NHL Network: Elliotte Friedman on NHL Tonight when asked about the Pittsburgh Penguins.
** NHL Rumors.com transcription
Steve Gelbs: “Elliotte, let’s finish by keeping it in Pennsylvania and talking about the Penguins because you know this Penguins team, it’s an interesting bunch. Obviously, they’re still technically in the playoff picture. They’re, they’re, you know, bubble team.
(Sidney) Crosby is, you know,
Johnson: “Great.”
Gelbs: “He doesn’t ever drop off at all. And clearly, you know, they had a chance a couple of years ago to cut bait and move on and they didn’t do that. They ran it back up but clearly they want to win. I mean, they brought in Erik Karlsson. So Kyle Dubas, he has a seven year contract. Is there any chance that they might make some big moves to maybe not rebuild this thing, but try and retool and open up some some breathing room heading into next season?
Friedman: “You know Steve, I don’t think they’re gonna be buyers. Like just to answer the question on screen in front of me. I do not think they’re going to be buyers. I think that that is one thing that’s played a role in the Guentzel negotiations.
Now, but All-Star breaks coming up. If you’ve heard Kyle Dubis he said he’s going to talk to Guentzel and Guentzel’s reps around the break and they’ll probably have some clarity.
But one of the things is definitely hung over the situation is that, you know, Pittsburgh is not going to be trading first-rounders or second-rounders or their best prospects for short-term fixes. I think this is a team that realizes that it needs to rebuild some of its capital, and I expect that they’re going to try to do that.
You know, so players like Guentzel, you know, we’re looking right now there’s they’re six points out of the playoffs as we talk. They’re going to be looking at that and they’re gonna say, ‘you know what, we’re not going to be getting better in the short-term.’ And I think that’s what Pittsburgh’s plan is gonna be.
I think they’ll try to do quote, unquote, a soft rebuild, you know, strengthen up over the next two or three years and then see what they can do. And we’ll see what that means for some of their star players. But I don’t think you’re going to see the the Penguins be buyers. I think if anything, they’re going to try to stock up a bit so that they can be smart about what they do and try to build their prospect base a little bit.”
