Pens sign Skoula

http://penguins.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=500240

A day after he's cut by Columbus, the Pens outright give him an NHL contract.

Ray Shero has now replaced Gill and Scuderi with McKee, Goligoski (home grown) and Skoula.

Gill and Scuderi currently make a total of around $6.7MM; the replacements in Pittsburgh make a total a little over $2MM and change.

That Shero fella seems like he's one smart GM.

davetherave wrote:Ray Shero has now replaced Gill and Scuderi with McKee, Goligoski (home grown) and Skoula.

Gill and Scuderi currently make a total of around $6.7MM; the replacements in Pittsburgh make a total a little over $2MM and change.

That Shero fella seems like he's one smart GM.

Does that constitute smart though? He just plucked Skoula out of UFA for what I assume would be the league minimum and paid McKee 800K after a team paid to have him leave their team.

As much as I loathe (and am amused by Hal Gill), I don't really think these two guys are the same caliber of players.

SpezDispenser wrote:

davetherave wrote:Ray Shero has now replaced Gill and Scuderi with McKee, Goligoski (home grown) and Skoula.

Gill and Scuderi currently make a total of around $6.7MM; the replacements in Pittsburgh make a total a little over $2MM and change.

That Shero fella seems like he's one smart GM.

Does that constitute smart though? He just plucked Skoula out of UFA for what I assume would be the league minimum and paid McKee 800K after a team paid to have him leave their team.

As much as I loathe (and am amused by Hal Gill), I don't really think these two guys are the same caliber of players.

So are you saying that...for a premium of $4.7 million dollars (which he doesn't have in terms of cap room), Hal Gill and Rob Scuderi would have been better investments for Shero than Jay McKee and Alex Goligoski, with Martin Skoula as a 7th defenseman?

davetherave wrote:
So are you saying that...for a premium of $4.7 million dollars (which he doesn't have in terms of cap room), Hal Gill and Rob Scuderi would have been better investments for Shero than Jay McKee and Alex Goligoski, with Martin Skoula as a 7th defenseman?

That's to be determined, but yes, it certainly sounds as if he had to give up a lot on his back end due to salary cap constraints. Which is odd...because I couldn't tell you the bulk of that lineup. Crosby, Malkin, Gonchar, Fleury, Staal must take up 30 something million, I guess that's the long and the short of it. Kunitz makes 3 something, Guerin and Fedentenko make like...3.5 between the 2 of them. 8 players, ~37 million - that'll do it I guess.

SpezDispenser wrote:

davetherave wrote:
So are you saying that...for a premium of $4.7 million dollars (which he doesn't have in terms of cap room), Hal Gill and Rob Scuderi would have been better investments for Shero than Jay McKee and Alex Goligoski, with Martin Skoula as a 7th defenseman?

That's to be determined, but yes, it certainly sounds as if he had to give up a lot on his back end due to salary cap constraints. Which is odd...because I couldn't tell you the bulk of that lineup. Crosby, Malkin, Gonchar, Fleury, Staal must take up 30 something million, I guess that's the long and the short of it. Kunitz makes 3 something, Guerin and Fedentenko make like...3.5 between the 2 of them. 8 players, ~37 million - that'll do it I guess.

Can you explain that explanation?


You think for the money, Shero's better off with McKee and Goligoski (and Skoula as a spare), or not?

davetherave wrote:
Can you explain that explanation?


You think for the money, Shero's better off with McKee and Goligoski (and Skoula as a spare), or not?

No, I don't. I think the Pens came together as a team last year and that Scuderi and Gill fit into the system like a glove. The fact that they have so many large contracts has hampered their back end this year - and that takes nothing away from Skoula and McKee, but again, McKee was paid to leave St.Louis and Columbus didn't like what they saw from Skoula and cut him.

So no, definitely not better off.

SpezDispenser wrote:

davetherave wrote:
Can you explain that explanation?


You think for the money, Shero's better off with McKee and Goligoski (and Skoula as a spare), or not?

No, I don't. I think the Pens came together as a team last year and that Scuderi and Gill fit into the system like a glove. The fact that they have so many large contracts has hampered their back end this year - and that takes nothing away from Skoula and McKee, but again, McKee was paid to leave St.Louis and Columbus didn't like what they saw from Skoula and cut him.

So no, definitely not better off.

So wasn't it a smart move by Shero to pick up a $4MM d-man in McKee for $800K?

And you haven't mentioned that letting Scuderi and Gill walk allowed Shero to give Goligoski--who's apparently as talented as Scuderi--a spot on the blueline. For a lot less money.

Plus he had money left over to sign Skoula as insurance, for reportedly under a million. Skoula is, according to the scouting report, a solid two way defenseman (as one would expect from the Wild) and big enough at 6'3"/220.

So how can you say Shero isn't smart?

Just because McKee was paid 4 million, doesnt make him a 4 million dollar Dman.

Tuk Tuk wrote:Just because McKee was paid 4 million, doesnt make him a 4 million dollar Dman.

So Shero got a terrific deal is what you're saying.

davetherave wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:

davetherave wrote:
Can you explain that explanation?


You think for the money, Shero's better off with McKee and Goligoski (and Skoula as a spare), or not?

No, I don't. I think the Pens came together as a team last year and that Scuderi and Gill fit into the system like a glove. The fact that they have so many large contracts has hampered their back end this year - and that takes nothing away from Skoula and McKee, but again, McKee was paid to leave St.Louis and Columbus didn't like what they saw from Skoula and cut him.

So no, definitely not better off.

So wasn't it a smart move by Shero to pick up a $4MM d-man in McKee for $800K?

And you haven't mentioned that letting Scuderi and Gill walk allowed Shero to give Goligoski--who's apparently as talented as Scuderi--a spot on the blueline. For a lot less money.

Plus he had money left over to sign Skoula as insurance, for reportedly under a million. Skoula is, according to the scouting report, a solid two way defenseman (as one would expect from the Wild) and big enough at 6'3"/220.

So how can you say Shero isn't smart?

He downgraded? Goligoski is a nice D-man, but he's nothing like Scuderi. It's like comparing Volchenkov to Campoli. McKee is a nice deal for sure, good work by Shero, but he would have been able to keep the nucleus together if he had made a couple of sacrifices at forward. But hey, he's the Cup winning GM, so he's undoubtedly smarter than me at these kind of things.

Plus...I love Jay McKee, I used to want him on my team really, really badly, but talk to any Blues fan and they'll tell you that unfortunately he's all used up from blocking the thousands of shots he's blocked. Same with Skoula, he's beaten up and he wasn't very fast to begin with.

It's not a bad move by Shero, but no one can deny it's a downgrade.

davetherave wrote:

Tuk Tuk wrote:Just because McKee was paid 4 million, doesnt make him a 4 million dollar Dman.

So Shero got a terrific deal is what you're saying.

Not a terrific move, not a terrible one either. A guy as injury prone as McKee can't expect much money at this point in his career, but if he's healthy for a good period of time, then he can be an effective dman. A very poor man's Volchenkov.

Would have been smarter to keep Gil though. Those 3 contracts down the middle are killing the Pens though.

davetherave wrote:

Tuk Tuk wrote:Just because McKee was paid 4 million, doesnt make him a 4 million dollar Dman.

So Shero got a terrific deal is what you're saying.

That wasn't the conclusion I drew. McKee is a $4 million man like Redden is a $6.5 million man.

asq2 wrote:

davetherave wrote:

Tuk Tuk wrote:Just because McKee was paid 4 million, doesnt make him a 4 million dollar Dman.

So Shero got a terrific deal is what you're saying.

That wasn't the conclusion I drew. McKee is a $4 million man like Redden is a $6.5 million man.

and Campbell is a 7 million dollar dman

I agree with SD. Goligoski is really the only clever move here, and Shero wasn't even working for the Penguins when Gogo was drafted.

In McKee and Skoula, he did what he had to do. Letting Gill and Scuderi go was necessitated by his own cap management, but it wasn't necessarily a good move (especially Scuderi-wise).

Now, that's not to say that Shero isn't a good GM, and his team has been terrific for the past three seasons (again, though, a lot of that stems from some drafting that occured prior to his arrival). Skoula was a good defenceman for the Wild and if he works out, the Pens will have made a good deal in that regard.

However, if he was really looking at Skoula as a big-time sleeper, he'd probably have made a move for him much earlier. So, how much credit he can actually take if Skoula does play well remains to be seen.

EDIT: Also, DTR, I'm not sure where you're coming from comparing Scuderi and Goligoski. Gogo's an offensive defenceman who's about the same size as Karlsson. Scuderi was and is more of a defensive defenceman.