PITTSBURGH — There is nothing wrong with the players the Penguins added last week.
All should make the team stronger.
Getting Vegas winger Reilly Smith in a trade for a third-round pick was a steal. He isn’t just a Stanley Cup champion. He is a better all-around player than Jason Zucker, although I hate to see Zucker’s fire and passion leave for Arizona.
Ryan Graves adds much-needed size to the defense. He is better than free agent loss Brian Dumoulin at this stage of Dumoulin’s career.
Noel Acciari, Lars Eller and Matt Nieto are bottom-six forward upgrades. All three should be in the lineup on opening night and will be welcomed additions.
I’ll pause here to applaud the work of new general manager Kyle Dubas even though I still don’t like that five-year, $28.875 million contract he gave to Tristan Jarry.
But, improved or not, I’m still not sure the Penguins will be a playoff team next season.
The biggest problem is three players who are left from last season.
JEFF CARTER
He has had a marvelous career. 431 goals. 836 points. Two Stanley Cups. Three gold medals in international competition, including one at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games. All of that just might end up on a plaque at the Hockey Hall of Fame.
But Carter’s time has passed.
It was one thing for Ron Hextall to bring Carter to the Penguins in April 2021. Carter made an immediate impact, scoring nine goals in 14 regular-season games and four more goals in six playoff games in the series loss to the New York Islanders.
It was something much worse for Hextall to give Carter a two-year contract extension worth an average salary of $3.125 million in January 2022. The Penguins are stuck with that deal for another season. Carter, who will turn 39 on New Year’s Day, has said he is not going to retire. He has a no-trade clause and can’t be bought out.
Mike Sullivan can’t justify giving Carter ice time, not at the expense of minutes for Acciari, Eller or Nieto or young winger Drew O’Connor.
Scratching Carter on most nights seems like the only solution, although that will be a real kick to Carter’s ego.
MIKAEL GRANLUND
Blame Hextall again for sending a second-round pick to Nashville in March to get Granlund. The Penguins’ side of that trade was widely criticized at the time. Granlund did nothing to silence the criticism, scoring just one goal in 21 games. He didn’t fit here.
Making matters worse, Granlund is signed for two more seasons at $5 million per. Dubas has said he doesn’t believe in buying out contracts and doesn’t want to kick dead money down the road to save salary-cap space now.
So what is Sullivan supposed to do?
Good luck with that.
JEFF PETRY
It’s not that he was a bad defenseman for the Penguins last season after they traded Mike Matheson to Montreal to get him. It’s just that he wasn’t worth anything close to his salary of $6.25 million. Even worse, that’s what the team owes him for next season and the season after. He is the highest-paid player on the club after Sidney Crosby.
Petry is 35, slowing down and was limited to 61 games last season by injuries.
That is a killer contract.
Maybe Dubas will perform magic and find a way to dump the Granlund and/or Petry contracts. To do that, he’ll have to entice any deal with another team by including something valuable. The Penguins’ No. 1 pick next year? Maybe Bryan Rust? Even Jake Guentzel?
There has been speculation Dubas is trying to free cap space to trade for three-time Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Erik Karlsson. I know Dubas is slick, but that seems unlikely. Karlsson, who scored 101 points for San Jose last season, has a cap hit of $11.5 million in each of the next four seasons.
So, for now at least, Dubas is talking bravely about the likelihood of bringing Granlund and Petry back.
This was Dubas Saturday about Granlund: ”He’s been a very good player in the NHL for a long time. Obviously, I don’t think last year, especially coming over in the trade, from a production standpoint went the way that he wanted. It’s incumbent on him and on us to get him back to the level that he can expect. He’s a versatile player that can play all three forward positions, can play penalty kill, can play power play. I’d like to focus with Mikael on how we’re moving ahead productively with him so we can have him play to his potential as a Pittsburgh Penguin.”
And this was Dubas on Petry: “Jeff Petry is a huge part of the plan. He’s our second-pair right defenseman behind Kris Letang and played massive minutes for the group. I know our staff was out to see him last week in the Detroit area and they were impressed with how his summer is coming together. The injury last season was costly for the team. ... A great athlete his whole life. There’s still a good amount of fuel left in the tank.”
Of course, Dubas talked bravely of Granlund and Petry.
What choice does Dubas have at this point?
