Roster set for Opening Night...
The Pens announced today that they have made there final cuts for the beginning of the season. There were couple of surprises in the roster most notably was that Staal and Letang both made the roster at 18 and 19 respectively. Also it was a surprise that the Pens kept all three goaltenders to start the season. Not making the opening day roster were Welch and Talbot.
The Pens keeping Staal and Letang means that they both will likely be here for at least 9 games at which point the real decision has to be made if they will stay the whole season or be sent back to Juniors. Staal will most likely have to tear it up in the first nine game because Pens will probably not want to have to try to sign both Malkin and Staal in the same year assuming that they both become the players that they are expected to. While this is a long time down the road it is still going to play a part in the decision. Staal making the team also probably means that Malkin will be out for most of the 4-6 weeks and Staal might be able to fill that void for awhile.
Letang is a different story. While there is nothing keeping him from playing the whole year, chances are that he faces the same fate as Staal because the Pens do have Cairns injured and Welch waiting in the wings. So if Letang starts to lose ice time early he would be sent back. Another factor in putting him on the opening day roster puts the carrot in front of him to sign his contract and by doing so relieves the Pens of the fear of him wanting to reenter the draft in '07 if he remained unsigned until then.
While these are tough decisions that need to be made by November, it is still a good thing because just a few years ago the Pens had to just sign enough people to fill a roster let alone worry about who was better.
The Pens keeping Staal and Letang means that they both will likely be here for at least 9 games at which point the real decision has to be made if they will stay the whole season or be sent back to Juniors. Staal will most likely have to tear it up in the first nine game because Pens will probably not want to have to try to sign both Malkin and Staal in the same year assuming that they both become the players that they are expected to. While this is a long time down the road it is still going to play a part in the decision. Staal making the team also probably means that Malkin will be out for most of the 4-6 weeks and Staal might be able to fill that void for awhile.
Letang is a different story. While there is nothing keeping him from playing the whole year, chances are that he faces the same fate as Staal because the Pens do have Cairns injured and Welch waiting in the wings. So if Letang starts to lose ice time early he would be sent back. Another factor in putting him on the opening day roster puts the carrot in front of him to sign his contract and by doing so relieves the Pens of the fear of him wanting to reenter the draft in '07 if he remained unsigned until then.
While these are tough decisions that need to be made by November, it is still a good thing because just a few years ago the Pens had to just sign enough people to fill a roster let alone worry about who was better.
Labels: News
posted by Penguins Blog at 3:44 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home