Penguins, Pirates go opposite ways
of teams to beat in the NHL playoffs and have a terrific chance of winning a third consecutive Stanley Cup.
The timing of the Brassard and Hornqvist moves struck me. The Brassard trade came a day after Bob Nutting said the Pirates want to be competitive every year and need to protect the young assets in their system to do it. The Hornqvist extension became official on the same day the Major League Baseball Players Association filed a grievance against the Pirates and three other teams, accusing the clubs of failing to appropriately spend revenue-sharing money.
Are we talking two distinctly different approaches by two distinctly different ownership groups or what?
I understand baseball is at a disadvantage compared with hockey because it doesn’t have a salary cap. But I can’t believe Pirates fans wantto hear what Nutting said and I don’t think they’re especially comforted or even believe team president Frank Coonelly’s terse claim that the MLBPA’s grievance is “patently baseless.” I’m thinking they are really envious of Penguins fans.
“Our mandate is to win now,” Morehouse said. There you go. The Penguins take that approach every year. The Pirates never take it. They didn’t even take it after they won 98 games in 2015. They didn’t try to build on that team by bringing in a proven player in a trade because that would have meant giving up prospects. They didn’t spend money to get better through free agency. Their win total fell to 78 in 2016 and 75 in 2017 and could drop even lower this season after they traded Gerrit Cole, Andrew McCutchen and their contracts worth a combined $21.5 million. They are the only team to not sign even one major-league free agent.
Spending money never is an issue with Burkle and Lemieux. The team actually spent over the cap the past two seasons, which it was allowed to do after putting Kris Letang and Pascal Dupuis on long-term injured reserve. The Hornqvist deal is more proof. That might turn out to be a bad contract in the fourth and fifth years, but it will be worth it if Hornqvist helps to win another Cup or two.
“I can’t ever remember them saying no to us,” Morehouse said of Burkle and Lemieux. “From spending over the cap to hiring an additional full-time coach, Sergei Gonchar, to building our practice facility to being one of two teams to have a fulltime doctor traveling with us to having a nutritionist and full-time chef to how the players are treated … “
You get the idea.
Trading prospects for proven talent also is encouraged by Penguins owners. They’re worried about winning now, not in 2022. Rutherford gave up a No. 1 pick and promising young goaltender Filip Gustavsson in the Brassard deal. I can’t even begin to imagine Neal Huntington making that sort of deal.
The Penguins strategy doesn’t always work, of course. At the 2013 trade deadline, then-general manager Ray Shero traded a No. 1 pick, two No. 2s and three prospects, including Joe Morrow, to get future Hall of Famer Jarome Iginla, Douglas Murray and Brenden Morrow. Iginla and Sidney Crosby never clicked and the team went out quietly in four games against Boston in the Eastern Conference final.
Burkle and Lemieux wrote it off as an occasional risk/consequence of trying to win in the moment.
“I remember when we made those trades a lot of people worried about giving up the picks and what the team would look like in 2016 and 2017,” Morehouse said. “Well, we had pretty good teams in 2016 and 2017.” Stanley Cup champions. There is good explanation for it.
“We have Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, Jim Rutherford and Mike Sullivan, Ron Burkle and Mario Lemieux,” Morehouse said. “We have a pretty good group of people here.”
A pretty good organization, as well.