Jump to content
The Official Site of the Vancouver Canucks
Canucks Community

[Report] Penguins clean house

Rate this topic


Recommended Posts

The Pittsburgh Penguins have relieved President of Hockey Operations Brian Burke, General Manager Ron Hextall and Assistant General Manager, Chris Pryor of their duties, it was announced today by Fenway Sports Group.

 

John Henry and Tom Werner issued the following statement:

"We are grateful to Brian, Ron, and Chris for their contributions to the organization over the past two seasons, but we feel that the team will benefit from new hockey operations leadership. While this season has been disappointing, we believe in our core group of players and the goal of contending for the Stanley Cup has not changed."

 

The search for new hockey operations leadership will begin immediately. 

During this transition, the managerial duties of hockey operations will be shared among current Director of Hockey Operations, Alec Schall, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton General Manager/Manager of Hockey Operations, Erik Heasley and Hockey Operations Analyst, Andy Saucier. Head Coach Mike Sullivan will also assist during the transition.

 

The Penguins missed the playoffs for the first time in 17 years, ending the longest-active playoff streak among teams in North American professional sports. The streak included three Stanley Cup Championships (2009, '16, '17), four Stanley Cup Final appearances and five trips to the Eastern Conference Final. This is only the second time since Sidney Crosby made his NHL debut in 2005-06 that the Penguins did not qualify for the postseason.

Edited by goalie13
Added content
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • goalie13 changed the title to [Report] Penguins clean house

I don’t think that’s the issue because I think as long as Sid’s there you have to go for it every year, and Sid gets to decide when he leaves. 
 

They just did a terrible job of “going for it”. Picking up Granlund and Bonino while everyone else was picking up legitimately good pieces like Horvat, Kane, Meier, etc was mind boggling. 
 

I genuinely think Hextall is worse than Benning. 
 

 

edit: @Ghostsof1915 I meant to quote you 

Edited by Sean Monahan
  • Cheers 2
  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Their core guys still have a few years of good hockey left. Surround them with the right players and they SHOULD still contend. They're in a tough position now with barely any good prospects in their system and weak draft positions (sounds oddly familiar....).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, Ghostsof1915 said:

Should have blown the team up and started getting draft picks again. But I guess loyalty.

 

Agree completely, but now, they are locked into the aging core for another 2 - 3 years since they gave Malkin and Letang full NMC's last summer.

 

They need to trade both of those guys and get more first rounders back and reset the team.

 

  • Cheers 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Sean Monahan said:

I don’t think that’s the issue because I think as long as Sid’s there you have to go for it every year, and Sid gets to decide when he leaves. 
 

They just did a terrible job of “going for it”. Picking up Granlund and Bonino while everyone else was picking up legitimately good pieces like Horvat, Kane, Meier, etc was mind boggling. 
 

I genuinely think Hextall is worse than Benning. 
 

 

edit: @Ghostsof1915 I meant to quote you 

They really did have a terrible deadline. The deals just made no sense. 
They have been going for it for so long eventually the mix gets sour. Same thing happened in Chicago, even here after 2011.
Will be fun to watch what they do and how big they are willing to change. 

  • Cheers 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, VegasCanuck said:

Agree completely, but now, they are locked into the aging core for another 2 - 3 years since they gave Malkin and Letang full NMC's last summer.

 

They need to trade both of those guys and get more first rounders back and reset the team.

 

True but you have to take into consideration of their ages and what kind of cap. Not a lot of teams would want to take that one I don't think or have the cap space to do it and if they did you'd have to wonder if both players would want to play for a team that either dumped salary to pick one or both up or simply have a lot of cap but not a good core or supporting cast that would support players like those two.. 

Hard to say really, who knows.

  • Cheers 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

51 minutes ago, Ghostsof1915 said:

Should have blown the team up and started getting draft picks again. But I guess loyalty.

 

Sedins = Crosby/mAlkin to Pittsburgh

 

In hindsight we couldve dealt the Sedins for a massive haul. But they are Canucks for life now, in our management now.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They've made some pretty bad moves, obviously they're getting older and worse and have nothing in the pipeline, but plenty of picks to throw away and they wasted them. Their depth is dried up and honestly their defence without prime Letang isn't great. Petry and Pettersson are decent top-4 guys but they lack a star on the blueline. Terrible pick ups this off-season, meanwhile NYI haul Bo and they push them out of a playoff spot. There were a lot of talks around Miller etc. going to Pittsburgh and it never got done - Allvin pushed them all out of a job.

 

I don't think Pittsburgh is finished as long as they have Crosby and Malkin still scoring over a point per game. Zucker comes off the books this off-season, they should be active in free agency to sign one defenceman, but they have a first rounder they should really think about selling over the next 3 years. I know there was chat of giving us two firsts for Miller and it never happened, so you know they're thinking about it.

 

If they could somehow add a top scorer and a decent puck moving defenceman, they may well be back in the playoff mix. Can they afford a guy like Orlov, Klingberg or Severson? Give us a first for Boeser at the draft? They have to do something big or their stars will just dwindle out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

57 minutes ago, Sean Monahan said:

I don’t think that’s the issue because I think as long as Sid’s there you have to go for it every year, and Sid gets to decide when he leaves. 
 

They just did a terrible job of “going for it”. Picking up Granlund and Bonino while everyone else was picking up legitimately good pieces like Horvat, Kane, Meier, etc was mind boggling. 
 

I genuinely think Hextall is worse than Benning. 
 

 

edit: @Ghostsof1915 I meant to quote you 

Exactly... 

 

Can't believe they paid a 2nd for Grandlund. He was good.... 5 years ago? 

 

People wrote Boston off many times, so I don't think it's impossible for Sid to make one more run at it. They would have to knock it out this summer and they don't have much currency left to deal. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

54 minutes ago, HKSR said:

You gotta wonder what would have happened had they just bit the bullet and paid a high price for JT Miller.

 

Don't have a centre to send back our way?  Then go get one so you CAN send one back this way.  Too complicated?  Ok, you're fired.

true story, I don't think Hextall is all that smart

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Staying 'elite' and hoping to 'compete' forever simply is not a sustainable long-term plan in today's cap-dominated NHL. 

 

 They extended their competitive window FAR beyond what could reasonably be expected by acquiring the best player of his entire generation....now they're likely going to be in fringe-wildcard purgatory for some time unless new ownship/management realizes you need to take a few steps back before climbing up again. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...