Vancouver GM should go hide for a while....that's awful for the Canucks. Pens look much better on paper this year....
I like Sutter, but yea, looks like the Pens got the better end of that deal. Bonino is better, 40% cheaper and signed for an extra year over Sutter.
In what world is Bonino better? Puhlease. Sutter is almost 51% on draws. Bonino is 47%. Sutter was the Pens best player in the playoffs against us IMO. Sutter is a better player. Period.
Suter with 33 points last year, at 3.4M, prob looking for a raise after this season, Bonino with 40 points last year, 1.8M for two more years. Suter is def better on faceoffs, but was 47% before this season, same as Bonino.
Good deal for the Pens. Sutter is good, and was their best player against us, BUT Bonino is a real solid player also. AND when you factor in he is cheaper AND signed longer AND they were able to sign Fehr with the savings, yeah this makes the Pens better no doubt IMO. The Met is going to be real tough man. Never know what will happen with injuries, see the BJ's this past season, but all these teams around us improved on paper. We stayed best case the same on paper. Doesn't mean that much until the puck is dropped, but we have our work cut out for us next season IMO.
The Rangers suffered a few significant injuries of their own and still rolled through the season. I think the forwards are improved and the defense should be solid along with Hank's goaltending. The Rangers will still be the team to beat.
Rangers certainly can win the division. The BJ's certainly can win the division. The Caps can as well. The Pens can as well. The Isles will be real good also. All good teams. Saying the Rangers forwards improved is 100% betting on CK, Hayes, Miller all getting better, because we lost 20 goal MSL and 17 goal Hags. 100% we can be better at forward, but we also could be worse because we didn't really add anyone and lost two solid players. We'll see how it goes...
I guess you can say that you were the first one to predict the winner of the Metro in 9 months with that broad assessment Chuck. The replacements for MSL & Hags may not score 37 goals but what little drop off in offense the Rangers may suffer will be offset by gains on size, strength and defense. Hags was 3rd on the team in penalty minutes last year so not only was he weak on defense but he took a lot of dumb/lazy penalties. Add Zucc to the list, hopefully he's made a full recovery from the head injury. Last year at this time I thought the Rangers were improved from the Cup team and they showed it during the regular season but ran out of gas and piled up injuries in the playoffs. The only guys I'm worried about on next year's team are Boyle and Staal.
I'm not picking any Met winner bro, I have no clue who wins that division. I know there are some good teams in the division. I also know that fans will be fans and believe what they want to believe, which is totally cool. No point in debating this one really. The other teams in the division have improved since last season. We really haven't done much this summer. Doesn't mean we can't be a very good team still and some of our younger guys take a step forward, can happen for sure. At this point we'll sit back and see what happens when they drop the puck.
Bonino is vastly overrated. Sutter is one of the top 5 PK players in the game. He had 4 SH goals last year. Bonino has no penalty killing ability ability compared to Sutter. Killing penalties is freakin immense in the post season.
Pens also upgraded their 2016 3rd round pick to 2nd, and got Glendining (spelling), who was supposedly Vancouvers top D-prospect...
The Pens simply have to try and do whatever they think is necessary to try and win with Crosby and Malkin right now. They have more money invested in forwards than the Blackhawks. Almost fifty million in forwards is one hell of a big number.
When they played the Rangers Sutter was someone who actually hurt them more than Malkin or SC in recent years.
