Pens sign Feds at a discount

Obviously all those "experts" were wrong about Ruslan Fedotenko leaving the Pens. Feds decided to stay with the Pens yesterday. At a discount no less. He accepted a one-year deal worth $1.8 million to stay with the Pens. He made $2.25 million last year. He is now the third forward to take a pay cut to stay with the Pens. That definitely says a lot about the team.

The Pens signed another player yesterday in defenseman Nate Guenin who is from Sewickley. He's 26 years old, 6'2", 210 pounds and signed a two-way contract for one-year. If he plays in the NHL he will make $500,000, if he plays in the AHL, $105,000. Ray Shero is still looking for an experienced defenseman.

The Pens lost two AHLers yesterday in Jeff Taffe and Chris Minard.

Pens sign new face, lose Gill and Garon

(Post-Gazette)

Not too much going on for the Pens on the first day of free agency, but they do have a new face. The Pens signed former Devils forward Mike Rupp who once played for the Erie Otters. He signed a two-year deal worth $800,000 next season and $850,000 in 2010-11. He's a physical player who isn't afraid to drop the gloves, as shown in the picture above. He's even taken up boxing lessons in the offseason to improve his skills.

We find this signing a little surprising but the cap hit isn't bad and we trust Ray Shero knows what he's doing.

The Pens lost a couple of faces yesterday as well. Hal Gill signed with the Montreal Canadiens for two years, $4.5 million. Mathieu Garon signed a two-year deal with Columbus averaging $1.2 million.

These aren't surprising losses, although we'll miss Hal Gill, he was a good player and a good guy. Hopefully now the Pens can find a way to keep Scuderi who still says he will give the Pens the last chance at an offer.

See you tomorrow. Go Pens!

We're back

We apologize for the unplanned hiatus we've been on for a while, but we're back now. Obviously a few things happened while we were gone, like the draft, signing Adams and Guerin, and Geno on the beach in Miami. We're not going to go back other than to say we like the two signings and think they were a good step in the right direction. Today at noon starts free agency and the frenzy that follows. Should be interesting to see what happens and we'll be here. Again, we apologize for the sudden hiatus. See you later today.

P.S. We never talk about the Pirates because like we've said, we're not big baseball fans and well...look at what a joke the Pirates organization is. Well they sunk lower yesterday in trading more players, including our favorite and only reason for watching Pirates baseball, Nyjer Morgan. We loved his personality (he was mic'd up last week during a game and what a man!) and his positive attitude towards playing on a joke of a team. Not going back too far in history here, getting rid of McLouth was a stab in the back to fans and now Morgan and Co. was a slap to the face. The Pirates will now no longer ever be on TV in this household. What a joke.

Thank God for the Pens and Steelers.

Saying goodbye

We haven't kept up with the football free agency because, to be quite honest, we hate it. From losing players to seeing those ridiculous contracts (yes, that would be you Albert Haynesworth) it just makes us sick. We know that's bad on our part because that's what we do here and the Steelers have made some moves, but we hate the business aspect of sports in general. Say what you want but we'll never accept the greediness and large sums of money throw at players. Many people will never see a million dollars in their entire lives, but yet several million a year is never enough. Which means we don't buy the whole football careers are so short and I have to take care of my family stuff. Everyone has to take care of their families and they do so without making that kind of money. And like we said, many people will never see a million dollars in their ENTIRE lives, but these players need more and more a year. You could take care of yourself and others on several million dollars, you don't need that Louis Vuitton.

The Steelers signed Chris Kemoeatu for five years, $20 millon and Sean McHugh for three years, $2.57 million. They also released guard Kendall Simmons. A few others were issued contract tenders as restricted free agents.

For us, there were two players this year we interested in and hoped they would re-sign even though it didn't look good. One of those players left today. Nate Washington has signed with the Tennessee Titans for six years, $27 million, and $9 million guaranteed. We thought Nate was really coming into his own and was a real deep threat with a lot of speed. We'll also admit we've like Nate since his early days here, yes, even when he was still dropping balls. So now it's time to say goodbye to Nate, unfortunately. We're really going to miss that mohawk and high-top fade.

The other player we didn't want to see go was Bryant McFadden, although we figured he was one that was sure to go. He has yet to sign elsewhere but he met today with none other than, you guessed it, ARIZONA! Go figure. We thought he was a good player and a good part of the defense but we figured he would go elsewhere because the Steelers wouldn't pay him what he could get somewhere else. We won't even get into that.

The Steelers also kept another one of their players by putting the franchise tag on him for the second year in a row. Max Starks and the Steelers reached an agreement for the franchise tender of $8.451 million for the 2009 season. The Steelers want a long-term deal and have until mid-July to do so or he will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.

We also have a link here to an interview with Max Starks on topics such as:

1.Max Starks talks About Free Agency and his Long Term Plans
2.Max talks about what makes Big Ben so Special?
3.Max gives his thought son Albert Haynesworthss Deal
4.Max speaks on the media’s focus on contracts?
5.Max gives his thoughts on Demarcus Ware
6.Max gives his thoughts on the differences between Tomlin and Cowher

The website is http://www.whatchatalkinbout.com and the direct link to listen to the interview is at http://media.libsyn.com/media/wtcb/SCR_4.mp3. Enjoy.