Montreal Canadiens: Five Bad Contracts To Acquire Alongside a 1st Round Draft Pick

Jason Zucker

The Pittsburgh Penguins are in for a wild offseason. They had three huge parts of their roster heading for free agency, but have been able to lock up one already.

Bryan Rust signed a six year extension yesterday at a $5.125 million cap hit. That probably came in a little under what was expected so maybe it opens up a little more of a chance to also re-sign Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin.

The Penguins still show about $24 million in cap space for next season, but also need to find a second goaltender, re-sign Kasper Kapanen and possibly Rickard Rakell and keep enough money open to re-sign starting goaltender Tristan Jarry a year from now.

It would be a lot easier, and they could look to further improve their roster, if they cleared out the final year of Jason Zucker’s contract. The 30 year old versatile winger has one year left with a $5.5 million cap hit. With very few prospects looking ready to step into the NHL next season, the Penguins will need to spend in free agency or trade to improve their lineup.

They will be in a much better place to do that with Zucker gone. The veteran was acquired just over two years ago, but hasn’t fit in well in Pittsburgh. Over the past two seasons he has played just 79 games, scoring 17 goals and 35 points in that time. For someone who was brought in to play in the top six with either Sidney Crosby or Malkin, more was expected.

The question is, how desperate are they to get rid of him? Well, if moving him is the difference between affording Malkin and Letang, then they will be quite motivated to move Zucker. If the Canadiens are willing to take on his whole cap hit, they could get the Penguins first round pick in 2022 as well, which should be around 24th overall.