Are The Penguins Still Looking For Upgrades?

Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports

Lots of things can change in a short amount of time. 

After writing an article just yesterday about how it’s pretty unlikely that the Pens are going to make any moves, it seems that I was possibly wrong. 

After the Pens acquired Erik Karlsson in the blockbuster deal of the summer, it seemed like Dubas would be done making moves until at least training camp. He told reporters at his post-Karlsson presser that he didn’t expect to make any other major moves this offseason but didn’t rule out a PTO deal. 

Now yesterday, I talked about how Elliotte Friedman speculated that the Pens could go after Tomas Tatar, and I wrote how unlikely that would be, especially with Jake Guentzel not expected to miss as many games as previously thought. 

However, Tomas Tatar recently did an interview with some of the Slovak media, claiming that he did have talks with the Pens about a possible deal. Now, the Atheltic’s own Rob Rossi believes Tatar could come on a PTO and that it could come down to if Tatar gets a deal before training camp with another team or not. 

Now, as I mentioned yesterday, cap space is very tight with the Pens, as they only have $220 thousand in cap space, but the interest in Tatar seems a bit bigger than from my understanding yesterday. 

If the Penguins do want to sign Tatar, they are going to have to cut some cap space somehow. Something I didn’t think the team was considering yesterday, but as we get closer to camp, it may be something to watch out for. 

And, lastly, once again. The rumors of Jaromir Jagr rejoining the Pens on a one-year deal are completely false. It was a joke that was blown right out of the water. 

Nik Shermeto

PT ‘23 | 🇺🇸/🇨🇦 | Penguins writer for Inside The Rink | Thoughts are my own.

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