NHL Free Agency. Bring it.

Today, we will begin to get a far better picture of what the Penguins will look like come October. As of 10AM, it appears that Gonchar, Hamhuis, Eaton, Guerin, Ponikarovsky, Fedotenko, McKee and Leopold will all test the open market. Not that we ever truly expected one of the last four names I mentioned to sign. I would have to believe that Shero is trying valiently to ink Hamhuis before noon eastern. Probably not going to happen.

There are a bunch of names that can be thrown around, especially when it comes to defensemen, which are undoubtedly Shero's first priority. I'm not going to waste my time espousing any particular theories I have as to who the Pens will sign. The only thing that I do know is that Shero is not going to overpay for anyone, which is just fine.

If Shero is able to get a d-man to sign on the dotted line, he'll probably go hot after a mid-range winger (Colby Armstrong? Eh, maybe!). All I know is that it promises to be an eventful few days.

Here's a guy who thankfully isn't going anywhere. It seems like so long ago that this feat of awesome happened. Enjoy.

Free Agency Looms; The Great Ham-bino's Decision Waits

Ray Shero is a beast. Somehow, he’s juggling talks with Dan Hamhuis and Sergei Gonchar, while also holding contract discussions with Mark Eaton and Bill Guerin. Still, the most likely scenario has Gonchar leaving town, as he likely won’t budge on his desire for a three year deal. Hamhuis would likely cost the Pens about $4-4.5 million per year for the duration of his deal. Even though the Pens main focus of the offseason has been on defense, they’re likely still in the market for a winger. They’ve got about $12 million to work with this year, but will probably leave $1 mil to play around with during the season.

In regards to the Hamhuis talks, as time goes on, it looks worse and worse. Hamhuis truly seems to want to play near his home (western Canada), and doesn’t seem overly interested in playing for the GM that drafted him. Today is the day however, and we all know that sometimes deals get done when it seems least likely.


In Rejean we trust.

Willie Colon tore his Achilles, making a bad offensive line even worse. The Steelers are exploring free agency, and yesterday brought in former Pro Bowler Flozell Adams for a workout.

Pro Bowler is an odd term. I want Jerome Bettis and his bowling skill to go pro, that way he’ll be the first Pro Bowler Pro Bowler. It’s weird where my mind will go when I let it.






The Buccos are on track for one of the worst months in the history of the franchise. It’s not shocking, but still upsetting as a fan. It always hurts to watch good people, which I think most fans would agree that the Pirates players are, go through hard times. Especially when they’re 110% constrained by management. The Pirates are so bad, that I think they should just let Andrew McCutchen go to a team that can actually utilize his massive amounts of talent. It will be very interesting to see what the Pirates will do before the trade deadline next month.

What a beautiful Wednesday in Pittsburgh. In honor of it, let’s have a look at (hopefully) a future Pens D-Man.




Edit: Sad news just coming out. The two year old son of former Eagles QB Randall Cunningham drowned in the family hot tub. Condolences go out to Randall and his family. It's a shame to see such tragedy befall a good person.