Pittsburgh Penguins Offer Contract to Defenseman
By Drew Shetler
The playoffs showed a glaring weakness in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ defense. The Philadelphia Flyers killed them time after time getting behind their defense for easy breakaways.
The problem is the Penguins already have four defensemen (Kris Letang, Brooks Orpik, Paul Martin and Zbynek Michalek) making $3.75 million or more next year.
With such little ice time avalable it seems highly unlikely that a big time defenseman will sign with the Penguins. So the Penguins are trying to keep one of the defenseman who was productive for them, Matt Niskanen.
The Penguins offered him a one year contract worth $1.75 million. Niskanen played in 75 games for the Penguins last season, the most by any Penguins defenseman, turned the contract down. Niskanen finished the year with four goals and 21 points.
Should the Penguins be unable to sign Niskanen, they do have options already under contract. Deryk Engelland, Ben Lovejoy, Robert Bortuzzo, Simon Despres and Brian Strait are all under contract and are in the mix for ice time for the Penguins this year.
The Penguins defensive corps are a crowed picture and trades could be possible.