The Mikkel Boedker Conundrum

Cody Flavell @LetsTalkPens
Feb 20, 2016
2 min read

By: Cody Flavell @LetsTalkPens

I for one am guilty of saying I don't want Mikkel Boedker to become a Penguin. He would cost an arm and a leg for the Pens and they have really

no true need to do this. I also said however that Boedker wouldn't fit in the Pens top-6. Maybe we should revisit that idea. We all got to see the sweet treat the other night that Phil Kessel and Sidney Crosby playing together could be. Obviously that would shift the Pens' top-6 drastically. Ideally, we'd like to see Carl Hagelin and Evgeni Malkin stay together which won't change. But that would mean the also speedy Kessel that has been playing with those two would need replaced. If you've got Kessel and Sid together, that likely bumps Chris Kunitz down in the lineup. Or at least you might think. Kunitz is virtually invisible without Sid. So do you move Patric Hornqvist down? He's been very good as of late and could play on Geno's line if needed but why do that? In my opinion, if a trade for Boedker was made, and I still don't believe one is needed, the top-6 should be as follows: Kunitz-Crosby-Kessel Hagelin-Malkin-Boedker Where does that leave Hornqvist? Well, in my opinion, the Pens will have to give up an NHL ready player and to me it would probably be Hornqvist because he'd be receiving over $3 million a year to play bottom six and that doesn't seem necessary. We'd need to include a prospect as well and possibly more. Now assuming the Penguins stand still at the deadline and don't address their top-6 forwards with a rental player and Kessel begins to play with Crosby like the original experiment was meant to be, then I believe that Kessel and Hornqvist will flip spots. Kessel to top line RW and Horny to the second line. To me, I am very content with the team overall and hope the Penguins decide against adding a rental player at the deadline. Just imagine making a big trade in nine days and the Penguins go on a cold streak and potentially miss the playoffs. Wow, wouldn't that signal the end of the Jim Rutherford tenure in Pittsburgh?