Chirps from Center Ice

You’ll have to click through to this one if you aren’t linked in because I want the Thank You post to keep its shelf life.

The Penguins held their breakup day today. Jonathan Bombulie has the recap here.

Here’s who’s what and under what from Bombulie:

UNDER CONTRACT: D Simon Despres, C Brian Gibbons, G Patrick Killeen, LW Nick Petersen, D Philip Samuelsson, C Zach Sill, RW Paul Thompson

INCOMING ROOKIES: RW Beau Bennett, LW Tom Kuhnhackl, D Reid McNeill, D Joe Morrow, RW Adam Payerl, C Dominik Uher

RESTRICTED FREE AGENTS: D Robert Bortuzzo, D Alex Grant, G Mattias Modig, C Cal O’Reilly, D Alexandre Picard, C Casey Pierro-Zabotel, D Carl Sneep, D Brian Strait, LW Eric Tangradi, G Brad Thiessen, D Boris Valabik, RW Keven Veilleux

UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENTS ON NHL CONTRACTS: LW Ryan Craig, LW Steve MacIntyre, RW Colin McDonald, G Scott Munroe, RW Jason Williams

UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENTS ON AHL CONTRACTS: LW Chris Barton, C Cody Chupp, LW Brandon DeFazio, D Andrew Hotham, LW Bryan Lerg, D Peter Merth, D Joey Mormina, C Matt Rust, LW Ryan Schnell, C Ben Street, RW Geoff Walker, D Cody Wild

Jonathan also had some points which, sitting there reading it and taking it all in, I decided to do some point / counterpoint with. I may as well, because I’m not going to have anything fresh blogwise for a while.

The first thing that strikes me is there aren’t a lot of players on the guaranteed-to-come-back-next-year list. Sill, Gibbons, Thompson and Samuelsson are very good bets. So are RFAs Grant, Sneep and Veilleux. After that, lots of questions.

2012-2013 be a fish or cut bait year for the WBS Penguins as a whole. Today, it doesn’t look like the team is a playoff team or really much of a contender if 80% of the guys that can bolt, do.

It’s time for Tangradi, Strait and Bortuzzo to graduate, in large part because they’ve earned it but also because they’ll have to clear waivers in the fall. Pittsburgh either makes room for them or trades them to an NHL team that will. Tangradi takes heat in the comments on this blog, but he was outstanding against St. John’s. Outstanding.

Despres should probably graduate too. He was also very good against the Ice Caps. His status, and that of Morrow, Strait and Bortuzzo, depends on what Ray Shero does with his D corps in Pittsburgh. There could be a major restructuring or very few changes at all. We’ll have to wait and see.

Tangradi is graduated in my opinion. By the fact that Pittsburgh kept him up since February and by the fact that he was at times our best player on the ice in playoffs, I think he’s a full time NHLer. Despres is a definite graduate also, in my opinion. But Simon’s status as a graduate could change.

Picard and O’Reilly are two interesting RFAs. They’re guys you’d love to have on your AHL team, but they’re also guys who might be disillusioned if you qualify them, put them on waivers and send them to the minors. They’re going to be looking for chances at NHL jobs.

Picard bolts. O’Reilly either resigns with Pittsburgh or goes overseas. Mark it down.

Of the UFAs, I think Craig has the best chance to return. I think it’s possible, when it comes right down to it, that he’d rather be the captain of the AHL team in a strong organization than chase a call-up in a weak organization. I think McDonald, Williams and MacIntyre will look for NHL opportunities elsewhere.

Can’t argue with that, McDonald could be another to hop the pond.

Capgeek has Thiessen listed as a UFA, but I don’t think that’s possible because he’s 26 years old. Of course, the NHL needs a new CBA this summer, so those UFA/RFA rules could change. Regardless, the question is, did Thiessen do enough in a solid NHL call-up and gutsy playoff run to earn the back-up job behind Marc-Andre Fleury? I really don’t know how Shero will answer that question. If Thiessen really is an RFA like I think he is, it’s entirely possible he could be back in Wilkes-Barre for another year.

I could go back and forth with this question all summer long. I think Thiessen could be back in Wilkes-Barre and I also think that he could serve as Fleury’s backup. That he was up for an extended look like Tangradi and our best player on the ice would say to me that he’s a lock for an NHL job next year.

The most interesting part of  the whole list, if you ask me, is the UFAs on AHL deals. Guys like Lerg, Street, Walker and Mormina were huge parts of this team this year, but I think Pittsburgh will need to offer them NHL deals to keep them around. With a 50-contract limit, will they? If not, Jason Botterill will have to be busy putting together an AHL roster this summer.

Either Lerg or Street walk. Both were invisible in playoffs. If either clicked in the postseason, you are probably looking at a preview of the Eastern Conference Finals vs. Norfolk right now instead of washing your jersey and packing up your Penguins gear for another offseason. Walker had an APB out on him at times this postseason. I don’t see any reason why Joey Mormina would NOT be back next season unless he gets a generous offer overseas.

JB then went into offer updates on Brian Strait and Nick Petersen. Strait has an upper body injury, still undisclosed, and Petersen still has a “personal situation” with no more detail. Best of luck to both.

He then addressed the comment section of his blog, where you sometimes will see me. Was the season a success? JB says it was. I do too. If you aren’t going to win the Calder Cup, you want to bow out to a team like St. John’s. That is, a carbon copy of yourself. Not situations like a Game 6 vs. Charlotte last year, a sweep vs. Albany the year before or getting shutout in the last two games by Michal Neuvirth the year before that.

What happens in the Norfolk series with the IceCaps will be interesting, to say the least. If the Admirals sweep St. John’s, would you have rather won Game 7 vs. the IceCaps and have that happen to the Penguins? I wouldn’t.

Maybe that’s why I am taking the Game 7 loss easier than I have in seasons past. We lost to a mirror image of ourselves. If the IceCaps beat Norfolk and ultimately the Calder Cup, the Game 7 defeat would become harder to swallow because, in essence, that could have been us.

As far as the question on Wilkes-Barre winning a Calder Cup someday, Jonathan offered the following which I will leave you with:

How are the Penguins going to get that elusive title someday? In my opinion, those strides will be made at the draft in June, not in free agency in July. We put a lot of emphasis on the free agent period, and I’m more guilty of that than most. I make up a big long list of the top AHL free agents — and I’ll do so again in the coming weeks — and then the team that signs the best haul off that list gets christened as the Calder Cup favorite. The reality is, the best AHL teams are, more often than not, the ones with the best draft picks and college free agents. I’m going to try to remember that this July, rather than going nuts with each transaction.

Let’s Go Pens!