Pens sign Neal to 6yr, $30 mil deal

So, as the title says, GM Ray Shero signed James Neal to a 6 year, $30 mil extension this morning.  On this day, at this point in time, it looks like a great contract and an absolute steal.

I imagine this was Neal's look as he signed it.

Let's break it down into POTENTIAL pros and cons:

Pros:
- Neal has had a breakout year at the age of 24, already with career highs of 30 goals and 56 points through only 58 games so far.

- The chemistry between Malkin and Neal has almost been tangible with how impressive it has been.  This contract keeps Neal next to Geno, and may entice Geno to stay when it's his turn to extend as well.

- The contract keeps Neal through the prime of his career, until he's 30.

- At $5 mil/yr., if Neal continues to put up 30-40 goals through the contract, it's a great deal by NHL standards.  Other guys making $5 mil or more and failing miserably in comparison: Gomez, Cammalleri, Semin, and many many more.  Even highly sought after, free agent to-be, Zach Parise has less production than Neal.

Imagine seeing that goofy smile 40-50 times every year until 2018.

Cons:
- Neal is being paid at a potential high point in his career.  I'm not saying Neal has peaked, nor that he won't turn into a 50 goal scorer, just that he is getting  paid at the instant of his best performance, which is a questionable way to give out contracts sometimes (see: the above questionable contracts).

- His performance has also been mostly with a healthy, and NHL dominant Malkin.  We have seen what Mario could do with his wingers.  I'm not suggesting that's the case with Neal, but it's something to consider in how much he's truly worth.  The Pens always have a difficult task in judging a players value with and without centers like Crosby and Malkin.

- Let's say, for arguments sake, Neal turns into one of those players who puts in a spectacular regular season every year but disappears in the playoffs.  Do we still like the contract?  We don't have a barometer for that yet because I consider last season an aberration, but that just means no measurement still.

- The Salary Cap, which sits at $64 million right now, is expected to go up after this season...until September.  Then, it appears that everyone in the NHL is expecting an argument and another short lockout that will bring down player's revenue and also bring down the cap which has been increasing every year.  How much the cap moves will certainly have an impact on how strong of a deal this is since it covers 6 years.

Here's to seeing a lot more pictures like this!

Bottom line is this:  A contract can't be judged at any instant in time, but only over the full length of its term.  Shero has had the luxury of giving extensions to proven players that the Pens have had for a while (Orpik, Fleury, Letang, Crosby, Malkin).  He also gave out an iffy 6 year, $24 mil. deal to Ryan Whitney (though admittedly, he fixed that one quite well).  This contract will be an interesting test for Shero.

As of today, it's a win.  But don't throw the parade quite yet!

Two Goal Deficit? No Big Deal, Pens win!

Main Storylines:

- Brent Johnson gets the start today after Fleury suffered through an 8-5 win yesterday.  Bylsma said he wants to get Johnson in about 7-10 more games this season, so let’s see what he can do with it tonight.

Johnson's iffy stats may be explained by these situations.

- Simon Despres has started skating with the team again.  Though I think he has played well enough to stay up with the big team, lack of room clearly dictates that he goes down to WBS barring a trade soon.

- The Pens are wearing their blue jerseys in back to back games.  This isn’t a storyline at all, but it annoys me when we wear blue against teams that wear blue…and we’re doing it in back to back games.

Result:

Pens  4  Lightning  2

Goals:  Malkin (31) (PP) from Letang, Neal

            Kunitz (16) from Letang, Johnson

            Letang (8) from Kunitz, Neal

            Malkin (32) from Kunitz, Neal

               

The Good:

- The Pens overcame another early 2 goal deficit to come out with a win that ties them with the Flyers at 69 points. 

- The Martin/Michalek pairing was finally split up late in the 1^st period and pay major dividends for the team defensively as Michalek was with Niskanen and Martin with Engelland.

- Brent Johnson got a win on home ice and played very well after letting up a weak first goal.  He bounced back to keep the Pens in it when they were down by 2 and keep the lead intact afterwards.

Evgeni Malkin – Where to start with Geno…he drew 3 penalties, by himself.  He added 2 goals as he makes a move for the Rocket Richard trophy, and added to his Art Ross leading point total.  His backchecking was incredible tonight, and the powerplay and 1^st line are simply electric because of him right now.  Malkin has simply taken over the NHL on pure will alone.

Kunitz pleading his case that Malkin shouldn't impale him apparently.

Chris Kunitz – A big assist to Malkin’s production goes to Kunitz, who had a 3 point night, including a perfect saucer pass to Malkin across the crease for the Pens’ 4^th goal.  Kunitz is clearly seeing the ice very well right now, as demonstrated by that pass, and another to a wide open Letang on the far side of the ice which led to the 3^rd goal.  He also had a great backhander to Neal, but Garon robbed him.  Add in a goal, and Kunitz is doing his best to keep up with supporting Geno.

Kris Letang – I wasn’t happy with Letang’s defensive performance on Saturday, but he surely made up for it tonight.  He had a 3 point night, including the game winning goal, and was unbeatable on defense tonight.  He was out against the Lecavalier line for most of the game, and the Bolts’ top line simply didn’t get any quality chances.  Letang’s play in this game gave him a good argument for being the top defenseman in the NHL right now.

Zbynek Michalek – Michalek looked absolutely spectacular after he was switched to Niskanen’s side.  He was 2^nd in the team with 5 shots, and led the team with 5 blocked shots.  He skated comfortably, and stuck to his game completely.  He was perfect positionally, and probably played his best game of the season tonight.

The Bad:

- The Pens need to stop spotting teams a 2 goal lead before they find one they can’t come back from.  It may work out against non-playoff teams like Winnipeg and Tampa Bay, but that is certainly a bad habit to form at this time of the year.  The fact that the Lightning scored 2 goals in 11 seconds was flat out pathetic.

Steve Sullivan – Sullivan looked a little off in the 1^st period, and never really got into his game.  He had a couple of bad turnovers in the neutral zone, and looked a little hesitant on the point for the PP.  With how great he has looked since the All-Star break, I wonder if he should be getting some of the 2^nd games in back to back nights off to keep him fresh.

Those short legs can't keep up with turnovers.

The Ugly:

- Nothing to report here, hooray!

Thoughts:

- One of the big aspects to the success of Malkin and Neal right now is their shot total.  Neal now leads the league with 232 shots and Malkin is 2^nd with 221.  Like every broadcaster will stupidly say at 20 different times in a season, put the puck on net and good things will happen.

- Speaking of Neal, while it’s early to look at this, his contract is going to be an interesting situation for the Pens.  Toronto is talking about giving Mikhail Grabovski around $4.5 - $5 mil after this season.  Grabovski has 39 points in 50 games.  Luckily, Neal is a restricted free agent, but his production (55 pts in 56 games) might actually warrant an offer sheet from another GM.  The Pens are going to have a tough time finding a good mix of money and years with him and the salary cap.

- Malkin now has a 7 point lead in the Art Ross race, and is averaging 1.41 points per game.  Second is Claude Giroux, who is averaging 1.19 points per game.  Malkin might win this race by the end of the month at this rate.

Might wanna keep track of where that Malkin guy is.

- While the Pens have tied the Flyers for 4^th place, this is where all of the shootout wins will hurt.  The Flyers have 5 more non-shootout wins, and thus easily have the tiebreaker over the Pens.  New York looks like they will run away with the division easily, so it’s going to be a dogfight between Pittsburgh, Philly, and NJ for seeds 4-6.  There will definitely be an Atlantic only matchup in the first round.

- Monday morning news:  Despres has been activated off the IR and sent down to WBS.  Former Penguin Mike Comrie retired. 

Pens Record: 32-19-5, 69 pts, 3^rd in the Atlantic, 5^th in the East

Next Game:  2/15 vs Ana, 7pm