Expansion Looms...So Do Decisions

Recently the NHL has been discussing expansion .Over the past couple of years things have been hatched out in more detail as to what exactly this would entail. With this in mind the recent various reports of the expansion happening sooner rather than later have teams looking at which players they should protect from the new expansion teams snatching up.

Depending on if the expansion is one or two teams this would determine how many players could be locked in. For this we are going to assume the expansion would be one team since it seems pretty clear lately that the league is going fully forward with putting a team in Las Vegas .Another factor in this expansion would be how soon it occurred, since players who are in their first year of the NHL would be exempt from the draft. Therefore most players on this list are not in their first year due to they wouldn't be protected unless locked in by teams. There are six. Offensive players that can be locked in and one goalie.

Now the question is what forwards should the Penguins lock in . Well there are two obvious people that should be locked in all circumstances. Those two people are the Penguins franchise forwards Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby. The Penguins organization has built their team around these two players. Both of them have taken in numerous awards over there playing carriers up to this point . In fact between the two of them they have Four Art Ross trophies and Four Hart trophies. As far as points go over the past five seasons Malkin has , points and 342 points one of those seasons being cut short due to the lockout . As for Crosby he has points 365 .As you can see by points and play alone it’s a no brainer for the Penguins to keep their two star centers.

Now that we have to locked in players let's discuss the other players the Penguins organization should lock in. We have two more offensive players both of whom are hot right now. I’m talking about none other than Patric Hornqvist and defenseman Kris Letang. Let’s start off with Hornqvist , there are two key reasons I’d lock him in first being he consistently contributes to goals scored and is a good winger for Crosby. Hornqvist notched with the Captain of the Penguins nicely which can be seen when looking at the amount of assists Hornqvist has contributed to the star center over the past 2 seasons. The second reason is his recent lack of injury the Penguins have a bit of an injury bug so finding a guy like Hornqvist that can play the season 82 games without injure is something special.

As for Kris Letang who has been having a Norris season type year there isn't much to argue against all one need do is point out his offensive contributions need I mention his career high stats? As well as the sheer number of minutes the man plays , his average being around 25:11 .Needless to say It’d be foolish to not lock Letang in.

There is one more defensive player the Penguins should lock in Olli Maatta, relatively young at 21 Matta has many years of defensive play left in the National hockey league. Also it should be noted that depth on the blue line is just as important as forward depth. Therefore having a young defense man locked in would be in the best interest of the organization.

The last man the Penguins should lock in is left winger Carl Hagelin, Hagelin filled a void that needed to be filled he has skill and speed . Here at Let’s Talk Pens we know that speed can kill. Hagelin has fit in next to Phil Kessel , and given the Penguins two killer lines with Malkin sidelined. Hagelin has a bright future left in the NHL and in Pittsburgh.

Now for goalies this is pretty obvious as well The Penguins have two stellar choices at goalie so frankly this was a hard decision to make, in the end I took Murray over current lead Goalie Marc Andre Fleury . I love Flower as much as the next fan but Matt Murray has shown he can handle the pressure of being a star goalie and for being so young he already has a 93 save percentage. To sum up the future is more important than the present in terms of players. These are the players I think the Penguins should lock in to keep them in black and gold.