Keep 'Em Or CAN 'Em: Which Free Agents Should The Pens Bring Back?
Who will STAY? Who will GO?? Who will CARE MUCH EITHER WAY???
I started writing a feature about which pending Penguins UFAs and RFAs were worth bringing back, but quickly realized the group of names is extremely unexciting. Forcing you to read multiple dry, detailed breakdowns of each individual case would’ve been excruciating for us both.
Instead, I’ll attempt to “jazz up” this underwhelming group with an overblown gimmick: should the Pens KEEP these guys (denoted with this stock photo of a “contract”) or CAN THEM (denoted with various pics of cans.) Yes, it’s basically the same article, only now it’s more needlessly mean-sounding than I actually intend, and it’ll have pictures to break up the many boring words. Enjoy!
UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENTS:
D Matt Grzelcyk
Grzelcyk looked like he was flirting with waivers early on in his Penguins tenure, then rebounded to quarterback the top unit on what ended up being the league’s 6th-best power play. But ultimately, a small 31-year-old defenseman who couldn’t fetch a return at the trade deadline last year doesn’t do a whole lot for the Pens’ present or future. They’ll look elsewhere for a left D.
Slight bummer, though, because after a full year I can finally type his name without looking up the spelling.
Verdict: CAN
F Boko Imama
Kyle Dubas has already said the Pens are interested in bringing Imama back if they can work something out. He shouldn’t cost anything, he won’t block anyone as the 13th/14th forward who can bounce in & out of the lineup or back to Wilkes-Barre, and in a long season where the team will almost certainly be bad, it doesn’t hurt to keep a guy around who everyone seems to like and who can start fights to spruce up boring midweek regular season games.
VERDICT: KEEP
F Joona Koppanen
Remember when the Pens called him up and everyone was like “who’s this guy?” and quickly found out he’s already 27? Figure he’ll get organically aged out of the mix.
VERDICT: CAN
F Matt Nieto
Nieto was, confusingly, the first free agent Kyle Dubas signed in the Summer of 2023, perhaps foreshadowing what would turn out to be a very bizarre, very poor first offseason for the new GM. Injuries marred Nieto’s Pens tenure, but either way, he’s already cleared waivers once and he’s 32. Both parties will move on.
VERDICT: CAN
RESTRICTED FREE AGENTS:
F Emil Bemstrom
The Pens didn’t qualify Bemstrom last year after trading a 6th round pick and Alex Nylander to get him, but they re-signed him to a two-way contract and he was one of Wilkes-Barre’s leading scorers, putting up 48 points in 48 games (23 goals, 25 assists.) He didn’t do anything in the NHL (0 goals, 1 assist in 14 games,) but also only got 8 minutes of ice time a night playing mostly with 3rd and 4th liners.
He’s 26 now, he’s an arbitration-eligible RFA, and the Pens have barely used him at the NHL level. They’ll almost certainly part ways this offseason, and I have no problem with that. But I do wonder if some team will give Bemstrom a shot to “Stefan Noesen” his way back into the NHL — Noesen scored 48 goals in the AHL at age 29, then came back up with the Hurricanes, played admirably (and got some power play time,) and signed a 3 year x $2.75 million contract with the Devils this offseason.
Nevertheless… it’s can pic time.
F Connor Dewar
Dewar hustled his ass off with the Pens down the stretch last season — he was extremely noticeable on the forecheck, and even potted 4 goals in 17 games despite coming over from the Leafs with 0 in 31. He’s an arbitration-eligible RFA, and I’m sure the Pens won’t qualify him, but they could choose to not qualify him then re-sign him anyway like they did with Bemstrom a year ago.
He’ll be 26 later this month, though, and the Pens already have a number of veteran bottom-6ers under contract (Lizotte, Novak, Hayes, Acciari, and Heinen,) and that’s before potentially adding other salary-dump vets in trades this offseason. If Dewar does re-sign, I imagine it’ll be a league minimum two-way contract, which would be fine. But they have to see what else is out there first.
Unfortunately, “played well and wouldn’t mind if he comes back for nothing” is NOT one of the options, so it is CAN TIME (I’m sorry dude I can’t back out of this gimmick now!!!)
D Pierre-Olivier Joseph
Joseph’s skillset has him stuck in no man’s land: he’s not good enough offensively to be viewed as a play-driver or a power play QB, but he’s not good enough defensively or physical enough to be viewed as a shutdown guy or a bottom-pairing bruiser. He’s just kind of “a guy.” Hopefully he’ll continue to have an NHL career, because teams do always need D depth, but he’s gotten two runs in Pittsburgh and hasn’t established himself at all.
Here’s Keanu Reeves saying “CANS” a bunch of times in the movie Speed.
D Conor Timmins
Single-N Conor ate up 18 minutes a night for the Pens down the stretch while they were playing annoyingly well. He came over from the Maple Leafs at the trade deadline as a veteran body to help the post-deadline Pens get to the season’s finish line, but played better than expected, putting up a 55.2% expected-goals-for percentage in 17 games with Pittsburgh. He mostly played a sheltered third-pairing role while Letang & Karlsson ate up some of the harder minutes, but he ultimately played about as well as you can expect a veteran #3 RD to play in the role he filled.
He’s only 26, he’s got decent size (6’2” or 6’3”, depending on what stats page you trust,) and the Pens have no right D who are ready to step in and play immediately, especially if they end up trading Erik Karlsson. The list of free agent defensemen is boring as hell. Timmins is arbitration-eligible, but only made $1.1 million this year. I don’t see much harm in the Pens qualifying him and offering him 2 years x $2 million a year.
He checks all the boxes for a Dubas guy: decently physical, played for the Soo Greyhounds. End of list.
F Philip Tomasino
Ahhh Tommer. The former Nashville first rounder scored 11 goals and 12 assists in 50 games with the Pens after coming over for a 4th round pick. That’s an ~18 goal pace for an 82 game season — nothing groundbreaking, but perfectly acceptable for a middle-six winger who’s not on PP1.
My first instinct was, of course re-sign him, who cares. He was decent and he’s still young and they’re not overflowing with forward options. My second instinct was, careful, these extensions for unproven, non-core guys are the ones that sometimes turn into slight overpays if the forward struggles and plops down the depth chart (like he did in Nashville.) But then my third instinct was, that’s a very small risk and it’s one worth taking for the Pens because they have no other major guys they need to sign anytime soon. Which was basically just my first instinct again.
Some comparable RFA contracts that got signed last offseason (first-round-pick forwards coming off decent seasons):
Connor McMichael: 25th overall pick coming off a 33 point season, signed with WSH for 2 years x $2.1 million
Joe Veleno: 30th overall pick coming off a 28 point season, signed with DET for 2 years x $2.75 million
Barrett Hayton: 5th overall pick coming off 10 points in 30 games (but had 43 points the year before,) signed with UTA for 2 years x $2.65 million
The cap going up should goose RFA contracts slightly, but Tomasino doesn’t have a ton of leverage either (as we saw from Nashville having trouble getting anything back for him,) so I bet those factors balance out and he ends up in this range. 2 years x $2.85 mil for Tommer and everybody’s happy?
Here’s that pic again. The bit will never wear thin!!!
Alright, we’re keeping Tomasino and Timmins, and signing Imama to a two-way deal. The rest of ya? Here’s Cricket from It’s Always Sunny getting blasted over the head with a garbage can.
Cans