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From the Penguins:

The Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins have agreed to terms with forward Ruslan Fedotenko to a one-year contract through the 2009-2010 season, it was announced today by Executive Vice President and General Manager Ray Shero. 

Fedotenko, 30, scored 39 points (16 goals, 23 assists) and ranked second on the team with a plus-18 rating in 65 games with the Penguins this season.  It marked the seventh time that he recorded 30-plus points in a single season.  He appeared in 24 games for Pittsburgh during the post-season, recording seven goals and 14 points. 

Continue reading "Fedotenko re-signs with Penguins for one-year deal"

The tally so far has the Pens losing Scuderi, Hal Gill and Mathieu Garon, while retaining Craig Adams and Bill Guerin and signing Mike Rupp.

The question now becomes, with only ~$4.7M available, how does GM Ray Shero spend it ??

Continue reading "In Shero We Trust (but hurry up, m’kay ?)"

Like last July 1st, when Shero’s only signing was, Eric Godard.

It was on July 2nd a year ago when Hossa-gate happened, resulting in GMRS scrambling to sign Ruslan Fedotenko and Miro Satan the next day.

Fast forward to present day, and Rob Scuderi and Fedotenko are still negotiating with several teams, Hal Gill has to start learning French and Mathieu Garon is next up to Dot the “I” at the Horseshoe.

Continue reading "Lots of feelers still out there for Shero and Penguins after Day One"

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Mike Zigomanis’ agent states that “I think it’s a fait accompli” that he won’t have any more discussions with the Penguins, after the Pens re-signed Craig Adams with a two-year contract.

Zigomanis was leading the NHL in faceoff percentage at the time of his shoulder surgery in December.

Or, knowing Ray Shero, maybe not.

As I mentioned on Twitter, now that the Pens have re-signed Craig Adams and Bill Guerin, leaving them with ~$5.5M of cap space, something just tells me that it’s not going to be as simple as attempting to sign Ruslan Fedotenko and Rob Scuderi, then pack up and call it a summer.

I think we should expect the unexpected in the coming days from Shero and the Penguins.

Continue reading "It’s the calm before the Free Agency storm for Penguins"

The Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins have signed forward Craig Adams to a two-year contract, it was announced today by Executive Vice President and General Manager Ray Shero. Financial terms were not disclosed.  Adams, 32, was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.  The gritty Adams played a key support role in the Penguins’ drive to the Stanley Cup, chipping in three goals and two assists for five points in 24 playoff games. After being claimed on waivers from the Chicago Blackhawks on March 4, he played nine regular-season games for the Penguins and recorded one assist.

Continue reading "Penguins re-sign Adams to two-year deal"

Hoover tries to call the Delta’s down, explaining ”This is Kent Dorfman.  He’s a Legacy from Harrisburg” (His brother, Fred, was a ‘59 Delta, if you recall).

Sorry, just felt like that trip down memory lane.  That, possibly unconsciously, maybe not, was one of the themes of the Penguins’ recently completed draft.  Two of the seven Penguins’ picks are Legacy’s, so to speak, as they are related to two of more notable Penguins of the past.

A rundown of the Pens’ Day Two picks:

Continue reading "Penguins complete ‘09 Draft with a couple of “Legacy’s”"

In the final Central Scouting Rankings Despres was ranked eighth among North American skaters.

Scouting reports:  NHL Central Scouting’s Chris Bordeleau - “I think for a potential pro player, he’s got the size and mobility. I’ve seen him many games, and he never seems to make a bad play. He’s never going to get 100 points, but definitely, when you want a guy to play defense, he’s your guy. He does it all, he’ll block shots and he moves the puck at the right time.” Saint John Sea Dogs head coach Jacques Beaulieu -
“Simon is a very good skater with and without the puck. He has good hands for a big man and he has outstanding vision as well as hockey sense. To make it to the next level he will need to improve his upper body strength and his shot, but overall Simon is an outstanding person on and off the ice. He loves the game. He is without a doubt an NHL prospect.”

But that also means that your #1 pick is really anyone’s guess, including the teams themselves.  They might have a handful of players they have their eye on, but they could very well be gone by the time it’s your turn to pick.

So with the Penguins at #30 this year, the wild guesses that you see on all of these Mock Drafts are just all over the place.  Some of the Penguins’ picks I see on one person’s mock draft at #30 are on another’s at #7.  Again, just all over the place.

So, for your entertaiment pleasure, I’ve compiled a small list of websites’ 1st round Mock Drafts, along with their respective Central Scouting Rankings.

Continue reading "Penguins’ #1 pick is a crapshoot, a glance at Mock Draft’s #1 Pens Picks"

Then, during one of the slow periods in the playoffs, I decided to download TwInbox, an application that allows me to send and receive my Tweets within my Outlook.

So now, after some streamlining of the people that I follow, and monitoring the Tweets that I still get, I have a few thoughts.  Bear with me.

Continue reading "My .02 on Twittering and hockey blogging"

The Hockey Hall of Fame’s website has extensive journals going back to the 2003 Stanley Cup Champion New Jersey Devils, detailing the travels of the Stanley Cup as it makes it way around the world.

This year will be no different, as the HHOF will provide a journal for the Cup’s travels with the Penguins.

Looking at the Pens’ roster, the Cup should be heading to countries such as Russia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, as well as throughout Canada and the U.S., of course.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have signed defenseman Alex Goligoski to a three-year contract, it was announced today by Executive Vice President and General Manger Ray Shero.  Goligoski, 23, was the third-leading scorer among NHL rookie defensemen in 2008-09 with 20 points in 45 games (6-14-20). He appeared in two games in the Stanley Cup playoffs, recording one assist.  The 5-11, 180-pound native of Grand Rapids, MN also played 26 games for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey League, registering two goals and 16 assists for 18 points.  “Alex is a skilled young defenseman and a tremendous skater, and we are pleased to sign him to a multi-year deal as we continue to build our young core,” Shero said. “He gained some valuable experience this season and made contributions to our Stanley Cup run. He is another example of a great future here in Pittsburgh.”

Continue reading "Penguins sign Goligoski to three year contract"

Don’t look now, Penguins fans, but now that the Cup has been hoisted and the parade is done, it’s time to start focusing in on the NHL Draft and the start of free agency.  I’ll take a look at the UFA’s in the coming days.

Much like the Steelers have gotten used to in recent years, it’ll be a little bit of a wait in the first round for the Pens, picking 30th.

Look at it this way, at least the Pens have a 1st round pick this year, since last year’s was part of the trade package the Pens gave to Atlanta in the Marian Hossa trade at the deadline last season.

Continue reading "Oh yeah, there’s a Draft coming up….."

Here is the last segment reviewing the Stanley Cup Finals.

The major injury for the Penguins, suffered by Pens’ defenseman Sergei Gonchar after a collision with Alex Ovechkin, turned out to be a partially torn MCL. Head Coach Dan Bylsma indicated there were some other injuries to the Penguins, but didn’t elaborate.

The Wings had several injuries of their own as well, including surgery for injured testicles to captain Nik Lidstrom after a stick from the Hawks’ Patrick Sharp.

The Penguins continued their journey around Pittsburgh since returning from Detroit Friday night with the Stanley Cup. today visiting PNC Park, where ironically enough, the Pirates are entertaining the Detroit Tigers.

The championship parade is Monday at noon in downtown Pittsburgh, using the same route that the Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers used this past February.

I will not spend much time at all on this nonsense, I’m in too good of a mood.  Sidney Crosby got to the handshake line late last night (along with several other Penguins and staff, by the way).  By the time Crosby got in line, Wings’ captain Nik Lidstrom and Kris Draper, who were in front of the line, had hastily skated off the ice.

Crosby did indeed shake some Wings’ hands, such as Henrik Zetterberg and coach Mike Babcock, among others.  Watch for yourself.

The Penguins themselves said it best, “Members of losing teams generally vacate the ice pretty quickly”.

All this talk of Crosby “snubbing” the Wings is absurd.  I could talk about a lot of things that happened in that arena after that game by those “fans”, but that’s different, of course, right ??

Originally, we had planned on having three winners, but after tallying the results, we ended up with four winners.  The vendors have graciously agreed to provide another Blu-Ray DVD, so thank you to them.  Here are the winners:

The first two winners are “miked051” and “moneypuck”, who both nailed the total goals with 31.  The final two winners were obtained by the tiebreaker of the goal differential.  Both “shanetx” and “steveyzerman” were one goal off with 30 and 32 goals respectively, and both were one goal off the differential with 4.  Honorable mentions also go to “dbcooper” and “miah” who also were one off the total goals, but didn’t beat the differentials of the other two.

I will be contacting each of you soon, thanks again.