Penguins unlikely to be major players in free-agent market taken at PPG Paints Arena (Penguins)

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Kurtis Gabriel.

It's perfectly reasonable to expect the Penguins to go shopping when the free-agent market opens Wednesday at noon.

Window-shopping, mostly.

They do, after all, have less than $7.5 million in salary-cap space available, at least for now, and have a handful of their own guys they'd like to retain.

If Ron Hextall can find a way to get Cody Ceci, Frederick Gaudreau, Zach Aston-Reese, Radim Zohorna and Evan Rodrigues under contract without going over the $81.5 million cap limit for the 2021-22 season, he might establish himself as an early favorite to be named GM of the Year.

The Penguins probably could fill out their Opening Night lineup with the talent already on hand -- especially if they keep their free agents. However, a single transaction could trigger a domino effect that ripples through the depth chart.

Lose Ceci in free agency, for example, and adding a right-side defenseman gains an urgency that wasn't there previously. That could prompt Hextall to trade someone whose place in the organization would otherwise remain secure,

Or if Hextall would deal someone for whom a capable replacement already is on the depth chart -- left-side defenseman Marcus Pettersson comes immediately to mind -- it could open cap space that would allow the Penguins to more aggressively pursue a big-money free agent to fill a void elsewhere in the lineup.

Pettersson, who has a $4,025,175 cap hit, isn't the only relatively prominent player the Penguins are believed to be shopping. They're also willing to part with second-line left winger Jason Zucker ($5.5 million cap hit) although, after losing Jared McCann in the expansion draft, they don't have an obvious candidate to plug into that spot.  

It's always important to keep in mind that, regardless of how vigorously Hextall and his staff explore the free-agent market, the Penguins don't have a game until Oct. 12, so there's no pressing need to make major personnel changes over the next few days.

Indeed, unless the Penguins find themselves in danger of falling out of playoff contention, there's no reason to make any rash moves for which the potential risks match -- or exceed -- the possible reward until the trade deadline is closing in next winter. Even then, doing so would make sense only if those moves would significantly enhance what figure to be the team's long shot chances of seriously contending for a Stanley Cup.

Still, Hextall and president of hockey operations Brian Burke have made no secret of their interest in adding size and muscle to their lineup. If they are interested in addressing that issue in the immediate future, there will be a few free-agent wingers available who could do it without necessarily causing major cap complications.

Some of those players, including their 2020-21 team and cap hit, are:

Jujhar Khaira (Edmonton, $1.2 million) -- Khaira had been scheduled to be restricted, but the Oilers opted against giving him a qualifying offer, making him available to the rest of the league. He's big (6 foot 4, 212 pounds) and a willing hitter. While he can play wing or center, his skills set is suited to a bottom-six role. Then again, if Khaira were talented enough to play on one of the top two lines, the Penguins couldn't even think of affording him.

Scott Sabourin (Toronto, $700,000) -- He's 6 foot 3, 208 pounds and an enthusiastic hitter. Sabourin is a marginal NHL talent -- he's 28, but has played just 36 games at that level -- but in his lone game with the Maple Leafs last season, he recorded three hits in four minutes, 29 seconds of ice time. In 35 games with Ottawa a year earlier, he averaged 18.08 per 60 minutes of playing time.

Kurtis Gabriel (San Jose, $700,000) -- Toughness is about all he has to offer. Gabriel is 6 foot 4, 200 pounds and not shy about playing the body or fighting, and spends almost as much time in the penalty box -- 153 minutes in 48 career NHL games -- as he does on the ice. His mediocre skating would not seem like a good fit for Mike Sullivan's preferred style.



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