Are the Pittsburgh Penguins close to ridding themselves of Kasperi Kapanen?
Over this past summer, it’s safe to say that Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Ron Hextall was generous when it came to re-signing players.
Lengthy new deals were given to a few players to keep them part of the Penguins organization for a number of years.
Guys like Kris Letang, Bryan Rust, and Rickard Rakell were all re-signed for six years, Evgeni Malkin for four years, but most peculiar would be the two-year deal given to Kasperi Kapanen.
2021-22 wasn’t a great year for Kapanen; he struggled to remain consistent with only 11 goals and 21 assists for 32 points.
Towards the end of the year head coach Mike Sullivan was not afraid to scratch Kapanen from the lineup.
Hextall rewarded Kapanen with a two-year contract worth $3.2 million annually, a move that fans immediately questioned.
Now, the Penguins are 19 games into the 2022-23 season, and Kapanen has again been healthy scratched at an alarming rate.
With no return to the lineup in sight, Kapanen’s name has already come up in trade talks.
Elliotte Friedman said on the 32 Thoughts Podcast that Hextall was ‘looking around’ at trade possibilities, but no further details were given.
Frank Seravalli of DailyFaceoff backed up the statement from Friedman but gave a little more insight by listing Kapanen by name.
According to Seravalli, Hextall has been active in attempting to offload Kapanen’s contract.
If Hextall is able to get a deal done with Kapanen, it’ll be a quick course correction on a deal that people didn’t like from the start.
The plummeting of performance from Kapanen has been disappointing; he had the chance to become one of the best depth players in recent memory.
The next question is, what kind of deal would it take for the Penguins to dump off Kapanen and his contract? Does the team need to retain salary? Maybe another piece needs to be hitched to him?
It's hard to say, but without Kapanen playing games he is taking up a roster spot and large amount of the salary cap.
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