largegarlic wrote: ↑Thu Feb 01, 2024 7:48 pm
I don't have an Athletic subscription, so I don't know what exactly he said there, but I did listen to Yohe on Madden's show today.
--Yohe, as I've speculated here too, thinks the team is very concerned with keeping Crosby happy so that he will re-sign over the summer. Yohe seemed to think that entailed trying their best to re-sign Guentzel. Madden wondered whether Crosby could be sold on trading him to get assets to retool, if there was no chance of re-signing Guentzel.
--Yohe's sources hadn't told him about the 6 year/$50 million contract offer for Guentzel, but he thought that sounded about right in terms of what the Pens would offer. However, he thought Guentzel could reasonably expect $10-11 million per year on the open market, and the Pens weren't going to go there.
--Yohe said that Dubas preferred to re-sign Guentzel before the deadline, but Dubas wasn't "scared" to trade Guentzel at the deadline, if he didn't think they could re-sign him.
Thanks for the recap. Here's what I can recap from The Athletic article titled "What I’m hearing about Penguins’ Jake Guentzel trade decision, Kyle Dubas’ next moves, Erik Karlsson"
--Yohe mentions that on December 11th Dubas said the next 20 games would be crucial in his decision making. The team went 11-5-4, which was 26 points, and would be a 107 point pace over the course of the season. Yet, they went into the ASG break with little confidence after blowing 2 goal lead vs Vegas, own goal embarrassment vs Arizona, needing a goal with the goalie pulled to salvage a point vs Florida, and a dramatic comeback against Montreal. The Penguins tied the score 3 times with the goalie pulled in their past 7 games. Dramatic flair, yes. Sustainable, no. Also says 11 of those 20 games were against non-playoff teams. He continues to pile on reasons why there is reason for doubt.
--There is zero sense Sullivan needs to be concerned about his job. Front office believes he is doing a good job, he has a good relationship with Crosby, and he has built a strong relationship with Dubas.
--Says Reirden being let go would also come as a surprise. Nobody has outright said he has safe, but those Yohe talked to state the overall sentiment is the PP issues lie with the players, not the coaching. According to Yohe, Reirden is widely regarded as one of the best assistants around the league, and management doesn't share the fan view that he is an issue.
--Says the organization expected more from Karlsson, especially on the PP. They expected him to mesh with Crosby, Guentzel, and Malkin. There was reluctance to remove him from the top PP until recently. The team wants Karlsson to use his legs more. Sounds like they want Karlsson carrying the puck in a lot more than he is. They don't want long stretch passes or dump ins on the PP from Karlsson.
--Organization is very high on John Ludvig. Don't be surprised if he bumps POJ out of the lineup, although, the team believes POJ's play has improved over this recent stretch without Ludvig in the lineup.
--Guentzel’s situation, though, is unique. From what I’ve been told, Dubas isn’t afraid to trade Guentzel, even if Crosby and Sullivan would prefer to keep him employed in Pittsburgh. If Dubas believes a new contract simply isn’t in the cards, I believe he’ll trade Guentzel before letting him walk for nothing.
Basically says it will come down to Guentzel still giving a somewhat team friendly deal, and what Guentzel's number is compared to Dubas's number. (outside this article, I've heard the team probably wouldn't go above 9M AAV...that's from FLPensFan, not Yohe)
