Pens sign Pascal Dupuis; Have Eyes on Signing both Jagr and Kennedy

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is reporting that the Pittsburgh Penguins have resigned winger Pascal Dupuis to a two-year deal, worth $3million. Dupuis will now count 1.5 million against the cap for each of the next two seasons.


Dupuis, 32, counted $1.4 million against the cap each of the previous three seasons. Over that span, he produced 47 goals over that span — including 35 the last two years, missing only two games over that period.
With Dupuis getting only a slight raise, the Penguins are committed to approximately $57 million toward NHL contracts for next season, when the salary cap will be $64.3 million. - Tribune Review

The Penguins generally like to stay about 1-1.5 million under the salary cap. Since the cap was raised to $64.3 million, the Pens still have about $6 million to play with. That could mean signing wingers Jaromir Jagr and Tyler Kennedy.

Before today, most thought Kennedy was a goner for sure. Now, if the Penguins can sign Kennedy for $2million a year or a little more, they could end up signing Jagr, Kennedy, Dupuis, and Craig Adams for next year. That would be a big success for the Penguins and General Manager Ray Shero. No matter what happens the rest of this offseason, you will not convince me that Shero isn't the best GM in hockey.

As for the Dupuis signing, it's a good one. Only got around 100k raise, which is minuscule. Maxime Talbot is expected to get almost $1million a year more than his previous contract. For what? Talbot is much more valuable than Talbot without the dumb shit that Talbot does and says. People think of Talbot too much as a person and not enough about what he does on the ice.

Dupuis is a great skater, fast, can play the penalty-kill, and can play either wing. In other words, Dupuis can play on all four lines and can still contribute in some way at a decent level Dupuis is also considered  a very good guy in the locker room and seems to be liked by most, if not all of the locker room. Dupuis is almost the ultimate role-player, especially in this system.




If the Penguins still call this off-season a huge success. Lets go Pens do indeed end up signing all four of those guys, and let Talbot and grinder Mike Rupp leave I would!