Pens trade Moose

[raleighcanesfan]

Never though the Pens would be deep at goalie, but by drafting Fleury, signing Caron, adding some other guy, Moose Hedburg became expendible. They traded him to Vancouver for a draft pick. Blah! I'm tired of these player for a draft pick trades.

Bad thing--JS Aubin will be the starter.

[Shell]

I got stuck with Hedburg on one of my fantasy leagues last year and he was terrible. I think it was a good move by the penguins to get rid of him. A draft pic seems low, but they don't seem very willing to take on salary right now so it isn't s surprise. (incidentally I had Irbe as my other goalie in that league.. ouch!! I obviously did better in the league that I had Roy and Turco in!)

[raleighcanesfan]

well, I think CPatrick has done a terrible job with the heads of his goalies. Remember, Tommy B started his antics there with JS Aubin, Lalime, Skudra, then Hedburg got the shuffle with Caron and now Fleury.

Anytime I get frustrated with my GM, I remember the Pens. Yes, Patrick has done some good/great things (bringing Ronnie in for the 2 cups) but it's a question of What Have you done for me lately. yes, money is strapped, but look at what they DIDN'T get in trading Jagr, Kovalev, and others. NOTHING.

[mr. chubby]

.

Bad thing--JS Aubin will be the starter.

Are you sure?? I'm thinking they'd rather have Caron in there while MAF is getting his bearings...

Either way, the pens will be so far out of the playoff hunt by Thanksgiving that MAF will be the starter soon enough. (the fact that he is 18 notwithstanding)

[Turbulence]

Caron will definately start. He had began to take the majority of the playing time away from Hedburg at the end of last year...

I think we'll see Caron start, with Fleury as the backup. (that is, if he has the same age restriction as Staal regarding the minor leagues...)

[raleighcanesfan]

Nope--Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Tribune-Review all are reporting JS Aubin is #1, it's his position to lose. Joe Starkey, one of the reporters, is reporting it and he's usually in bed with Patrick, so I believe it. I don't like it, but I believe it.

[cmw00]

Hey , atleast this means that there is no way in hell we'll finish last in the league this year now! :evil:

Looks like the Pens are setting up a run at Ovechickin lol

We'd better watch out or the pens will draft themselves a stanley cup in 2 or 3 more seasons!

[Turbulence]

Nope--Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Tribune-Review all are reporting JS Aubin is #1, it's his position to lose. Joe Starkey, one of the reporters, is reporting it and he's usually in bed with Patrick, so I believe it. I don't like it, but I believe it.

Wow...JS Aubin was in Wilkes-Barre at the end of last year, correct? And Caron was in Pittsburgh and splitting playing time with Hedburg...I don't follow that logic... :eek2:

OT...Seabass and Caron look alot alike...anybody else see this?
http://www.pittsburghpenguins.com/images/200308/15.f.jpgCaron
http://www.pittsburghpenguins.com/images/200308/10.f.jpgJ-S

[Shell]

except Caron's neck has about an extra foot ;)

I know, I know.. business is business.. still makes me sad though!

Penguins send Hedberg to Canucks
Tuesday, August 26, 2003
By Dejan Kovacevic, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Johan Hedberg had just received the news that he was traded from a team widely expected to be one of the NHL's worst to one with a legitimate chance at the Stanley Cup.

And he did not take it particularly well.

"I'm shocked. Stunned. My kids are here crying," Hedberg said from his native Sweden yesterday after the Penguins dealt him to the Vancouver Canucks for a second-round pick in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft. "I mean, I know I'm going to a team that has had a lot of success. And I did expect this to happen during the season. But not now. Right now, this is a shock. I never wanted to leave Pittsburgh. Neither did my family. This is tough."

Hedberg, 30, was the Penguins' No. 1 goaltender most of his two-plus seasons in Pittsburgh and ranked among the franchise's most popular players, religiously drawing chants of his nickname "Moose" when making saves at Mellon Arena. But three circumstances prompted the organization to deal him:

Hedberg is eligible for unrestricted free agency in July, which meant that the Penguins could have lost him on the open market for a low-round compensatory draft pick if they did not trade him. As General Manager Craig Patrick put it, "This was the big issue. If we kept him all year, we would have gotten essentially nothing. We saw an opportunity to get a good pick."

The team was going to pay a combined $2.72 million to its three NHL-salaried goaltenders next season, which was not in tune with the goal of having one of the league's lowest payrolls. Hedberg will make $1.2 million; projected starter Sebastien Caron, 23, will make $650,000 as part of a four-year deal signed Thursday; and Jean-Sebastien Aubin, 26, will make $870,000. Add to that the possibility that Marc-Andre Fleury, the No. 1 overall pick in the June draft, could make the team and earn as much as $4 million annually.

The glut of goaltending, Patrick felt, was not in line with the team's rebuilding plans. "We knew even before the draft that we were going to have three people for two spots," he said. "And, when we had four after the draft, we made the decision that we were going to go with younger people." Of Fleury, Patrick added that he is considered "a wild card in our mix" while stressing that Hedberg's departure should not be viewed as a sign that the door is now open wider for Fleury to become only the fifth 18-year-old goaltender to play in the NHL since 1980: "It's going to depend on his performance, just like it would have otherwise."

The shakedown of the Hedberg trade, from the Penguins' perspective, is that they are left with glaring inexperience at their most important position, owning a combined 63 NHL victories: 56 for Aubin and seven for Caron. But Patrick insisted he is not worried.

"Age is no factor for us," he said. "Plus, if you look at last year, the numbers speak for themselves. Caron and Aubin had better numbers than Hedberg last season."



The support figures to be considerably greater in Vancouver, where the Canucks are loaded up front with the likes of Hedberg's close friend Markus Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi, and have a star-caliber defense to match. Their only significant problem, in fact, has been poor goaltending in the postseason, as starter Dan Cloutier, 27, has struggled mightily in the past two playoffs and taken most of the public heat for the team's failure to get past the second round.

[b]General Manager Brian Burke insisted to Vancouver reporters last night that Cloutier remains No. 1 on the team depth chart, saying that Hedberg was acquired primarily to keep Cloutier from wearing down during the regular season.

"This will be treated by a lot of people in the media like it's minor, but I don't think it is at all," Burke said of acquiring Hedberg. "He's a proven goaltender. He will back up Dan, but he will push Dan."

Burke and Patrick had been working on the deal for nearly two months, but Burke had been wary of Patrick's demand for a second-round pick before yesterday.

Although Burke did not address it, it had to enter his thinking that Hedberg is not far removed from leading the Penguins to the Eastern Conference final in 2001. A month after his NHL debut, Hedberg beat the Washington Capitals' Olaf Kolzig and the Buffalo Sabres' Dominik Hasek before falling to Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils.

"It was the greatest time of my life," Hedberg said. "It was all happening so fast that it was amazing."

He cited, specifically, Darius Kasparaitis' goal in overtime of Game 7 in Buffalo.

"In that moment, it just felt like it all came together," he said. "What a feeling. I was skating on clouds the whole way down the ice."

Patrick acquired Hedberg out of the San Jose Sharks' minor-league system March 12 that year, a deal in which the Penguins also gave up defenseman Jeff Norton for defenseman Bobby Dollas.

"It's funny because, at the time, it looked like we traded defensemen with the goalie as a throw-in," Patrick said. "That's not how we saw it. We knew he could play, and he did."

Patrick, who had a short talk with Hedberg yesterday, acknowledged that it was difficult to part with someone so popular not only with the fan base but also within the team because of his unwaveringly warm personality.

"He's a great individual, and we feel blessed to have had the opportunity to have him associated with our organization," Patrick said. "We will miss him, for sure."

The feeling was mutual.

"I love Pittsburgh," Hedberg said. "I love the way the fans treated me there, and I wanted to play the rest of my career for them. But I have to move on now. I have to change my mind-set, no matter how much it hurts."

NOTES -- Patrick said that he has been in touch with "a few" veteran defensemen who could end up being the Penguins' final free-agent signing of the summer. He did not rule out that the player could have to earn his way onto the roster through a training-camp tryout. A representative of free agent Drake Berehowsky, the player believed to be atop the Penguins' list, confirmed yesterday that talks with the team remain ongoing but with little progress. ... Left winger Ramzi Abid, the lone restricted free agent the Penguins have left to sign, is working out with other NHL players in Montreal while waiting for a contract. Abid said yesterday that the knee injury which forced him out of the Penguins' final nine games last season is "100 percent and not an issue." ... Hedberg's only meeting with his former teammates next season is Dec. 9 at Vancouver. ... The Canucks are paying all of Hedberg's salary.

[Shell]

and one more about the current goalie situation instead of Hedburg...

Pens deal Hedberg to Vancouver
By Karen Price
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, August 26, 2003

In June, the Penguins drafted a goalie considered to be one of the best to come along in years. He may get his chance to prove the critics right much sooner than expected.

General manager Craig Patrick traded Johan Hedberg to the Vancouver Canucks on Monday for a second-round pick in 2004. According to the general manager, the decision to trade Hedberg was based mainly on the 30-year-old's impending free agency in 2004 and the team's youth movement.

But even though the move was made possible partly because of signing Sebastien Caron to a four-year deal last week, the No. 1 job is still wide open.

Patrick called it a three-man race between Caron, 2003 No. 1 overall draft pick Marc-Andre Fleury and Jean-Sebastien Aubin.

"We have confidence in both Aubin and Caron; they've shown enough to us over the long term about handling their duties," Patrick said. "But we still have a wild card in Fleury. It's way too early to rule out anybody."

Patrick said that he'd "pretty much arranged"the deal with the Canucks before he gave Caron a new four-year, $3.2 million contract late last week.

The 23-year-old will make $635,000 this year. The Penguins also signed Andy Chiodo, 20, who last year was the top goaltender in the Ontario Hockey League, and career minor leaguer Martin Brochu, 30.

The most likely scenario appeared to be Fleury returning for another year of junior hockey while Hedberg, Caron and Aubin fought it out for the top two jobs. That would leave Chiodo and/or Brochu in Wilkes-Barre, with one of the five getting traded.

Patrick ended part of the speculation, and promised that Fleury is very much in the mix for the Penguins' top job.

"It was going to be a three-man race; now it's still a three-man race but we'll see," Patrick said. "Camp's a couple weeks away."

One big hitch to Fleury starting his NHL career this year is the matter of his contract. Patrick has not yet been in touch with Beverly Hills-based agent Allan Walsh, who is practiced in negotiating substantial rookie contracts (Marian Gaborik, the No. 3 overall pick in 2000, for example).

According to the Entry Level System set forth in the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, Fleury must sign a three-year deal. The rookie salary cap for 2003 is $1.24 million, but an additional $10-11 million could potentially be added to that in performance bonuses, making the deal worth roughly $15 million. Walsh said there is no limit to performance bonuses, which are generally written according to "the model," also known as Joe Thornton's first contract.

That deal spelled out six bonuses (goals, assists, etc.) but said that if Thornton met two of the bonuses, all six would then kick in.

Rick DiPietro, the only other modern-era goaltender to be drafted No. 1 overall, had performance bonuses written into his contract that totaled $9.2 million over three years. He didn't hit any of them, of course, and has yet to secure a position in the NHL.

The Penguins could sign Fleury and send him back to juniors, which would relieve them from paying him right away. The deal would then slide to the next year, according to Walsh.

If they do not sign him before Sept. 28, he must go back to his junior team -- the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles.

Hedberg played in 41 games last year for the Penguins, with a 14-22-4 record and a 3.14 goals-against average. He will make $1.2 million this year.

When he separated his shoulder in late December, it opened the door for Caron to make his NHL debut. He was initially the backup to Aubin, but quickly won the job for himself. After Hedberg returned, Aubin was sent to Wilkes-Barre in the American Hockey League.

Aubin played well once there, but Hedberg remained Caron's biggest hurdle to the No. 1 job.

"I'm really happy about that because I'm getting my chance to play." Caron said yesterday. "At the same time, I won't be too happy because the job is not mine yet."

Caron was 7-14-2 last year with a 2.64 goals-against average. Aubin was 6-13-0 with a 3.13 goals-against average in the NHL, but went 8-6-1 with a 1.89 goals-against average after joining Wilkes-Barre. He was 3-3-0 in the playoffs.

Hedberg was still in Sweden yesterday and had planned to return to Pittsburgh today to begin preparing for the season. That all changed around 10:30 last night.

"(Patrick) just gave me the news and thanked me for my time here," Hedberg said. "It wasn't a long conversation, but I have nothing but good things to say about him and the rest of the organization. They gave me a chance to play and I'm very thankful to Craig, (Eddie Johnston) and everyone."