BleacherCoaches.com

Just in.... Pittsburgh Penguins sign UFA defenseman Brooks Orpik to a six-year, $22.5 million contract....following a 5 yr deal w/ Malkin, 2 yr deal w/ Eaton & signing P Dupuis for 3 yrs along w/ an enforcer (from Calgary) to replace Larouque.

Don't know why Hossa took a one yr deal in Det.....Ruutu is gone to Ottawa!

All in all, not worst case scenario....but considering loss of Malone, Roberts & Ruutu (all rugged forwards) hated to see Pens miss out on D. Tucker who went to Colorado ( 2 year deal worth $4.5-million)! Would have added grit & scoring touch on a line w/ Syd or Malkin!! Hopefully, we sign a couple tough forwards w/ some size & scoring ability! Do not think we have any needs on Defense now.

Defense is fine. Eaton, Orpik, Gonchar, Whitney, Scuderi, Sydor, Letang are all good defenseman and only 6 can start.

Hal Gill also

pens are looking to get Kristian Huselius of the calgary flames, however TSN just reported that huselius signed a deal with the blue jackets and Markus Naslund of the canucks, although chances are he's going to head to minnesota where they seem to be offering him more money. they were after todd bertuzzi, but broke off negotiations with him due to the price being too high.

Defense: with brian campbell being signed reports are saying that a lot of call have been made to shero's office about trading for whitney, don't be surprised if he gets dealt.

According to the insider, orpik was on his way out the door until he received calls from "Scuderi, Whitney, Crosby, Letang, Fleury, Talbot and Kennedy begging him to stay"

With all these Lightning signees, they are gonna have to trade people. Anything worth the Pens interest?

....That's the thing about being a basement dweller, you usually don't have a ton of talented players. With the exception of LeCavelier and Prospal (both have long term deals with the bolts now) there's not much to be interested in from them. In a couple years they will have the same problem the Pens did this year, a ton of good players who are at the end of their contracts. I've got a feeling within two years they will be back to the playoffs if not to the finals just based on the new acquisitions.

according to the insider the pens have just signed Miroslav Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko. both are quality players. apparently satan approached the penguins right after the reports of hossa signing with the red wings.

Anyone think the two signees will give the Pens a better team than last year, is it about the same, or is it worse?

Chemistry is the final determining factor. I myself, would like to see more of the young kids that really provided a spark commuting from wilkes-barre to Pitt and one night in NY. Those guys could really help the 3rd line. Glad to see Orpik in the fold for a while, love his game.

like i said in a different thread, i would much rather have 2 or 3 quality guys rather than a hossa. hossa's new contract is about 7.5 mil a year. with satan and fedotenko the salary is like 5.5 mil combined and they are both quality players... plus i like the fact that we have a guy on the team named satan (even though is pronounced sha-tan)