At some point this summer, the Penguins will trade away a defenseman. Jim Rutherford couldn't have made that clearer in countless remarks, including to this site a month ago, specifically citing a glut on the left side.
And the first steps to date have been to ... keep two guys who could've left.
Thursday, the team re-signed defenseman Juuso Riikola to a one-year, NHL-only contract worth $850,000, preventing him from becoming a restricted free agent this summer. That follows the re-signing last week of another depth defenseman, Chad Ruhwedel, to a two-year contract worth $700,000 each year, preventing him from becoming an unrestricted free agent.
No big deals, right?
There's no doubt management was delighted with Riikola's rookie season, his first at any level in North America and one in which he played 37 games with two goals, three assists and a plus-3 rating. When he was in the lineup, to whatever degree a statistic like this can be extrapolated, the Penguins were 22-10-5. He was a seamless fit from the opening drills of training camp, and looked no less confident in all facets upon cracking the lineup.
“Juuso has adjusted to the North American style of hockey seamlessly,” Bill Guerin, Rutherford's assistant GM, said Thursday. “He’s a very confident guy, and he’s also a great skater that moves the puck really well. We expect him to make an even bigger impact this year.”
Riikola's playing time faded in the second half, and he ultimately spent five games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the AHL before being a healthy scratch through the parent club's cameo appearance in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
But if Guerin's "even bigger impact" remark is to be taken as more than just signing-day happy stuff, then all concerned might have more than one move to make on one of the NHL's most expensive defense corps: Kris Letang will make $7.25 million in the 2019-20 season, Justin Schultz $5.5 million, Brian Dumoulin $4.1 million, Olli Maatta $4.08 million, Erik Gudbranson $4 million, Jack Johnson $3.5 million, and Marcus Pettersson will be due a significant raise as a restricted free agent after making $794,167 through a rookie season that was far better than Riikola's.
Total cost before Pettersson's pay: $26,483,000.
Maatta has been the presumed trade piece for months now, and that's been confirmed by what I've heard from the Penguins in recent weeks. He's 24, he's got pedigree, and he can bring a real hockey return, ideally addressing needs up front. But even Maatta's exit would leave the NHL depth chart eight deep and, while that sounds wonderful from the perspective of insurance, it isn't terribly cap friendly.
The guess here is that this will take more than one move, maybe involving Johnson, though that won't be easy, as he's due four more years at the same $3.5 million rate. But without Maatta and Johnson, an opening night could look like this ...
Dumoulin-Letang
Riikola-Schultz
Pettersson-Gudbranson
... with Ruhwedel as on-location depth.
Is Riikola a top-four defenseman?
That's doubtful in the moment, but it's hardly an outrageous notion. In looking at some of the more successful teams in the ongoing playoffs, youth and mobility has been a priority on the back end. Riikola could go a little headless-chicken at times, but that could be attributed to inexperience. He's eminently capable of having that "even bigger impact."
• Javon Hargrave went from two sacks in 2017 to 6.5 in 2018. He also was, within the Steelers' own studies, among their most effective defensive linemen at seeking out the ball-carrier through the interior and, from there, completing the tackle.
Next on his list: Play more.
Well, he didn't say that when we spoke yesterday at the Rooney Complex, but I'll say it. Because he logged 455 snaps last season, precisely the same number as the previous season, and that means roughly about a third of all defensive plays. And although I understand the NFL's become obsessed with sub-package specialists, it's time Mike Tomlin and Keith Butler start looking at Hargrave more for what he is than for what Casey Hampton once was.
Sure, Hargrave can take on a double-team, if not necessarily with the, uh, hunger of peak-era Big Snack. But he's also shown exceptional quickness for a nose tackle, as well as increased smart.
We did talk about this and more:
• Another way of looking at it: Devin Bush is already earning raves through these OTAs, even though everyone's still sporting shorts. And that's wonderful. But this also should serve as a reminder that supporting cast should handle some of the more menial labor in the middle of the field. If Hargrave and Vince Williams can stop the run and contribute to the pass rush -- and both are pretty good at both -- that frees up Bush to be more of a wild card and capitalize on all that sideline-to-sideline athleticism.
• Terrell Edmunds had no business liking that Antonio Brown tweet bashing Ben Roethlisberger, but he's hardly some problem. Long after OTAs had been done -- and this the final session of a week that, I'll remind, is purely voluntary -- Edmunds worked out alone with a machine at one edge of the field. And when he couldn't complete a task without help, rather than giving up, he sought out wide receiver Trey Griffey for a partner. By the time Edmunds was done, he was soaked to the bone.
• Lots more on OTAs in this 12-minute talk I had for WPXI-TV with Alby Oxenreiter right after the session:
• There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide for these Pirates if even one of their healthy, capable starters goes under. It's true of Chris Archer, tonight's starter against the Brewers, and it might be doubly true of Joe Musgrove, last night's loser in allowing five runs and 11 hits in six innings.
Talk about splits: In the season's opening month, Musgrove had a 1.54 ERA through six starts. In May, with the same number of starts, he had an 8.40 ERA in getting clubbed for 28 runs over 30 innings.
Remember, he's the one with the upside. That's scariest of all. Because we've already witnessed the next wave behind him.
• The pitching staff as a whole has given up 80 runs in the past 10 games. They've somehow won three of those. This isn't sustainable. Meaning the successful part.
• Listen to Sean Casey on MLB Network yesterday afternoon raving about Austin Meadows being an American League MVP candidate, even while gently jabbing Neal Huntington for the trade:
"This guy is an MVP candidate."@TheMayorsOffice had high praise for @austin_meadows in yesterday's #MLBTonight breakdown. #RaysUp @RaysBaseball pic.twitter.com/nVACL0rcRb
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) May 30, 2019
When the Mayor, maybe the nicest man on the planet, is criticizing to any degree, that's one spectacularly atrocious trade.
Then, last night in St. Petersburg, in the Rays' 14-3 romp over the Twins, Meadows went 2 for 5 with four RBIs, including this bases-clearing double:
.@austin_meadows gets @Raysbaseball on the board with a bases-clearing double!???
The Rays lead 3-0!
Catch the #TampaBayRays LIVE on FOX Sports Sun l FOX Sports Go pic.twitter.com/4FGc71v2QG
— FOX Sports Florida (@FOXSportsFL) May 31, 2019
His numbers are insane: A .361/.436/.688 slash line for a 1.124 OPS that's fourth-best in all of Major League Baseball.
But Casey's premise definitely isn't insane: Meadows really is an MVP candidate.
• Huntington's the most tenured GM in the National League. A lot of GMs wouldn't have survived trading Jose Bautista for a third-string catcher, Robinzon Diaz, who'd be released in the same calendar year. Even more GMs, probably everyone else, wouldn't have survived having their drafting/development quantified as the worst in the sport. But this ... this still won't do it. It just won't.
• Within the industry these are labeled can't-miss trades. Meaning you can't miss. There's just too much at stake. And when the biggest mistakes made in the equation are in evaluating the talent that was already under your own roof ... wow, multiply that many times over.
• And hey, on that happy note, have a wonderful weekend!