Following his trading of Phil Kessel for Alex Galchenyuk on Saturday night, the Penguins and GM Jim Rutherford opened up a hair under $2M in cap space and, despite having to give contracts to RFAs Teddy Blueger, Zach Aston-Reese, and Marcus Pettersson, Rutherford mentioned that he would be active early in the opening of Free Agency to bolster the Penguins.
Also following that trade was mostly everyone agreeing that the Penguins did not get better as a result and the pressure being solely on the shoulders of GMJR and HCMS.
https://twitter.com/G_Off817/status/1145479235353620480
How GMJR would respond to that pressure will be partially answered today. Follow along with us:
11:04 AM
Still time for change, but looking like the Penguins are a good bet for Brandon Tanev.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) July 1, 2019
This seemed obvious with GMJR sending out his mouthpieces to say they were looking to add a bottom 6 forward and leave the D intact.
Tanev, of course, seemed obvious from 8513274 miles away.
Brandon Tanev is 27 and coming off a one year, $1.15M deal in Winnipeg, whom he signed for after college. He’s played 195 NHL games since 2015-16, amassing 24 goals and 51 points.
Via HockeyViz.com, Tanev is an okay shooter, draws a lot of penalties, but isn’t very good offensively despite being slightly above average defensively.
Last season was really no different for him either, where he was largely ineffective offensively at 5v5 and great from a suppression standpoint. Unfortunately, part of that could be chalked up to having played nearly 800 5v5 minutes with Adam Lowry, who remains one of the best and most underrated shutdown centers in hockey.
Over Tanev’s career, owns a share of unblocked shot attempts of 58.70%, 49.16% in shots on goal, 52.10% in goals scored, 49.87% share of scoring chances, and 52.22% share of high danger chances. He’s also never had a season in which he saw more than 48.03% of his shifts start in the offensive zone, including a career low 42.72% last season.
Relative to the rest of the Jets team last year, Tanev saw 3.5 fewer unblocked attempts sent at his team’s net, 4.4 fewer scoring chances, and 3.07 fewer high danger chances per hour of 5v5 play, via Natural Stat Trick.
Term and money still to be announced, but the team seems confident they’ve landed him. More to come.
UPDATE: 12:04 PM
Six year deal for Brandon Tanev with an AAV of around $3.5M. https://t.co/T1Eh4t67mz
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) July 1, 2019
This would take him into his mid-30s and a severe overpayment in both term and money. He’s a solid defensive forward, but he’s not worth as much per year as Bryan Rust and not worth one year short of a max UFA term.
https://twitter.com/G_Off817/status/1145725438385426433
UPDATE: 12:15 PM
Done deal. Sign, sealed, delivered.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have agreed to terms with forward Brandon Tanev on a six-year contract. The deal will run through the 2024.25 campaign and carries an average annual value of $3.5 million.
Full details: https://t.co/p4cuAMlbDZ pic.twitter.com/zay6NutYjB
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) July 1, 2019
And from the good folks out in Winnipeg:
For our @Pensburgh peeps, Tanev is a hard worker. He'll never take a shift off.
That said, he's largely been a passenger for the Jets – playing with strong play drivers. He can play, but he hasn't shown that he can carry a line to date.
— Arctic Ice Hockey (@arcticicehockey) July 1, 2019
UPDATE: 12:53 PM
For context, this is what the Panthers signed Brett Connolly for, who had 22 goals and 46 points last season.
Brett Connolly @FlaPanthers 4 / $13M #tvasports
— Renaud Lavoie (@renlavoietva) July 1, 2019
Less term, less money, and the far superior player.
UPDATE: 2:00 PM
Rutherford spoke to the media and here are some snippets of that:
Rutherford: "The signing today of Brandon Tanev was really good for us. … He's a really good skater. He's a good penalty killer. He's a guy that, when he's playing, makes our team harder to play against." #Pens
— Wes Crosby (@OtherNHLCrosby) July 1, 2019
Rutherford: "We've changed the makeup of our team. Now it's training camp and a time for the coach to work hard and bring it all together. … The group of forwards we've added gives us depth and more balance to get back to where we were in 16 and 17 to roll those lines." -SK
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) July 1, 2019
He also went on to say that he didn’t have any reservations about the term or money, saying that is the business on July 1st, and saying that if you don’t give the player the money and the term they want, you won’t get the player.
https://twitter.com/G_Off817/status/1145755313699790850
He went on to talk about Tanev’s intangibles, his worth ethic, and how he was “really excited to sign.” Can’t say any of us blame him.
Sounds like Brandon missed the boat by not asking for $10 million per year. https://t.co/CIQrtnk8Jm
— Adam Gretz (@AGretz) July 1, 2019
There was talk about the defense and how he’s comfortable with the defense they currently have, which, for anyone watching, is bananas.
"At this point in time I'm comfortable with our defense."
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) July 1, 2019
Jim Rutherford said he expects to add a "couple more" depth guys who will have a chance to crack the NHL roster later today.
— Dave Molinari (@MolinariPGH) July 1, 2019
He ended it shortly thereafter, spending about 11 minutes at the podium.
UPDATE: 3:26 PM
The Pens also announced that they brought back David Warsofsky (29) and signed Andrew Agozzino (28) each to two year, two-way deals.
The Penguins have signed defenseman David Warsofsky and forward Andrew Agozzino to two-year contracts. The two-way deals both carry an average annual value of $700,000 at the NHL level.
Details: https://t.co/4EcuZKZ3dH pic.twitter.com/WBHdAeha8i
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) July 1, 2019
Both are coming over from the Avalanche organization, where they did decently well at the AHL level. Warsofsky put up 32 points in 51 AHL games last season while Agozzino scored 60 in 54 while adding a goal and an assist in 11 NHL games and averaging 0.75 points per game in the A in 467 career games. Depth city.
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