With almost their entire roster already under contract for 2016-17, the biggest question the Pittsburgh Penguins have to answer this offseason is what they will do with their goaltending situation involving Marc-Andre Fleury and Matt Murray.
It might be one of the more fascinating decisions any team in the league has to make all summer.
On one hand, Fleury has been the Penguins' regular starter for the past decade and at times this very season was their best player, helping to keep the team in the playoff race when the rest of the roster was struggling to find its way early in the year. Even though he will soon be turning 32 years old, he should still be able to play at a pretty high level for at least a couple more years.
Murray, meanwhile, was supposed to be their goalie of the future. He had to become their goalie of the present when Fleury opened the playoffs sidelined with his second concussion of the season. Murray ended up playing so well in his absence that he kept the starting job even when Fleury was cleared to play. He had a .923 save percentage as the team won its fourth Stanley Cup.
So, how do the Penguins handle a situation where they have to deal with a long-time starter that is wildly popular in the organization (and the fan base), and a young, up-and-coming player that just won the Stanley Cup?
That was a big topic of discussion on Thursday when the Penguins held their locker clean out day and general manager Jim Rutherford met with the media. Rutherford insisted that if he and coach Mike Sullivan could make the decision today in a perfect world they would open next season with both Fleury and Murray on the roster.
But the NHL is never perfect, and there are always variables that will impact what a team can do.
Rutherford mentioned on Thursday that he wants to have a chance to speak with Fleury and find out his thoughts on the situation, while he also repeatedly mentioned an expansion draft and the fact they most likely will not be able to protect both goalies, something that could create the possibility of losing one of them for nothing.
The case for keeping both goalies
If you ignore everything from the salary cap to expansion drafts and just focus on the ability of the goalies, keeping both of them for at least another year really is the best situation. The whole mindset that "if you have two goalies, you don't really have a goalie" is completely preposterous.
There is no such a thing as having too many good players or too much talent.
If nothing else it would give the Penguins the opportunity to have them split time during the regular season and have a rested goalie (whoever is playing the best) heading into the playoffs. It would also provide a safety net in case Murray isn't the goalie they think he is, or if he simply regresses a bit this season (not a guarantee, but not something that is completely out of the question, either).
Does it create the possibility of a goaltending controversy? Sure it does, but the Penguins just went through an entire postseason where there were constant questions about who would start in goal and whether or not a bad game or a bad goal would result in a switch.
It did not prevent them from winning a championship.
But again, the NHL rarely -- if ever -- allows for things to be that perfect for a team.
Why a trade might be necessary
Not only is there a salary cap that is designed to make sure teams do not have too much talent, but based on what has been reported about the expansion draft the Penguins will likely have to leave one of their goalies unprotected.
Those two factors alone could force the Penguins into a trade as early as this summer (and that is to say nothing of the possibility that Fleury himself might want to be in a situation where he does not have to share the crease).
If they are going to move a goalie, all of this makes Fleury the obvious choice for any number of reasons.
- He is 10 years older than Matt Murray, and while Murray is still at a point in his career where he should be expected to trend upward, Fleury is going to be 32 years old and is probably at a point in his career where goalies start to trend down.
- Fleury will cost more than $5.7 million against the cap for the next three seasons, while Murray still has another year on his entry level contract at a cost of $620,000 before he is eligible for restricted free agency. That is a huge difference in cost for a team that is constantly pressed against the salary cap. Because that contract for Fleury also includes a limited no-trade clause, they would likely have to protect him in a potential expansion draft which would then leave Murray exposed.
- The second point, at least as it relates to the salary, is what makes Murray such a valuable asset. Goaltending is an extremely important position that can impact a team unlike any other. If you can get a good one for a cheap contract, it opens up so many other options for the rest of the roster. That alone might make him one of the few "untouchables" in the organization at this point.
Who are the potential trade partners?
The problem they might have when it comes to trading Fleury is finding a partner.
Not only because he has a limited no-trade clause and can help dictate where he would go, but with goaltending being as good as it is across the league there really are not a lot of teams that are going to be in the market for a starting goalie. The teams that are in the market for one may not be a great match for the Penguins and could have other options (if Tampa Bay or Anaheim makes Ben Bishop or Frederik Andersen available, for example).
The Dallas Stars are a Stanley Cup contender and have what is obviously a pretty big weakness in goal, but they already have more than $10 million committed (more than any other team in the NHL when it comes to goalie salaries) to Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi for another two years. Unless they move one or buy out one they are simply not an option.
Toronto could have an opening in net, but that is a rebuilding team that is not really in a position to be trading assets it has spent two years stockpiling for a 32-year-old goalie. Especially when they could probably just bring back James Reimer as a free agent without having to give up anything in return.
Goaltending has been a pretty big weakness in Carolina in recent years but the Hurricanes just re-signed Cam Ward to a two-year contract on Thursday.
Arizona could probably use an upgrade over Mike Smith, but Smith still has a pretty big contract remaining on the books.
The one team that seems to be making the most noise -- and maybe the most sense -- at this point is Calgary. The Flames have a clear need at the position, they are not committed to anybody long-term, and they have the cap space to take on Fleury's contract. The matter of the no-trade clause could be an issue, as well as the fact as the Flames have something of interest to the Penguins. It's hard to imagine the Flames parting with the No. 6 pick in the draft (for comparisons sake: New Jersey traded the No. 9 pick for Cory Schneider back in 2012).
Entering an offseason where the only unrestricted free agents they have to deal with are Matt Cullen, Ben Lovejoy and Jeff Zatkoff the Penguins are not looking at a major roster overhaul.
But they still have one very big decision to make when it comes to their goalies.
