A look into what the Pittsburgh Penguins organization accomplished through the first weekend of NHL free agency...
Losses: D Rob Scuderi, D Hal Gill, F Jeff Taffe, F Chris Minard, G Mathieu Garon
Additions: D Chris Lee, D Nate Guenin, F Chris Connor, F Mike Rupp
The Pens went into free agency knowing that they had little money to spend, and a number of key components to resign. They succeeded in keeping Bill Guerin, Ruslan Fedotenko and Craig Adams, signing the trio to less-than-market value. Unfortunately they couldn't compete with the outside offers extended to Gill and Scuderi, losing them to Montreal and Los Angeles, respectively. While losing two of their top-six defensemen is a substantial hit to the structure of the team, GM Ray Shero still has plenty of options. Alex Goligoski is ready to contribute this season, proving himself in his extended stint in the 'Burgh earlier this season. Shero also has around $3 million left under the cap to throw at a veteran stay-at-home D-man. Losing Garon is no big deal, he barely sniffed the ice and John Curry is more than ready to hold down the relief goaltender role behind MAF. Connor, Guenin and Lee are journeyman AHLers, signed to add depth especially after the losses of minor-league all stars Taffe and Minard.
There's no hiding the fact that the start of the free agency signing period is an exciting time. Every fan likes to see his team being proactive in the market, but a flurry of activity is not always a good sign. Teams like Montreal, New York and Calgary continue to offer headline-worthy deals (as they do every year) but that doesn't always constitute success on the ice. Year after year the same teams "win" in free agency but lose when it counts the most. It's good to build a solid team through the draft and smart signings, play the first half of the season, then fix your holes through trades at the deadline. Teams like Detroit and Pittsburgh seem to adhere to this model, and their recent success proves this. These teams rarely make a big-name addition through free agency and instead sign depth players to build a solid nucleus, then adding that big-ticket name at a substantially lower cap hit at the deadline. In the past two years, the Pens have signed depth guys like Satan, Sykora, Fedotenko, and Cooke, and traded for big-ticket stars like Hossa, Guerin and Kunitz. Detroit, while the Hossa signing was big (but for only a one year, salary cap-friendly offer) they've only signed guys like Ville Leino from Finland and instead used the trade market for quality guys like Brad Stuart.
You would think teams like the Rangers would look at this model and try to emulate it in some way. Instead, they resort to their old freewheeling spending ways, make a "splash" in free agency and thus continue to spin their wheels in terms of success on the ice. I know it's exciting to sign guys like Drury, Gomez and Gaborik, but when guys like these are making comparably the same amount of money per year as Crosby and Malkin, it's doesn't add up.
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