CRANBERRY, Pa. -- The Penguins made five signings on the opening day of NHL free agency.
They made four depth signings in defenseman Xavier Ouelett, goaltender Dustin Tokarski and forwards Josh Archibald and Drake Caggiula.
They made one signing who you could safely pencil in for the NHL roster on opening night in October in right-handed defenseman Jan Rutta.
The Rutta signing gives the Penguins nine potential NHL defensemen: Four lefties in Brian Dumoulin, Mike Matheson, Marcus Pettersson, and P.O Joseph, and five righties in Kris Letang, John Marino, Chad Ruhwedel, Mark Friedman and Rutta. Among that group, Friedman and Rutta have the most experience playing on their off sides.
That just won't hold up.
Ron Hextall was asked on Wednesday if it was safe to say that one of those nine would be moved in a trade sometime this summer, and he confirmed the obvious.
"Well, we're certainly not going to have nine on our opening roster," he said. "So yeah, that's a fair assumption. I don't know where that's all going."
Hextall said that in some cases over the offseason, teams will move those extra pieces out in trades and then sign the free agent after they know what kind of spots are open and how much cap space they have.
In this case, though, the opportunity to "get a little bit heavier on the back end" with the 6-foot-2, 211-pound Rutta was just too good to pass up.
"We feel Jan is a really good penalty-killer," Hextall added. "He's a real solid guy to play with really any left-hander on our team. We feel like it's a good addition to our team, and we feel like we got better and added a little bit of the girth that we feel like we need in front of the net and penalty-killing situation. So we liked the add. And as far as the 9 D, I'm not exactly sure where it'll end up."
Hextall said that they'll look at possibly moving a defenseman out in a trade in exchange for a forward, or potentially for future considerations.
There's no timeframe for a potential deal, either. Teams are allowed to exceed the cap by 10% in the offseason, so freeing up cap space by moving out a defenseman isn't an immediate concern.
"Once you get through free agency, the dust kind of settles and then everybody knows exactly what they have," Hextall said. "So sometimes it's easier to make a move. We'll see what comes along in the next month or so and we'll make moves when we see the time appropriate."
MORE FROM HEXTALL
• Just about 24 hours passed between Evgeni Malkin informing the Penguins he would be testing free agency and him signing a four-year extension worth $24.4 million. What changed so quickly in that period to make Malkin agree to sign?
"I don't really know, to be honest," Hextall said. "That's more of a question for for Geno."
Hextall described negotiations as "amicable" throughout the process.
"We found a middle ground where we both were happy," Hextall said. "To get Geno under contract, we couldn't be happier. I think he helped us out in terms of the cap number, which we needed to keep low. We talked about that right from the start and we stretched out (the length of the contract) to help him out. So it was one of those deals that worked both ways and we couldn't be more thrilled to have him back under contract and have him finish his career as a Penguin."
Both Malkin and Kris Letang have true 35+ contracts due to their deals being front-loaded in salary (and Malkin's also having signing bonuses beyond Year 1). That makes the cap hits impossible to reduce through a buyout. And if either player retires before their contract is up, their cap hit does not go away. Hextall acknowledged that the contracts were risky, but said that all deals are risky, and that's just a concession they had to make.
"Our number one objective was to keep our cap numbers down on those guys so we can surround them with other pieces instead of having to get rid of other pieces to be below the cap," Hextall said. "So we sacrifice a little bit, they sacrifice a little bit, and we came to agreement. They both in the end wanted to be Pittsburgh Penguins. Again, we couldn't be more thrilled."
• I asked Hextall where things currently stand with Kasperi Kapanen and how confident he is that the two sides can agree to terms before a potential arbitration case. Arbitration hearings begin July 27.
"I'm sure we'll get something done," he said. "I mean, whether they file or don't, I don't know where it's headed right now. But typically, both sides have a range where you know you're going to be. We're pretty comfortable with the range that we believe we'll be in. I spoke with his agent briefly at the draft. I don't think Kappy is going to be a problem."
• The roster remains pretty much intact from last season, at least in terms of key pieces. Hextall didn't believe much change was needed from last season.
"We always say winning the first round is typically the hardest," he said. "I think if you look at the last two years, I think it gives us faith that this group still has hockey left in them and still has a chance to do impressive things. So that was part of the decision. I've said this a few times -- you guys you might get tired -- but you look at the Islanders series two years ago, you look at the Rangers series this year, we very well could have won either of those series. Personally, I think we should have won, obviously, a matter of opinion. But that gives us a belief that we can still be very competitive in this league and do special things."
• Asked which young forwards might be able to step up next season who the Penguins will be keeping an eye on in camp, Hextall named Filip Hallander and Valtteri Puustinen, among others.
"We've got probably three or four guys down there that we feel comfortable can at least come up and play games," Hextall said. "In the end, they have to come in in camp and try to beat somebody out and show us enough where we say 'You know, you're going to be the first call up.'"
• There was a report on Twitter from Elliotte Friedman that the Penguins had signed free agent forward Johan Larsson. Asked to confirm it, Hextall said, "No, I can't confirm that."
• The Penguins are now allowed to start sign some of their 2023 free agents to contract extensions. That's a group that includes Tristan Jarry, Teddy Blueger, and Brian Dumoulin, among others. Hextall said they haven't had those conversations yet but expect to have those talks in the next few weeks.
"I've never been one to be in a hurry with that stuff," he said.
