Dan Muse was hired June 4 as a 43-year-old first-time NHL head coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re going to put together a plan and we’re going to be talking with every single player that’s here,\u201d Muse said. \u201cSo, you do have players that have been in this league a long time and have done great things in this league for a long time. Working with those players to help them continue to take steps.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just about the veterans, though.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, we’re going to be working on the younger players that are coming in,\u201d Muse said. \u201cHow can they come in and make their mark here in this organization and in this league?\u201d<\/p>\n
Forwards Rutger McGroarty<\/a>, 21, and Ville Koivunen<\/a>, 22, are favorites to make the roster out of training camp. Owen Pickering<\/a>, 21, could also find a permanent spot and fellow defenseman Harrison Brunicke<\/a>, 19, will look to make his NHL debut.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want these guys to earn it,\u201d Dubas said. \u201cIf we start just handing these guys spots, we\u2019re going to very quickly lose what I think the Penguins have been about for a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n A second straight offseason has been full of additions on short-term contracts.<\/p>\n Forward Anthony Mantha<\/a> signed a one-year, $2.5 million contract on July 2. Forward Justin Brazeau<\/a> joined on a two-year, $3 million contract July 1, the same day the Penguins signed defensemen Parker Wotherspoon<\/a> (two years, $2 million) and Caleb Jones<\/a> (two years, $1.8 million).<\/p>\n Defenseman Mathew Dumba<\/a> was acquired in a trade with the Dallas Stars on July 10 and goalie Arturs Silovs<\/a> from the Vancouver Canucks on July 13.<\/p>\n There might be more; defenseman Erik Karlsson<\/a> and forwards Bryan Rust<\/a> and Rickard Rakell<\/a> have not been ruled out as trade candidates.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to evaluate everything,\u201d Dubas said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to do what\u2019s best for the Penguins.\u201d<\/p>\n Karlsson has led Pittsburgh defensemen with 109 points (22 goals, 87 assists) the past two seasons. Rakell led the Penguins with 35 goals last season. Rust won the Stanley Cup in 2016 and 2017 and has developed into a mainstay on the first line with 437 points (203 goals, 234 assists) in 11 seasons.<\/p>\n Dubas doesn\u2019t necessarily want to part with any of the three, especially Rust, but would if it cleared a path to reestablishing a certain standard.<\/p>\n \u201cUnless it\u2019s something that blows us away in terms of what it returns, then it could very easily be looked at that (Rust) helped us return to contention,\u201d Dubas said. \u201cThat would be a tough one, but we\u2019ve got lots of calls on him. He\u2019s a great player, signed. But he\u2019s also a massive member of the Penguins. We\u2019ll continue to be open for business but the price will be very high.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dan Muse was hired June 4 as a 43-year-old first-time NHL head coach. \u201cWe’re going to put together…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-88000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}