Penguins Come Up Empty In Vegas; Free Agency/Trade Update

Last night's NHL awards ceremony at The Palms hotel in Las Vegas Nevada was certainly anything but a watershed showing for the Pittsburgh Penguin players in the house.

While both Sidney Crosby and Jordan Staal were finalists for the Hart Memorial Trophy as League MVP and Frank J. Selke Trophy as the league's best defensive forward, respectively, netiher walked into the Playboy Club later that night with any hardware.

Crosby finished 3rd in the Hart balloting while watching Vancouver Canucks' center Henrik Sedin take home that trophy, and Staal similarly finished 3rd in voting for the Selke as that award was given to Detriot Red Wings' forward Pavel Datsyuk for the third consecutive season.

Strangely, despite leading the league in goals and finishing just a few points behind Sedin in the NHL scoring race, the Professional Hockey Writers' Association (who vote for the Hart) must not think quite as highly of the Pens' Captain anymore, as evidenced by Sid finishing with only 20 first place votes (out of 106) and even falling well short of the 2nd place finisher, rival Alexander Ovechkin with the Washington Capitals.

Worse, Crosby also didn't measure up in the eyes of his peers, either, since he lost the Ted Lindsay Award (formerly the Lester B. Pearson Award) -- given to the MVP as voted on by the players -- to Ovechkin, too.

As a final ignomity, Sedin beat him out for the center spot on the first all-star squad.

Crosby did, however, win the Mark Messier leadership award for the first time last night, an honor which Crosby accepted graciously as a still-young Captain in this league. Still, Messier's award pales in comparison to the other big-name hardware he missed out on last night.

No matter. I'll take Crosby's Stanley Cup, 2 Final appearances, and 8 playoff series wins over the last 3 years any day of the week.

For his part, Staal really didn't have much of a shot of winning the Selke this year. The Selke is typically awarded to veterans who have established defensive excellence over a period of years. Staal is getting there, but as his distant 3rd place finish and only 24 first place votes (out of 97) attest, he has a ways to go yet. Datsyuk -- and even Canucks' forward Ryan Kessler -- posed tough competition for him.

Interestingly, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported yesterday that Staal showed up in Las Vegas with crutches and a walking boot on the foot he injured in the 2nd round of the post-season. It seems that Staal had a second, minor procedure to go in and deal with that lacerated tendon on the top of his foot. No long-term effects are expected, though, and that's good news.

It still amazes me that Gronk only missed 2 games for that. Pens' GM Ray Shero was quoted yesterday in similar amazement, saying that he, too, couldn't believe an injury of that magnitude only shelved #11 for two games, adding that Staal wasn't too happy to have missed that second game, either.

Speaking of Shero, there's nothing new to report on his negotiations with defenseman Sergei Gonchar. Today could be a watershed day in those talks, however. Within 24-48 hours, we should know more about whether the Penguins are likely to retain #55, or will instead be evaluating whether they want to bring back fellow rearguards Mark Eaton or Jordan Leopold (or both) or look to the open market.

If Gonchar will not return, it's possible Shero will ask Sarge to waive his existing no-trade clause so the Penguins can obtain something for his rights. There were some reports in the last 36 hours that his rights had already been traded to the San Jose Sharks, but those accounts were grossly premature, if not flat out inaccurate.

I know Shero still believes Gonchar can be a very effective and productive NHL player. He said as much yesterday in an extensive, 20-minute radio interview I heard, so it will be interesting to see where things go.

Meanwhile, there's currently A LOT of trade talk going on throughout the league -- much more than usual at this time of year, according to most sources. Some of those discussions have led to notable trades just in the last week alone, with Florida Panthers' forward Nathan Horton moving to the Boston Bruins in a package that landed them defenseman Dennis Wideman, and the Chicago Blackhawks starting to break their salary cap jam by trading playoff hero and giant power forward Dustin Byfuglien to the Atlanta Thrashers in a multi-player deal that saw the 1st and 2nd round picks Atlanta had obtained in the Ilya Kovalchuk deal go to the Hawks in exchange.

And those trades may be just the tip of the iceberg, because there are a lot of other notable names in play leading into the NHL draft this weekend. Names that have frequently been volleyed around are starting to pop up again (Jeff Carter, Tim Thomas), and a lot of unexpected names are being discussed, too (Marc Savard, Mike Fisher).

For their part, the Penguins have been reported to have engaged in some trade discussions with the still cap-tight Blackhawks centered around young, 23-old winger Kris Versteeg, and have at least inquired about what it would take to obtain Carolina Hurricanes veteran forward Ray Whitney.

Whitney, of course, was a player the Penguins looked at before the trade deadline, but they weren't prepared to meet the high asking price of Carolina GM Jim Rutherford at the time.

Now, with Whitney set to walk as an unrestricted free agent in 6 days, Rutherford's bargaining power is way down, so the asking price to get Whitney has correspondingly dropped.

Certainly, making a deal at this point is essentially equivalent to obtaining a player's negotiating rights. That can be a precursor to getting that player under contract, but it doesn't always work out that way. If Pittsburgh were to swing a deal for Whitney, though, I think they'd stand a good chance to sign him because, from what my sources say, Whitney's first choice is to play in Pittsburgh. Moreover, while Whitney was at one point hoping for a 3-year contract -- even at 38 -- I bet the productive winger and power-play man would go for 2 years if it landed him in a Penguin sweater.

Dollars would remain a factor with Whitney, too, but one thing is highly likely as far as money goes --- the Penguins probably not liking the dollars they are presented with if they wait to try and sign Whiteny once he's an unrestricted free agent.

I'll have more tomorrow, incluing an update on any contract talks, as well as analysis on how the first round of the draft might shake out for the local hockey club. And, if something breaks sooner, I'll have it here.