Will the Penguins have interest in Brandon Saad?
By Liam McGuire
ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun is reporting the Pittsburgh Penguins are a team to watch in possibly acquiring Chicago Blackhawks forward Brandon Saad.
A source suggested to me Tuesday that the Pittsburgh Penguins are a team to watch as far as having interest in Saad. The Penguins would love to make a splash by grabbing the Pittsburgh native, especially given their need for a top-six scoring winger.
As LeBrun notes in his article, the only way the Penguins would be able to acquire Saad would be via a trade. The RFA can be had via offer-sheet, but the Penguins don’t posses the necessary first-round pick in order to make that happen.
Saad is coming off the best statistical season of his career as he's posted 23 goals to go with 52 points. He’s also added 7 goals during the Blackhawks' Stanley Cup Playoffs run. He’s definitely a good young player, but playing with Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa certainly created an uptick in his numbers. Saad’s WOWY numbers were significantly better playing with the two work horses and teetered around 50 percent without them.
Saad is going to be a very coveted free agent this offseason despite his RFA status.
While NHL general managers seem to be afraid to throw around offer sheets, the Blackhawks' cap situation with the increased upcoming contracts of stars Patrick Kane and Toews may mean that have to make sacrifices throughout their lineup.
The club has the chance to match any offers given to Saad, and they may just do that and let him get an offer elsewhere and decide to match like they did with Niklas Hjalmarsson when he was offered a four-year deal with the Sharks in 2010.
I’d be very surprised if the club willingly let Saad go. As Bob McKenzie tweeted, it’s more likely the club tries to move one of its bigger contracts like Patrick Sharp’s and then allocate the money elsewhere to players like Saad.
The Blackhawks have a number of challenging decisions ahead of them, and Saad's future may be the biggest of them all.
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