The Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins Need Minor Tweaking.

Let’s start off this entry by saying that the Pittsburgh Penguins were awesome in this years playoffs resulting in a Stanley Cup Championship.  But every great team knows that you have to improve in the off season because 29 other teams will be trying to get better to beat you and take what you have.  The Stanley Cup series against the Detroit Red Wings was very close throughout the series.  You can bet the Red Wings will find a way to improve their squad by the time training camp begins.  The Pittsburgh Penguins signed Jay McKee to a one-year contract on Friday.  The veteran defenseman recently had the final year of a four-year deal with St. Louis bought out.  He is a strong defensive type player who will bring additional experience to the Pens lineup.  He also has great size and is an outstanding shot-blocker, and his veteran presence will help in the continued development of Pittsburgh’s young defensemen. Sergei Gonchar, 35, an elite two-way defenseman and talented power-play point man, and Brooks Orpik, 28, the most physical defenseman on the team, will continue to be the Penguins’ matchup pair against other teams’ most dangerous forward lines due to the losses of Hall Gill and Rob Scuderi to free agency.

Their goaltending is in solid hands.  Marc Andre-Fleury showed his mettle by not only winning the Stanley cup but winning it on his opponents home ice which is even more impressive.  He showed mental toughness and is another one of Pittsburgh’s young stars who is locked up to a long term deal.  In fact the Penguins got lucky by re-signing both Bill Guerin and Ruslan Fedotenko, who both performed well in the playoffs, Pittsburgh is lucky to have them back in the fold.

The Penguins had the 30th pick in the draft and with that pick they selected defenseman Simon Despres from Saint John of the QMJHL.  Despres has got the size and mobility.  He never seems to make a bad play, now he’s never going to get 100 points, but definitely, when you want a guy to play defense, he’s your guy.  He does it all, he’ll block shots and he moves the puck at the right time.  The kid uses his head to make plays, that kind of player is always welcome on the blueline.

All in all Pittsburgh looks to be really strong again next year and if they can somehow trade for or sign a top notch forward for Malkin to play with then the Pens really will be unstoppable for years to come.