of solid wingers. Playing with Crosby would make anyone look capable (as Pens fans who watched Rob Brown pot 49 goals playing alongside Mario Lemieux know all too well), but if they want to go deep they'll need a winger or two to step up and score.

Martin is absolutely overpaid esp with his diminished role with Letangs emergence as a legit star

Can someone do this with the Flyers lineup for next year. I now have no idea who plays for them.

Well Comrie should be happy to have a job, He is married to money, and the Pens carried him last year and gave him a shot but he's an UFA. And Asham was a $750k kind of guy, and they signed one or two of their two way players already. But if guys like Connor and Dustin Jeffrey (he's an RFA) can get paid, the Pens will just fill it in from the bottom.

My guess is that Sid, Staal and Letestu center the top 3 lines. If they get Jagr and put him on a line with Staal and Geno, and Sid is ok, Neal and Kunitz make sense there. Cooke drops down with Letestu and say Tangradi, and Adams just keeps doing what he does with either the two way players or Comrie and Asham. I think Shero just wants to see what kind of money his UFA's are going to command, but if he can deal any or them in, those appear to be the roster spots they need to fill and who should/would be of interest. All the fans of the other teams figure they got a shot at the Cup, but so do the Pens. Who wants to play there? Personally, I hope Jagr does.