We got a lot of questions this week surrounding Kris Letang’s injury and the Penguins playing with only five defensemen on Saturday. Let’s dive right in.
Why can’t the Penguins call up a defenseman or exchange a forward on the roster for a defenseman in Wilkes-Barre to balance out the roster?
The Pens don’t have enough cap space to call up Tux (that’s the WBS mascot, if you didn’t know), let alone a player. Some back-of-the-envelope math reveals less than $100 thousand of cap space in the Penguins’ coffers.
They can send down a forward (they have 13) and recall a defenseman, as long as the player coming up doesn’t make more than the player going down.
The problem with doing that is that all 13 of the Penguins forwards would have to be exposed to waivers to be assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League.
Beau Bennett, who was sent down earlier in the season, has played enough games to no longer be wavier exempt. Craig Adams, probably the most likely other candidate, would only save the Penguins $100 thousand of cap space because his contract was signed when he was older than 35 years old.
Why are the Pens in cap trouble this late in the season and who is to blame?
The reason the Penguins are in such a dire salary cap position this late in the season can be summed up using one word: injuries.
The Penguins already have left-winger Pascal Dupuis and Olli Maatta on Long-Term Injured Reserve. The LTIR designation helps with cap relief, but it doesn’t maximize it in the same way that having a healthy player would. In addition, defensemen Christian Ehrhoff and Kris Letang are on the roster, and therefore taking up salary cap space, while being injured and unable to play.
As far as who is to blame, that’s debatable. The biggest red flag in the Penguins salary cap chart is defenseman Rob Scuderi’s $3.375 million cap hit. It’s hard to blame Scuderi and his agent for negotiating a good contract, but it’s pretty clear that he is no longer performing to that level. Whether you want to blame former general manager Ray Shero for signing the contract or current boss Jim Rutherford for failing to fix the problem this offseason is up to you.
If the Penguins were rid of Scuderi’s contract, they could recall defensemen Scott Harrington and Brian Dumoulin from the AHL and pocket the extra $2 million.
Why don’t the Penguins put another injured player on Long-Term Injured Reserve?
For a player to be placed on LTIR, they must miss at least 24 days and 10 regular season games. When Ehrhoff and Letang were injured, the Penguins had fewer than 10 games remaining in the regular season, so they can be placed on LTIR, but would be ineligible to return for the post-season if they are.
How will the Penguins replace Kris Letang?
This is the $64,000 question. Letang is a dynamic player that won’t be easily replaced. Letang leads the Penguins defense in time on ice (25:29 per game) and power play time (3:47 per game). He’s also second with 2:46 of time shorthanded per game.
The Penguins are going to have to use a multi-faceted approach to replacing Letang. At even strength, it appears that Ben Lovejoy will slide alongside Paul Martin to make up the top pairing. Lovejoy led all Pens defensemen in ice time against San Jose on Sunday.
On the power play, expect to see Derrick Pouliot and Evgeni Malkin manning the points. With Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Patric Hornqvist, David Perron and Chris Kunitz, the Penguins have many more qualified forwards than they have spots on the top unit. It makes sense to move Malkin back to the point, a position he has played off-and-on over the years.
Expect Paul Martin to pick up even more time shorthanded, along with Ian Cole. I don’t see how Scuderi could play any more on the penalty kill than he already does.
This patchwork arrangement is the only way to replace the quality minutes that Letang provides until the playoffs, when the salary cap is lifted and reinforcements can arrive from Wilkes-Barre. I would assume that Scott Harrington and Brian Dumoulin will both come up for the post-season.
They are more than adequate defensively to keep the Penguins around for a round or two. But the Pens’ big problem in the last month has been scoring goals, and in that regard, Letang has been the straw that stirs the proverbial drink. He has 54 points on the season, more than the team’s next three defensemen combined.
If the Penguins already-meager offensive production suffers a hit due to the loss of Letang, the end will come swiftly for the black and gold.
If the Penguins suffer another early-round defeat in the playoffs, will they fire Mike Johnston?
Could the Pens get Mike Babcock with a first-round exit?
These are similar questions, so I’ll take them together.
It’s certainly possible that Mike Johnston could lose his job after one season. After all, general manager Jim Rutherford has intimated that he only plans on being around for another year or two. That sort of attitude isn’t typically conducive to patience.
You’ll remember, as well, that Johnston was not Rutherford’s first choice last summer for the Pens head spot.
The Penguins got into the coaching search late into the offseason, after big names Peter Laviolette and Barry Trotz had already been snapped up. Even after they began to interview candidates, they lost out on Bill Peters to the Carolina Hurricanes and were rebuffed by Willie Desjardins in favor of Vancouver.
All of that adds up to anything being possible when it comes to the future of the Pens’ current bench boss. Red Wings head coach Babcock, whose contract is expiring, is the trump card. His relationship with Crosby may be enough of an in for the Penguins to have a shot at landing him, and fully half the teams in the league would likely jettison their current coach to make way for the Stanley Cup winner and two-time Olympic Gold Medalist.
My gut feeling, though, is that Detroit GM Ken Holland will find a way to convince Babcock to stay with the Red Wings. They have a talented group of young players and seem to be set up compete for years to come.
As far as Johnston, with an injured Letang, Ehrhoff, Maatta and Dupuis, there is a built-in excuse for a poor performance. If the right opportunity to upgrade exists, Rutherford may make a move, but I think it’s more likely that Johnston gets at least one more go with the Penguins.
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Thanks for the questions, and keep them coming. I’d like to keep this going weekly through the end of hockey season. It doesn’t have to be just Penguins questions. We can talk NHL, college hockey, the NHL draft or whatever. Leave them in the comments, on the PSN Facebook page, or find me on twitter @ASaunders_PSN.
Photo credit: NHL
