BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
NEW YORK — Roundup of a lot of randomness from a lot of time around our teams …
• Barring some unforeseen reversal in the performance of one or more veteran players in these Stanley Cup playoffs, the Penguins are anticipating the buyout of one or more of those veterans’ remaining contracts this summer.
I don’t have names, so please don’t ask. None were given.
What I do know is that the buyout or buyouts will be aimed at making the roster both younger and more manageable in the salary cap sense, and that other steps will be taken, as well. There was no elaboration on the latter.
Chris Kunitz had 17 goals and 23 assists in 74 games for the Penguins this season. — GETTY
Emphasizing again that I have no names for this, I’ll offer my own best possibility in this category as being Chris Kunitz. He’s had a miserable season, he’s 35, and he’s due $3.85 million each of the next two seasons, thanks to Ray Shero handing him a three-year, $11.55 million extension two summers ago. Here are the contract details.
Contrary to a widely held misperception, buyouts do still exist in the NHL. Here’s how they work: A player’s contract can be terminated at any time. If the player is younger than 26 at the time of the buyout, the team must pay one-third of the remaining money on the contract. If the player is older than 26, the team must pay two-thirds. The adjusted cap hit is still charged to the team, but it’s spread over double the time span.
In Kunitz’s case, for example, the remaining $7.7 million he’s due would be reduced to $5.13 million in actual money, and the cap hit to the Penguins would be reduced from $3.85 million each of the next two seasons to the following over the next four seasons: $1.108 million, $1.558 million, $1.258 million and $1.258 million.
That’s significant cap freedom for a team that commits so much to its core.
Here are all of the Penguins’ current contract commitments.
• Do not think for one minute that Kris Letang is considering retirement.
• Trade evaluations inside the sports world are worlds apart from those on the outside. Fans and analysts will fuss over who ‘won’ or ‘lost’ a given exchange, from the first minute after it occurs to decades down the road. Not so for GMs.
When I brought up with Jim Rutherford yesterday morning at the Garden how well James Neal has fit with the Predators, it was easy to see he was genuinely pleased about it.
“He’s exactly what they needed, and we got what we needed, too,” Rutherford said.
That being Patric Hornqvist, a net-front guy, and Nick Spaling, some grinding depth.
“All you look at as a manager is what you’re getting and whether you’re happy with it. We obviously are,” Rutherford said. “And if the other side is happy, that helps, too, because you know you can do business with that team going forward. There’s a trust.”
• Although Brian Dumoulin got the nod in Game 1 ahead of fellow recall Scott Harrington, don’t take that to mean the Penguins necessarily hold the former in higher regard. The thinking among management is that Harrington has the higher upside, certainly in the offensive zone, but also that Dumoulin has been faster to adjust to making NHL-style simple plays whereas Harrington still takes shortcuts in Wilkes-Barre that would be easily exposed in Pittsburgh.
• Impossible not to be worried about Mark Melancon, even after he assured me he has no health issues. Again Wednesday night, his cut fastball sat at 89 mph, only once touching 90. His average with that pitch last season was 92.
My understanding before leaving Pittsburgh was that the Pirates had taken every communicative step possible earlier this week. So, being that he’s still taking the ball, one would have to assume it’s a late case of spring dead arm. Or at least one can hope that.
• Nobody in the PNC Park home clubhouse is feeling the love quite like newcomer Arquimedes Caminero. He’s being treated by his coaches and teammates as a borderline physical freak for how hard he throws — “The ball just explodes out of this young man’s hand,” Clint Hurdle was saying the other day — and he’s being admired for showing maturity beyond his 24 big-league appearances.
“This is a guy who’s been up and down in his career, a guy who’s had some trouble,” bullpen mate Tony Watson was saying, referring to Caminero’s command. “But you see him now, and he’s as even-keel as it gets. Nothing bothers him.”
This could be quite the plus on the ledgers of both Neal Huntington, for snapping him up from the Marlins — the GM loves his hard throwers — and Ray Searage for settling Caminero down early in spring training and emphasizing strikes over heat.
• The Pirates’ general malaise at the plate is lowlighted Starling Marte’s 3-for-29, 14-strikeout start. What’s worse, he’s missed some pitches by a foot.
Well, get used to it.
Oh, Marte will snap out of this. There’s too much talent there. But he’ll snap out of it his way, and that’s to keep swinging until he starts making solid contact and, from there, reestablishing his strike zone as something smaller than a Zip code.
“I have to hit. I have to be aggressive,” Marte told me. “I’m not going to wait and wait and wait and try for walks. I have to hit.”
Some baseball analysts see that as an inherent shortcoming of Dominican players. Not all, of course, but most. And there’s some truth to it, except that it’s imperative to understand that this is deeply ingrained in the culture: “You can’t walk off the island” is a common saying at the youth levels, I recall from my time down there a few years back. Children heed it. They know that hitting will get them noticed, will put food on the family table.
That doesn’t change because of an early-April slump.
• The Steelers bringing back Will Allen provides a safety valve, if you will, in case Shamarko Thomas either struggles or gets hurt, and there’s precedent for both. But don’t confuse that with challenging Thomas’ status as starter. I’ve got zero doubt it’s his job, and not just his job to lose. His aggressiveness could be a big part of what they hope to add to the defense this fall.
• Good dude: Ike Taylor had 14 interceptions over 12 NFL seasons, and they were so sparse you could be forgiven for not remembering a single one. But the fact is, until the Steelers got Tebowed, and Taylor was exposed by Deymarius Thomas out in Denver — one of the most stunning sporting events I’ve ever covered — he was a solid cover guy. So solid that Dick LeBeau could take all kinds of liberties elsewhere in the secondary.
As a person, Taylor’s something special and doubtless will remain that way.
My resonating memory of how he handles people will always be the way he woke us all at an otherwise sleepy press conference when the Steelers arrived in London two years ago. He had the Brits eating out of his hand.
Ike Taylor and Dan Rooney, two years ago. — IKE TAYLOR INSTAGRAM
But much closer to home, his close relationship with Dan Rooney was and is priceless. The two meshed in a way one never could imagine, given their generational difference and … well, Ike is Ike … but they always have, and it’s beautiful to watch.
Here, watch this video from last year. Seriously, do it.
Then read this statement from Mr. Rooney.
I’ll be shocked if Ike doesn’t find a way to stick around. No good Rooney could do that.
April 17, 2015
Friday Insider: Penguins eyeing buyouts
by Dejan Kovacevic • Friday Insider • Penguins
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
NEW YORK — Roundup of a lot of randomness from a lot of time around our teams …
• Barring some unforeseen reversal in the performance of one or more veteran players in these Stanley Cup playoffs, the Penguins are anticipating the buyout of one or more of those veterans’ remaining contracts this summer.
I don’t have names, so please don’t ask. None were given.
What I do know is that the buyout or buyouts will be aimed at making the roster both younger and more manageable in the salary cap sense, and that other steps will be taken, as well. There was no elaboration on the latter.
Chris Kunitz had 17 goals and 23 assists in 74 games for the Penguins this season. — GETTY
Emphasizing again that I have no names for this, I’ll offer my own best possibility in this category as being Chris Kunitz. He’s had a miserable season, he’s 35, and he’s due $3.85 million each of the next two seasons, thanks to Ray Shero handing him a three-year, $11.55 million extension two summers ago. Here are the contract details.
Contrary to a widely held misperception, buyouts do still exist in the NHL. Here’s how they work: A player’s contract can be terminated at any time. If the player is younger than 26 at the time of the buyout, the team must pay one-third of the remaining money on the contract. If the player is older than 26, the team must pay two-thirds. The adjusted cap hit is still charged to the team, but it’s spread over double the time span.
In Kunitz’s case, for example, the remaining $7.7 million he’s due would be reduced to $5.13 million in actual money, and the cap hit to the Penguins would be reduced from $3.85 million each of the next two seasons to the following over the next four seasons: $1.108 million, $1.558 million, $1.258 million and $1.258 million.
That’s significant cap freedom for a team that commits so much to its core.
Here are all of the Penguins’ current contract commitments.
• Do not think for one minute that Kris Letang is considering retirement.
• Trade evaluations inside the sports world are worlds apart from those on the outside. Fans and analysts will fuss over who ‘won’ or ‘lost’ a given exchange, from the first minute after it occurs to decades down the road. Not so for GMs.
When I brought up with Jim Rutherford yesterday morning at the Garden how well James Neal has fit with the Predators, it was easy to see he was genuinely pleased about it.
“He’s exactly what they needed, and we got what we needed, too,” Rutherford said.
That being Patric Hornqvist, a net-front guy, and Nick Spaling, some grinding depth.
“All you look at as a manager is what you’re getting and whether you’re happy with it. We obviously are,” Rutherford said. “And if the other side is happy, that helps, too, because you know you can do business with that team going forward. There’s a trust.”
• Although Brian Dumoulin got the nod in Game 1 ahead of fellow recall Scott Harrington, don’t take that to mean the Penguins necessarily hold the former in higher regard. The thinking among management is that Harrington has the higher upside, certainly in the offensive zone, but also that Dumoulin has been faster to adjust to making NHL-style simple plays whereas Harrington still takes shortcuts in Wilkes-Barre that would be easily exposed in Pittsburgh.
• Impossible not to be worried about Mark Melancon, even after he assured me he has no health issues. Again Wednesday night, his cut fastball sat at 89 mph, only once touching 90. His average with that pitch last season was 92.
My understanding before leaving Pittsburgh was that the Pirates had taken every communicative step possible earlier this week. So, being that he’s still taking the ball, one would have to assume it’s a late case of spring dead arm. Or at least one can hope that.
• Nobody in the PNC Park home clubhouse is feeling the love quite like newcomer Arquimedes Caminero. He’s being treated by his coaches and teammates as a borderline physical freak for how hard he throws — “The ball just explodes out of this young man’s hand,” Clint Hurdle was saying the other day — and he’s being admired for showing maturity beyond his 24 big-league appearances.
“This is a guy who’s been up and down in his career, a guy who’s had some trouble,” bullpen mate Tony Watson was saying, referring to Caminero’s command. “But you see him now, and he’s as even-keel as it gets. Nothing bothers him.”
This could be quite the plus on the ledgers of both Neal Huntington, for snapping him up from the Marlins — the GM loves his hard throwers — and Ray Searage for settling Caminero down early in spring training and emphasizing strikes over heat.
• The Pirates’ general malaise at the plate is lowlighted Starling Marte’s 3-for-29, 14-strikeout start. What’s worse, he’s missed some pitches by a foot.
Well, get used to it.
Oh, Marte will snap out of this. There’s too much talent there. But he’ll snap out of it his way, and that’s to keep swinging until he starts making solid contact and, from there, reestablishing his strike zone as something smaller than a Zip code.
“I have to hit. I have to be aggressive,” Marte told me. “I’m not going to wait and wait and wait and try for walks. I have to hit.”
Some baseball analysts see that as an inherent shortcoming of Dominican players. Not all, of course, but most. And there’s some truth to it, except that it’s imperative to understand that this is deeply ingrained in the culture: “You can’t walk off the island” is a common saying at the youth levels, I recall from my time down there a few years back. Children heed it. They know that hitting will get them noticed, will put food on the family table.
That doesn’t change because of an early-April slump.
• The Steelers bringing back Will Allen provides a safety valve, if you will, in case Shamarko Thomas either struggles or gets hurt, and there’s precedent for both. But don’t confuse that with challenging Thomas’ status as starter. I’ve got zero doubt it’s his job, and not just his job to lose. His aggressiveness could be a big part of what they hope to add to the defense this fall.
• Good dude: Ike Taylor had 14 interceptions over 12 NFL seasons, and they were so sparse you could be forgiven for not remembering a single one. But the fact is, until the Steelers got Tebowed, and Taylor was exposed by Deymarius Thomas out in Denver — one of the most stunning sporting events I’ve ever covered — he was a solid cover guy. So solid that Dick LeBeau could take all kinds of liberties elsewhere in the secondary.
As a person, Taylor’s something special and doubtless will remain that way.
My resonating memory of how he handles people will always be the way he woke us all at an otherwise sleepy press conference when the Steelers arrived in London two years ago. He had the Brits eating out of his hand.
Ike Taylor and Dan Rooney, two years ago. — IKE TAYLOR INSTAGRAM
But much closer to home, his close relationship with Dan Rooney was and is priceless. The two meshed in a way one never could imagine, given their generational difference and … well, Ike is Ike … but they always have, and it’s beautiful to watch.
Here, watch this video from last year. Seriously, do it.
Then read this statement from Mr. Rooney.
I’ll be shocked if Ike doesn’t find a way to stick around. No good Rooney could do that.