Fedotenko and Satan add firepower to Pens. What about defense ?

Question

Fedotenko (always been a fan) and Satan should help replace the gap Hossa will leave in the offense, but what is Pittsburghs plan for defense ?

In the playoffs, when Gonchar was injured, the Pens were utterly crippled in their ability to move the puck. They currently rely entirely too much on him. Do they not intend to correct this problem and select some defensemen (at least one) that can play both offensively and defensively ?

There have been many decent defensemen moving about, but I've not heard of the Pens making any offers...

Answer 1

Matthieu Schneider would fit well with the pens. maybe they can aqcuire him before the Sens nab him.

Answer 2

Whitney, Letang and Goligoski (in the minors right now, should contend for a roster spot) can all move the puck quite well.  But Gonchar is obviously the focal point.

Offensive defensemen are NOT a problem for the Pens.  Defensive D's are...and I heard that Whitney could be used a trade bait to secure another stay-at-home D-man.

Answer 3

I think a large part of the problem was that Whitney slumped during the playoffs, when he is on his game he can make up for a lot of what Gonchar usually does.

Letang was only in his rookie season, I think we will see a lot of improvement from him this year, and I wouldn't be suprised to see Alex Goligoski regularly on the roster, this is the guy that just led the AHL playoffs in scoring.

Answer 4

Well hopefully they will help our power play,

let me just say if we didn't have Gonchar on our team we would be screwed on our power play!

Answer 5

That's true about Gonchar - he is the alone man for us on the blueline, aside from Orpik, which was our big D-man move so far. Eaton will begin next season for us, and I think that'll be a huge defensive help, he blocks shots as much as poor Scuderi does. Letang is developing, we need to give him time, he's okay offensively, and I think pretty d**n sound defensively. I personally am not a big fan of Gill or Whitney, I wish we could do something about them...Whit is great on the powerplay, but he needs to be better defensively......I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the Penguins signed an offensive defenseman, if we do, before the start of next season.

Edit - and yes, Goligoski of course.

Edit - The Penguins have also signed D-man Ben Lovejoy to an entry-level contract on Monday.

http://penguins.nhl.com/team/app/?servic...