Off-Day Hockey Talk

No Pirates news thanks to yesterday’s off-day, but there’s good news from the Penguins.

Matt Cooke has been re-signed to a three year, $5.4M deal prior to becoming an unrestricted free agent. Cooke is a great asset as a third liner and penalty killer – the classic (cliche alert) player you love to have on your team but hate to play against.

Yesterday the Pens signed defenseman Ben Lovejoy to a very cap friendly three year deal, giving them four D-men under contract for next season (Brooks Orpik, Kris Letang and Alex Goligoski). Talks are ongoing with Sergei Gonchar. If they are unable to come to terms with Gonch then I expect Jordan Leopold to be the fallback option – they won’t sign both. The sixth defenseman with be a physical type acquired through either free agency or a trade.

Yesterday it was confirmed that Penguins will open the Consol Energy Center on Thursday October 7 vs the Flyers. The full NHL schedule come out later today.

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