As the Pittsburgh Steelers report to Saint Vincent College for training camp on Tuesday, the Penguins — and other NHL teams — are enjoying what their NFL counterparts don’t.
A real off season.
Oh sure, players in both sports get their downtime for physical rest and recovery at various points in the schedule. But in hockey, unlike football, these late-summer months allow franchises and their players to separate themselves from the spotlight and the constant whirlwind of the 24-hour sports news cycle.
That doesn’t always happen in the NFL.
Between now and the start of the NHL preseason in late September, most hockey news is likely to be buried under a crush of NFL and college football headlines, along with pennant races and the start of of the NBA season.
Well, not in Pittsburgh for those last two things. But in many other places, that is the case.
So, as the Penguins skate into the shadows after the first flurry of offseason trades and free-agent signings, I’m reminded of what former Pens coach Ivan Hlinka said about his team’s approach to the game in March 2001.
“They like to be everywhere. But… if you like to be everywhere, then you are nowhere.”
That’s where the Penguins are right now as a franchise. In an underworld of changing things, keeping them the same.
From property to bottom defensive pair.
For one thing, the Penguins had a chance at a complete rebuild. They could have allowed the likes of Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Casey DeSmith, Bryan Rust, Rickard Rakell and Kasperi Kapanen to leave via free agency. That would have been $27.16 million in collective cap relief from last year.
Instead, all of those players got new contracts that amounted to a collective salary cap of $27.32 million for this year.
And, in most cases, those numbers will also stay on the books for the next four to six years.
The two goalkeepers will return. The coaching staff and front office remain intact. The front group is going to be largely the same. In fact, the equivalent of eight of the top nine skaters up front won’t change. Throw fourth-row center Teddy Blueger into the mix in the final year of his contract, and you’re essentially looking at just three of the four forward spots up for grabs.
However, two defensemen (John Marino and Mike Matheson) have been traded. A third, specifically Brian Dumoulin or Marcus Pettersson, could be on the move before the season starts.
After all, they’re both worth a little over $4 million, and the Penguins are about $480,000 over the salary cap right now. according to CapFriendly. Additionally, the Pens have eight NHL defenders, plus PO Joseph, on the roster.
The team will look very different roster-wise at the back, and they may play differently as well. The more offensively oriented and less physically bellicose personas of Matheson and Marino have been traded for guys like Jeff Petry and Jan Rutta. Petry certainly has skill, but both bring a little more size and sandpaper to their game.
However, will any of that make the penguins any better? They have improved? Backpedaled? Or did they just remain stagnant, as they have been since losing in Round 2 of the playoffs in 2018?
Being good enough… not to be good enough.
As four straight years of first-round playoff exits would indicate.
Good enough to make the postseason every year. He’s not good enough to win a series.
Everywhere, but nowhere.
Being the same but older is probably a recipe for getting a little worse. On the contrary, that better jamming and defensive responsibility from Petry and Rutta could make next year’s club a little better.
Other Eastern Conference teams like the Detroit Red Wings, Ottawa Senators and Columbus Blue Jackets may have improved. But even if the Penguins aren’t as good as they were a season ago, are they going to lose the 20 points it would have cost them to fall from last place in the East playoffs this season?
Unlikely.
Are any of those three teams going to make up for the 22-30 point deficit between them and the Penguins from a year ago? Even more unlikely.
The Penguins will likely make the playoffs in 2023 for the 17th straight season. And they probably won’t make it to Round 2 for the fifth season in a row.
Everywhere, but nowhere.
Get used to that dark concept, if you haven’t already. Just be thankful you won’t have to think about it for a while. We have a Steelers quarterback derby to focus on in Pittsburgh for the next few months.
That will be everywhere, all the time. Let’s just worry about the Steelers’ recent run of futility in the playoffs for now.
In our final regularly scheduled hockey podcast of 2021-22, Penguins Radio Network’s Brian Metzer joins me to talk about the revamped blue line, remaining questions from the offseason, and some projections for the upcoming season.
Tim Benz is a staff writer for Tribune-Review. You can contact Tim at [email protected] or via Twitter. All tweets can be republished. All emails are subject to publication unless otherwise specified.