PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Pens general manager Ron Hextall said the trade of Jared McCann and losing Brandon Tanev in the expansion draft on Wednesday got the Pens salary cap compliant. Hextall said they were 3-3.5 million dollars over the cap before those moves.
Now is there any flexibility to be buyers in free agency?
“We can visit the free agent market, but don’t suspect there will be a top player there that we can fit under the cap,” Hextall said. “You never know what happens between now and then. We are going to do everything we can just to put the best team on the ice whether it’s internal or bringing a player or two in from the outside.”
While all teams are bargain hunting, the Pens are likely thrifting in free agency unless something drastically changes.
“Really hard to say what the market is going to be,” Hextall said. “I suspect there will be players in August that aren’t signed. We will just evaluate things on a day-to-day basis as we move along. If a free agent makes sense, we will move on it.”
The team already lost McCann (43gm, 14g, 18a and a plus +17) and Tanev (32gm, 7g, 9a, +12). Have free agent forwards Frederick Gaudreau (19gm, 2g, 8a, +10) Evan Rodrigues (35gm, 7g, 7a, -3) and Colton Sceviour (46gm, 5g, 5a, even plus/minus) and restricted free agent forwards Mark Jankowski (45gm, 4g, 7a, +4), Zach Aston-Reese (45gm, 9g, 6a, +10) and Radim Zohorna (8gm, 2g, 2a, +4). Cody Ceci (53g, 4g, 13a, +18) is the only free agent defenseman and he is unrestricted.
How do the Pens to improve?
“We will look at it,” Hextall said. “We also do feel like we have enough candidates from in house that we feel like certainly we can fill a number of the spots. We will look outside and see what we can find through trades or free agency. We are just trying to put the best team on the ice obviously with salary cap constraints.”