Signings: Rupp my Gill, Strait to "The Piece"

So we Pens fans made it through day-one basically unscathed. We did lose a few men however. The likelihood of USS Hal Gill sticking around was slim to none, we all knew that. He ended up signing with the Habs, as did everyone else yesterday, save Hossa and Gaborick that is. We also saw back up goalie and long time fan favorite Mathieu Garon sign with Columbus for a cool $1.2MM a year to give Calder trophy winner Steve Mason a rest every 10 games or so.

The Pens did have a few transactions, nothing of great substance, but notable nonetheless, afterall, we are fans here. Shero picked up a 4th line center and enforcer, veteran Michael Rupp from the NJ Devils. From what I read on Rupp he is just that, an enforcer. He's certainly wasn't brought over to score goals but to simply add size up front. I toyed with my twitter followers yesterday by saying Shero signed Rupp to replace Staal once he was dealt. I received remarks such as, "put down the crack pipe and back away," one eloquently put it. But if they know me at all, I would never have actually thought such a thing.

The other transaction was more minor however. The Penguins signed their 3rd round pick in 2006 Brian Strait. His most notable feat is winning the National Championship with Boston College, a game not easily forgotten. Strait was signed to an entry level contract and will spend some time with WBS before donning the ice along side Gonchar or Letang. And as I said on Twitter, its clear he can grow a playoff beard, he better get used to it.




Let's move on to the big topic on all our minds today, Rob Scuderi and to a lesser degree, Ruslan Fedetenko and Sykora.

According to ESPN, Scuds has roughly 4 or 5 teams interested in him. Based on the lack of movement from Shero yesterday its clear he is not going to do anything until he finds out what's up with him. As of now they have about $4.3MM in cap room, and in order to sign Scuds and another winger (Feds or Sykora), he'll need to know how much he can or will spend on Rob. Should he sign elsewhere you might see Shero place more interest resigning one of the two aforementioned wingers. The good thing is Scuderi is giving the Pens first right of refusal. That is, he'll take his offers back to Shero and if he can get what he wants to stay with the Pens, he will. You don't hear that much around here these days.

Scuds=Model Citizen.

At this point you probably didn't read anything you didn't already know. To date we're not a "rumor" site per se. We might throw something up we've heard through the grapevine (like the Gueirn talk) but mostly we'll just toss you our opinion and hope you can relate. From time to time I may speculate, however.

More to come as the days/weeks continue.

Posted in: Brian Strait,Free Agency,Mathieu Garon,Rob Scuderi