Six days after winning a second straight Stanley Cup and three days after the confetti was cleaned up off the Boulevard of the Allies, the Penguins had another day of note.
It was June 17 last year when the Penguins submitted the names of nine players -- eight skaters and one goalie -- they opted to protect in the NHL's expansion draft. That list included Sidney Crosby, Patric Hornqvist, Phil Kessel, Evgeni Malkin, Brian Dumoulin, Kris Letang, Olli Maatta, Justin Schultz and Matt Murray.
The Penguins did their part to help stock the Golden Knights' inaugural roster, exposing 26 players, including Marc-Andre Fleury, the player Vegas eventually chose 29th. The rest, as they say, is history, albeit ongoing in the Stanley Cup Final.
Despite some of the second-guessing that has gone on since the Penguins were eliminated in the second round earlier this month, Jim Rutherford wouldn't do anything differently if that same draft were held today.
Really, he couldn't do anything much differently.
Malkin, Crosby, Letang, Kessel, Hornqvist, Schultz and Fleury had no-trade or no movement clauses in their contracts and were automatically protected. Fleury waived his no-movement clause in February 2017, allowing the Penguins to keep Matt Murray and paving the way for the veteran goalie's exit. Additionally, the Penguins sent a 2020 second-round pick to Vegas to dissuade the Knights from taking Bryan Rust.
Guess what? The Penguins and the NHL's 30 other teams can expect a similar draft two years from now.
During his state-of-the-game address this week, Gary Bettman said the NHL is likely to vote on a Seattle expansion team as early as this fall. The $660 million renovation at KeyArena is expected to be completed for the start of the 2020-21 season, just in time for Seattle to ice its new team.
Bettman added that Seattle -- let's just call them the Metropolitans -- will receive the same generous expansion draft terms Vegas did.
That means all teams, except likely the Knights, will have to opt to protect either seven forwards, three defensemen and one goaltender or eight skaters (forwards and defensemen) and one goaltender.
Once again, first- and second-year players would be exempt, which means that Zach Aston-Reese, theoretically, would be automatically protected. But so too would Malkin, Crosby, Letang, Kessel, Hornqvist and, by that point, Maatta. All six are under contract through the 2020-21 season, and all have or will have no-movement clauses.
Though June 2020 is still a ways away and a lot can happen in that time, it would seem the Penguins will do much the same as they did in June 2017.
• The ice has been terrible, there's been more than a few borderline hits and the Capitals and Golden Knights have combined for 15 goals in two games. In other words, it's been awesome! Will that last much longer? Highly doubtful. But I will take Games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup Final over any talk about collapsing defenses and sticks-on-pucks. Any day.
• Some people got a lot of mileage out of Brooks Orpik scoring a goal in Game 2 against former teammate Fleury on Wednesday. If you hadn't heard, the defenseman had gone 220 games (181 in the regular-season and 39 in the playoffs) without finding the back of the net.
Oh, how quickly they forget Game 6 of the 2013 first round against the Islanders:
And how quickly they forget Game 3 of the first round against the Blue Jackets in 2014:
OK, full disclosure, those are the only two postseason goals Orpik ever scored with the Penguins. But for a defensive defenseman, arguably the best in Pittsburgh history, not bad.
• I predicted the Golden Knights would win the Cup in seven games and I'm sticking with it. But if Evgeni Kuznetsov is out for an extended period of time, Vegas could win in six. Kuznetsov is day-to-day (aren't we all?) with an upper body injury from a Brayden McNabb hit.
• Just leaving this here ...
#VegasBorn Ryan Reaves serenading #ALLCAPS Tom Wilson with some sweet, sweet chin music.#StanleyCup #StanleyCupFinals2018 #Game2 pic.twitter.com/it1f7zHP3I
— SiriusXM NHL Network (@SiriusXMNHL) May 31, 2018
• As soon as the Cup Final concludes, Bovada and other bookmakers will release their first odds on the 2018-19 season. For my money, Tampa Bay has to be the early favorite. When you come within a game of the Final and your most notable UFA is Chris Kunitz, you're doing all right. The Penguins should be no worse than in the top five.
• There's lots of speculation out there regarding Kessel's relationship with Mike Sullivan. The answer is fairly obvious, but nobody expects the coach and star forward to be singing "Kumbaya" by a campfire. One guy's job is to coach, the other's is to play. End of story.
• Long before $100 composite sticks, the cost of playing ice hockey was prohibitive to many, myself included. But like many youngsters, I first started playing hockey with a ball on a street, not with a puck on the ice.
Thanks to the earnings from my newspaper route -- and a little help from a winning 50/50 ticket -- I was able to purchase ice hockey equipment when I was in the eighth grade. But my love for the game was born playing hockey on the street where I still have many fond memories and a few scars.
That's why I was thought it was pretty cool to see the other day that the Penguins are starting "A Learn to Play Dek Hockey" program at dek rinks throughout the Pittsburgh region. The program is open to kids ages 4-9, 800 of whom will receive a free helmet, stick, gloves and shin pads. If you know of any youngster who'd like to give it a shot, here's the link for more information.
The best way to grow the sport is to either attend a game or play the game. And playing dek hockey, street hockey, ball hockey or whatever you want to call it, is still cheaper than attending an actual NHL game.
• When did baseball players get so big? Or when did hockey players get so small?
Having covered a handful of Pirates games for the site the last two weeks, I'm pretty sure who I'm taking if there were ever a cross-sport line brawl.