Sorry I've been silent the last few days over a busy draft weekend for the Penguins boys and girls. My family beach vacation has called, so it hasn't been as easy to get here. But here's a quick weekend recap of what's going on with our favorite hockey club.
In the first round of the 2010 NHL entry draft on Friday in Los Angeles -- after failing on their attempts to move up in round 1, then resisting some calls to trade their 20th overall selection -- the Penguins picked American-born and California native Beau Bennett of the Tier II, British Columbia Hockey League.
Bennett is a 6' 1", 175 pound winger who led that league in scoring last season with 41 goals, 79 assists and 120 points in 56 games. And he did that as a rookie.
North America Central Scouting had him ranked 32nd, so one could argue the Penguins reached a little for Bennett, but by all accounts, Bennett has great skill and offensive flair, and we all know the Penguins need prospects in their system like that.
According to Hockey's Future, Bennett "just dominated" the BCHL last season.
Bennett will attend the University of Denver this coming season. How he produces in his first year at the Division I level will be telling.
The Penguins didn't have a 2nd round pick in the draft, having traded it to the Florida Panthers last year at the trade deadline for Jordan Leopold. In the 3rd round on Saturday, they selected another American, forward Bryan Rust, from the U.S. Development Program.
Rust had 10 goals and 23 points in 27 games for that group last season, and added 4 goals and 6 points in 7 games at the World Junior Championships, where he played a key role in helping the U.S. upset Canada for the championshpi there. He's a solid all around forward who can play physical and score. Like Bennett, he'll be attending Division I college this fall -- at Notre Dame.
In the 4th round, the Penguins selected forward Tom Kuehnhackl from Landshut in Germany. Kuenhackle was Central Scouting's 8th ranked european skater, and had 12 goals and 21 points in 38 games last year. He will be playing for the Windsor Spitfires in the Ontario Hockey League this fall, and time will tell whether the Penguins got a bargain in him, or a player whose draft stock slid for a reason.
In the 5th round, Pittsburgh chose forward Kenneth Agostino from Delbarton High School in New Jersey, which may sound familiar to Penguins' fans, since their fifth round selection last year -- defenseman Alex Velischek -- is from the same school. Agostino tore up the league there with 50 goals and 83 points in only 27 games. He will be a freshman at Yale in August.
In the 6th round, the Penguins had 2 selections, choosing defensemen Joe Rogalski from Sarina in the OHL and Reid McNeill from London in the same league. Both are long term projects.
To wrap up the draft, the Penguins traded their 7th round pick to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for their 7th round pick next season.
Kids and prospects aside, the Penguins made an interesting move at the end of the first day of the draft on Friday night.
Pens' GM Ray Shero acquired Philadelphia Flyers' and former Nashville Predators' shut-down defenseman Dan Hamuis for a 3rd round pick in next year's draft.
The Flyers had just acquired Hamhuis a little under a week ago from Nashville in exchange for defenseman Ryan Parent in the hope they could sign Hamhuis before he becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1, but found his contract demands -- said to be close to $5 million per season -- too high.
There's no word on whether the Penguins might get a better bargain from Hamhuis' camp, but for as great as he'd look in a Pittsburgh uniform, I'm not certain there's any shutdown defenseman in the league worth that much in the salary cap era. Even fellow stalwart free-agent to be defenseman Anton Volchenkov -- who will probably get that much money -- may not be worth that.
Moreover, I doubt the Penguins will pay anything close to that much coin for Hamhuis. I wouldn't be shocked to see them offer him Brooks Orpik-like money, but little more than that.
Shero -- who knows Hamhuis' from back in the days when he was an assistant GM with the Predators -- is going to begin negotiations with Hamhuis' agent, Wade Arnott, today, and obviously believes that Hamhuis would be a great addition to the Penguins' blueline.
"We're going to take a real good stab, because if we can add him, I think he can really improve our hockey team," Shero said.
Meanwhile, the biggest question surrounding the addition of Hamhuis' to the team is what impact it will have on the negotiations with star offensive defenseman Sergei Gonchar.
The Penguins made a strong, 2-year offer to Gonchar over the weekend, believed to be around $11 million dollars.
Sarge was hoping for a 3-year deal, but is mulling the Pens' offer seriously. He is expected to make a final decision today on whether he will accept it or hit unrestricted free agency.
Obviously, what happens on that front will go a long way towards deciding what the Penguins due in the next 3 days before free agency Thursday. It's no reach to suggest that Hamhuis' fate may be tied to that decision, and that the fate of fellow unrestricted free agent blueliners Leopold and Mark Eaton certainly are.
Up front, forward Alexei Ponikarovsky has informed the Penguins that he will test unrestricted free agency, which greatly diminishes the likelihood that we'll see him in Pittsbugh uniform again.
The Penguins hadn't ruled out retaining the big russian forward, despite his disappointing play since being acquired by Shero at the trade deadline for prospect Luca Caputi, but I don't think there will be a lot of tears around town if #23 doesn't return.
Finally, Shero also is talking and negotiating with RW Bill Guerin. They are focusing on an incentive laden 1-year contract, and -- for now anyway -- don't appear to be willing to pay quite up to the $2 million that Guerin made last season.
Guerin's first and plain preference is to play for the Penguins, so we'll see what happens on that front.
It's going to be an interesting week for sure, as the Pens have a lot of irons in the fire right now.
More later.
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