Ryan Malone - a little pissed

http://www.thefourthperiod.com/news/pit080923.html

Great article. Man oh man, why did they let him leave. If he would've taken 4 million (which it sounds like he would have), the Pens made a tremendous and a little bit stupid decision.

504Heater wrote:http://www.thefourthperiod.com/news/pit080923.html

Great article. Man oh man, why did they let him leave. If he would've taken 4 million (which it sounds like he would have), the Pens made a tremendous and a little bit stupid decision.

Yeah I agree I liked Malone, and think he should of been treated a little better by Pens management....

504Heater wrote:http://www.thefourthperiod.com/news/pit080923.html

Great article. Man oh man, why did they let him leave. If he would've taken 4 million (which it sounds like he would have), the Pens made a tremendous and a little bit stupid decision.

I find that article very weird. You would think that Shero would have been all over this guy. Hometown boy, bit of a scoring touch, true power forward who doesn't take many stupid penalties... all that for less than market value?

Has to be something more to this story... Maybe I just don't get it but if Murray could keep an Ottawa born player who can play on the top two lines, fight when necessary, is tough on the fore check and could pot 20 - 25 goals for $4M it would be done and DONE!!!

504Heater wrote:http://www.thefourthperiod.com/news/pit080923.html

Great article. Man oh man, why did they let him leave. If he would've taken 4 million (which it sounds like he would have), the Pens made a tremendous and a little bit stupid decision.

Unbelievable! Wow! I can't believe how dumb they are over there. Did they not have room to sign him at $4? I don't really understand what happened here, but if you have a guy who's a great player and has as much heart as he does, you do not let him go, period. If he were to be asking for 5.5 to 6 I would see why they let him go, but at $4...just plain silliness...I can't wait to see him play against his old team this year, he'll rip them a new one for sure.

It seems like almost everything related to Tampa this off-season (apart from Stamkos) has been bizarre.

EDIT: and the Lecavalier extension, although I think it's a little long for that kinda money.

MurderOnIce wrote:

504Heater wrote:http://www.thefourthperiod.com/news/pit080923.html

Great article. Man oh man, why did they let him leave. If he would've taken 4 million (which it sounds like he would have), the Pens made a tremendous and a little bit stupid decision.

I find that article very weird. You would think that Shero would have been all over this guy. Hometown boy, bit of a scoring touch, true power forward who doesn't take many stupid penalties... all that for less than market value?

Has to be something more to this story... Maybe I just don't get it but if Murray could keep an Ottawa born player who can play on the top two lines, fight when necessary, is tough on the fore check and could pot 20 - 25 goals for $4M it would be done and DONE!!!

I know he's not technically born in Ottawa, but Murray already did this exact move when he locked up Mike Fisher long term.

PKC wrote:

MurderOnIce wrote:

504Heater wrote:http://www.thefourthperiod.com/news/pit080923.html

Great article. Man oh man, why did they let him leave. If he would've taken 4 million (which it sounds like he would have), the Pens made a tremendous and a little bit stupid decision.

I find that article very weird. You would think that Shero would have been all over this guy. Hometown boy, bit of a scoring touch, true power forward who doesn't take many stupid penalties... all that for less than market value?

Has to be something more to this story... Maybe I just don't get it but if Murray could keep an Ottawa born player who can play on the top two lines, fight when necessary, is tough on the fore check and could pot 20 - 25 goals for $4M it would be done and DONE!!!

I know he's not technically born in Ottawa, but Murray already did this exact move when he locked up Mike Fisher long term.

That is the perfect example right there. You just don't let those guys go, you can't buy that much heart and grit these days, you can for $4 mill though for sure, and it's completely fair, IMO.

PKC wrote:

MurderOnIce wrote:

504Heater wrote:http://www.thefourthperiod.com/news/pit080923.html

Great article. Man oh man, why did they let him leave. If he would've taken 4 million (which it sounds like he would have), the Pens made a tremendous and a little bit stupid decision.

I find that article very weird. You would think that Shero would have been all over this guy. Hometown boy, bit of a scoring touch, true power forward who doesn't take many stupid penalties... all that for less than market value?

Has to be something more to this story... Maybe I just don't get it but if Murray could keep an Ottawa born player who can play on the top two lines, fight when necessary, is tough on the fore check and could pot 20 - 25 goals for $4M it would be done and DONE!!!

I know he's not technically born in Ottawa, but Murray already did this exact move when he locked up Mike Fisher long term.

And he even paid a bit more, sooner, to make that kind of move happen. How many hometown players of that calibre does a town like Pittsburgh have? Outside of Malone, answer... ummm... ZERO.

SensGirl11 wrote:

That is the perfect example right there. You just don't let those guys go, you can't buy that much heart and grit these days, you can for $4 mill though for sure, and it's completely fair, IMO.

In this market $4M for Malone would have been a steal. Not doing it makes Pitt look dumb. I am sure they won't be as tough and pesky this week without Malone, Ruutu (where is he playing again?) and Laraque. Different club IMO and a worse one. Time will tell...

This one's hard to say... I wonder what Malone quantifies as a serious offer? Do you think Shero was trying to get Malone in for cheap, like Murray has accomplished with Vermette? Or do you think it didn't even go that far? Either way, I agree with MurderOnIce this Pittsburgh team has lost the playoff depth that made them hard to play against every shift last year.

PKC wrote:

MurderOnIce wrote:

504Heater wrote:http://www.thefourthperiod.com/news/pit080923.html

Great article. Man oh man, why did they let him leave. If he would've taken 4 million (which it sounds like he would have), the Pens made a tremendous and a little bit stupid decision.

I find that article very weird. You would think that Shero would have been all over this guy. Hometown boy, bit of a scoring touch, true power forward who doesn't take many stupid penalties... all that for less than market value?

Has to be something more to this story... Maybe I just don't get it but if Murray could keep an Ottawa born player who can play on the top two lines, fight when necessary, is tough on the fore check and could pot 20 - 25 goals for $4M it would be done and DONE!!!

I know he's not technically born in Ottawa, but Murray already did this exact move when he locked up Mike Fisher long term.

That's a great point for all those wanting to ship away Fisher, I'll admit bias, but even an injured Fisher scored 50 points last year. Just remember the finals agiainst the Ducks and who showed up to play every night...
His contract is a gamble every team in the league would have taken and we got it done for a better price than they would have.

SensGirl11 wrote:
Unbelievable! Wow! I can't believe how dumb they are over there. Did they not have room to sign him at $4? I don't really understand what happened here, but if you have a guy who's a great player and has as much heart as he does, you do not let him go, period. If he were to be asking for 5.5 to 6 I would see why they let him go, but at $4...just plain silliness...I can't wait to see him play against his old team this year, he'll rip them a new one for sure.

Welcome to the salary cap world.

PIT had lots of re-signing to do. Malkin, Fleury, and Orpik were first in line. Sign Malone this year for $4+ mil / yr long term and, OK, maybe you look smart today, but then you lose, say, Jordan Staal next year because you don't have any more cap space. And then you look really dumb.

Consider this: PIT has only got 5 forwards locked up for next year (Crosby, Malkin, Depuis, Godard, and Cooke), but they have $42 mil in salaries committed. They will have a whopping 5 RFAs (Staal, Kennedy, Thomas, Talbot, and Goligoski) to deal with -- and Staal, Talbot, and probably Goligoski will be in line for decent raises. They'll have pay Staal ($5 mil?) and then fill up the 5-6 remaining spots on their forward ranks with the money they have left over (Sykora? Satan?), plus pick up a backup goalie and possibly a defensive D -- and to do all that, they'll only have about $12 mil (presuming that Staal signs for something like $5 mil, that the cap hits about $60 mil next year, and that PIT management likes have a $1-2 mil in breathing room). That's pretty tight.

The fact is that a team like PIT has been amassing good players for so long because they're team was bad for so long, but in cap world, there's just no way that you can keep them all together for very long. There just isn't enough money to go around. Malone got lost in the numbers. Between him and Staal, I think they made the right choice. Between him and Orpik, however, I won't comment other than to say that they don't really have any other good defensive D on that team, so perhaps that gave him the higher priority.

We had this discussion quite often pre-free agency. All those Penguins fans who were tooting their own horn talking about how they'd keep everyone and make a run again. I even said that it would be even worse for them the following year in terms of signings for UFAs and RFAs. They are in a deep pile of Dung in terms of having money to have depth on the team. I couldn't even tell you right now who the other player on Crosby's wing is, or who Jordan Staal's two linemates are, or whether they even have a fourth line. They are so shallow up front, that it's laughable.

PKC wrote:We had this discussion quite often pre-free agency. All those Penguins fans who were tooting their own horn talking about how they'd keep everyone and make a run again. I even said that it would be even worse for them the following year in terms of signings for UFAs and RFAs. They are in a deep pile of Dung in terms of having money to have depth on the team. I couldn't even tell you right now who the other player on Crosby's wing is, or who Jordan Staal's two linemates are, or whether they even have a fourth line. They are so shallow up front, that it's laughable.

I believe Staal's two linemates are Malkin and Sykora. Not too shabby.

So, they don't have anyone on their third or fourth lines....good luck with that. I think we learned first hand a couple of years ago how important third and fourth lines can be in winning a Stanley Cup.