There are two things Penguins general manager Ron Hextall is limited with as the NHL’s free-agent signing period opens Wednesday.
Insight and salary cap space.
As the former is concerned, Hextall has represented a stark contrast from his predecessor, Jim Rutherford.
If the Penguins needed a left winger or a player who could bring life to a stale lineup, Rutherford simply said so and added the likes of a Jason Zucker or Brandon Tanev a few weeks later.
As for Hextall, he has been far more ambiguous with how he might modify the roster in his first offseason on the job.
Aside from consistently stating a desire to inject some physicality into the forward ranks, Hextall hasn’t offered many specifics as to what he might add.
“Any other position, if we could upgrade, we certainly would like to,” Hextall said in a phone interview with the Tribune-Review on July 15. “We’re up against the (salary) cap, so easier said than done.”
That issue was alleviated somewhat thanks to the expansion draft. With bottom-six forwards Jared McCann — through a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs — and Tanev now members of the new Seattle Kraken, the Penguins are projected to have $7,446,795 of salary cap space to work with, according to Cap Friendly.
That figure does not account for new contracts for pending restricted free-agent forwards Zach Aston-Reese and Radim Zohorna, each of whom received qualifying offers Monday. It’s safe to assume each of their deals will account for a total of at least $2 million.
Barring any further transactions, that leaves the Penguins with just over $5 million of salary cap space — at most — to operate with as they court pending unrestricted free agents.
Unofficially, the Penguins have needs in net, their bottom-two lines, and it couldn’t hurt to look at options among right-handed defensemen with the presumed departure of pending unrestricted free agent Cody Ceci.
But what can they get for $5 million and change?
In net, there are a ton of accomplished goaltenders available. It’s debatable if they would offer an upgrade over beleaguered starter Tristan Jarry, but they could, at the least, present a greater challenge to the starting job than what Casey DeSmith presents.
Three names that stand out, because of their connections with Hextall, are Jonathan Bernier, Brian Elliott and Martin Jones, who was placed on waivers by the Sharks on Tuesday for the purpose of buying out his contract.
As assistant general manager of the Los Angeles Kings, Hextall oversaw the development of Bernier and Jones with the Manchester Monarchs, the Kings’ former American Hockey League affiliate.
As for Elliott, he served as the Philadelphia Flyers’ starting goaltender for much of Hextall’s tenure as that franchise’s general manager.
Jones and Elliott are each coming off seasons with save percentages below .900, while Bernier was a pretty sturdy presence in net for a poor Detroit Red Wings team.
It would be naive to assume Hextall will limit himself to strictly adding players with whom he has previous connections. At the same time, most of his additions to the Penguins since taking over in February have been people he is familiar with, such as forward Jeff Carter, defenseman Mark Friedman and director of player personnel Chris Pryor.
There are other options such as Frederik Andersen of the Maple Leafs or Braden Holtby, placed on waivers by the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday for the purpose of a buyout.
As for finding forwards with some aggression in their makeup, the likes of Alex Chiasson, Trevor Lewis or Corey Perry could provide what the Penguins claim to be looking for at an affordable rate.
