Burke: ‘Wait and see’ on adding pieces at deadline
New front office looking for muscle
“Just Play.”
That two-word mantra helped Penguins coach Mike Sullivan add two Stanley Cup banners to PPG Paints Arena. Speed and skill were prioritized above all else. An ounce of flesh wasn’t worth the possible game-swinging penalty that might accompany it.
At least, that was always Sullivan’s point of view.
But now, with the NHL trade deadline looming less than two weeks away and a veteran core of players reaching a crossroads, two new decision makers hold the keys. The change in leadership that brought general manager Ron Hextall and president of hockey operations Brian Burke to Pittsburgh might also come with a change in philosophy.
“I’m a big fan of not going to a gun fight with a knife,” Burke told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “So, Sully and I
“Ron’s the GM. He makes the calls. I’m going to support his recommendations almost without fail.”
will have to thrash that out at some point. I agree with him in general [that you should hurt a team on the scoreboard]. But I also think there are times when it helps to have those type of people dressed.”
The question really is not if the Penguins will eventually bring in more muscle. It’s a matter of when and in what forms.
“I think people know how Brian Burke teams play,” said Burke, the man who brought the word truculence into the NHL vernacular. “I think you’ll see some evolution here.”
Ahead of the April 12 trade deadline, Burke talked about what needs he sees on the current roster, which players and picks are “untouchable,” what factors are shaping the market and more.
What do they want?
The first question is this: How will this work with two people sharing the same front office?
Burke said, ideally, it will be the same approach as when he was the president of hockey operations in Calgary and Brad Treliving was the general manager.
“We would agree conceptually on what we wanted to do, what changes we wanted to make to the team,” Burke said. “We needed a center. We needed a defenseman. Whatever it was, we could agree conceptually. Then, he could work the phones and come up with some possibilities and options, and we’d agree on something that worked.”
Burke made one thing very clear.
“Ron’s the GM,” he said. “He makes the calls. I’m going to support his recommendations almost without fail.”
Two weeks ago, those discussions shifted toward one position: centers. When Evgeni Malkin and Teddy Blueger went down with injuries, it left the Penguins without two of their top three centers. Considering Mark Jankowski has underwhelmed, the center position appeared like the most obvious and pressing area of need.
More recently, that might have changed — at least a little.
“We’ve gotten a great performance out of Freddy Gaudreau,” Burke said. “People are stepping up. I’m not sure it was as dire a need as it was. But when two of your top four centers go down, you start looking around.”
Burke praised Jared McCann for filling a void and said he thought Malkin was playing “fantastic” before he got hurt.
Notice he didn’t mention Jankowski, who has two points and a minus-3 rating in the past 30 games he has played. The decision whether to add at this position might come down to if they feel Gaudreau, McCann or someone else already in the organization can fill a bottom-six role in the middle or if outside help can be had for the right price.
What do they give up?
While former GM Jim Rutherford’s win-now approach brought two more championship banners to PPG Paints Arena and an enshrinement in the Hockey Hall of Fame, it also left the cupboard awfully bare.
In terms of future assets, here’s essentially what the Penguins have: the top AHL prospect, Pierre- Olivier Joseph (we’ll talk more about him later), the two goalies from the 2020 draft, the two forwards from the 2019 draft, a 2021 second-round pick, all of the picks in 2022.
And that’s basically it. “Hexty has been very clear,” Burke said. “He doesn’t intend to trade that pick, [second round in 2021].
Crosby and Malkin both have full no- movement clauses that would need to be waived, but don’t get too worried.
“Obviously, Sid is not going anywhere unless Sid decides he wants to,” Burke said.
A few others have modified no-trade clauses. Kris Letang’s contract stipulates 18 teams where he’s willing to be moved. Brian Dumoulin, Jason Zucker and Brandon Tanev have the more common 10-team list of places they will not go.
Trading any of these players would take cooperation and careful coordination. So, it could be tricky, though not entirely impossible.
“Other than that, there’s no untouchables,” Burke said. “I don’t think there should be on any team. The year after we won the Cup in Anaheim, we were open for business.”
Asked if that means he’d be open to a hockey trade, where both teams try to address a need by giving up current NHLers, Burke answered with one word:
“Yup.”
What about defensemen?
It appears to the outside as if the Penguins have a logjam brewing on the left side of the blue line. Dumoulin, Mike Matheson, Marcus Pettersson and Juuso Riikola are all signed through next season. So is Mark Friedman, a righthander recently claimed off waivers who is more comfortable on his left. Plus, no one would forget about 21-yearold prospect Joseph, who showed flashes of potential in his 16 games in the NHL. Not so fast.
At least in their public comments, for what they’re worth, Hextall and Burke don’t appear especially eager to move a lefty. Recently, Hextall told the Post-Gazette he wants to be cautious not to put too much on Joseph’s plate too soon but instead let him follow the natural course of his development. In other words: Joseph is not in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton because there’s not a place here. He’s in the minors because that’s where the club believes he’s at in his progression.
Burke’s comments were similar.
“I don’t think you can ever have too many defensemen,” he said. “To make any kind of noise in the playoffs, you need at least eight or nine defensemen. Maybe there’s enough depth there to make a move, maybe not. We’ll see.
“But that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t listen if someone calls in a trade.”
What’s the market?
The other complications are the market and salary cap.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic left arenas mostly empty, the salary cap was projected to go as high as $88 million. Instead, it remains flat at $81.5 million, not just this season but until hockeyrelated revenue returns to pre-pandemic levels.
“I think if you didn’t have so many teams in serious cap trouble, you’d have already seen a flurry of deals,” Burke said.
According to CapFriendly, the Penguins currently have $747,712 in cap space. The site projects the Penguins will have a little over $1.12 million in deadline cap space. That’s not a lot without clearing something, somehow.
The other complicating factor is players who are traded from a U.S. team to Canada have to quarantine for seven days. Still, several national hockey writers have termed this a “buyer’s market.” If true, that’s interesting for a Penguins team with not much to give up.
It certainly complicates things that the Penguins have played so well over the past month, racking up more points than any NHL club to surge into second place in the hypercompetitive East Division.
On one hand, you could argue, why mess with a good thing?
On the other hand, maybe this team has proven to the new bosses they’re still in win-now mode and could use another piece or two to help punch up the roster?
“I like the fact that we’ve been able to continue to win with a banged-up lineup,” Burke said. “Different guys are pulling on the rope every night. That’s the mark of a close team and a good team.”
So, will the Penguins address that need at center, bring in someone who changes the look of the blue line or perhaps pull off a trade that reshapes the identity of the roster in a significant way? The next dozen days will begin to tell that story.
“I think right now,” Burke said, “it’s more wait and see.”
— Brian Burke, pictured left. explaining his working relationship with GM Ron Hextall