Projecting Marcus Pettersson’s Next Penguins Contract

Projecting Marcus Pettersson’s Next Penguins Contract

[Music] hello everybody and welcome to Iceberg to go your daily dose of Pittsburgh Penguins news and Analysis you can find us on YouTube at inside the Penguins or anywhere you get your podcast from we’re into June which means contract talks and free agent targets and all of that is coming down the pike especially with the Stanley final Now set between the Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers but there’s one name that still has a year left on his deal that I want to talk about and his name’s not cydney Crosby I think we all know that that deal is going to get done sometime in the next couple of months to extend his stay in Pittsburgh probably indefinitely but let’s talk about another important piece to the Pittsburgh Penguins near future and short-term future and that’s Marcus Pon P’s been the Penguin’s best defensive defenseman for the past few seasons if you look at last season alone he played in all 82 games which means he won the coveted iron penguin award which we give out at the tip of the iceberg podcast every year to whichever players perform in all 82 games so Pon was part of that list this year he set career highs in goals with four points with 30 and in plus minus with a plus 28 and the only reason I bring that up because anybody who’s listened to this show knows I’m not huge on plus minus but whenever it is so drastic as far as above the plus minus above even and also above what he had previously done which is what Marcus Pon did in the 2023 24 season that’s when it’s notable his previous career high was a plus 13 so to jump from a plus 13 to a plus 28 was an impressive feat and it certainly adds to his resume from last season not only that he was the steadying force for both Eric Carlson and Chris lat Tang I don’t think anybody can dispute the fact that whenever they were paired with Pon they fared a lot better than when they were paired with anybody else Ryan Graves um who else was up there po Joseph got a couple opportunities for with both as well so Pon all in all had himself another really good season and barring a miraculous addition this summer he’s going to be the best offensive defenseman on the Penguins next season as well and that’s a contract year and that’s where we come to today he’s entering a contract year next season I think personally the Penguins should look to lock him down this summer because multiple reasons one you need to make sure you have your key defensive defenseman locked in if you want to win Stanley Cups in the next couple of years and whether you believe it as a fan as a listener or not that’s what they want to do over the next couple of seasons and a big big part to that is going to be bringing back Marcus patteron so there’s reason number one reason number two the salary cap projections are only going up and taking drastic jumps from this year to next and especially from next year to the following according to cap friendly the contract projection for the 2025 26 Season which is not this upcoming one but the following one is up to $92 million that’s a $9 million jump from where we were this past season so if you want to get him locked down get them locked down with the salary cap where it’s at right now because the way I’m looking at it whenever I go into my projections is percentage of the salary cap in year one of the contract or percentage of the salary cap whenever signed and I think that if they sign them this year that number might come in a little bit lower and it might do them a little bit of favors if they’re able to lock him down this summer so the question then becomes what is it going to cost to bring the Swedish defenseman back back for a longer term P’s going to be 29 when that next deal starts and that’s again the 2025 26 Season because he has one year left on his current deal when you look at him he’s a fantastic penalty killer he’s a very consistent Puck mover limited when it comes to turnovers but he’s also very good in the offensive zone and and kind of underrated in the offensive zone you saw him break out a little bit more this year when he’s playing with a guy like Eric Carlson like I mentioned career highs in both goals and points this season and the most important part of this is that he’s remained very healthy he’s a guy that blocks shots he’s a guy that is more physical than given credit for he doesn’t make the big massive highlight reel body checks but what he does is play a physical game down low be difficult to play against he might be better he might need to get better in the net front but that much goes for the entirety of the Pittsburgh Penguins defense but with that style of play he’s remained healthy he’s missed 30 3 games in the six seasons he’s played with the Pittsburgh Penguins that’s it 33 games the first couple of years he came over he played the final 57 games of the season and in that year he actually played 84 total games between playing for the Anaheim Ducks and then traded in playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins in the regular season he played all 84 so this is a guy that has been very steady very sturdy on the back end and with that I wanted to bring up a couple of comparables and not compar around the league because a lot of people are going to do that and they right to do that but I want to make it a little bit more specific when I was looking to make this contract projection I was looking at defensemen that kind of fit a similar mold to Marcus Pon not mirror images of each other but a similar mold that have been signed by Kyle dubis specifically there’s two from Toronto and one from Pittsburgh that I’m sure most people are going to know who I’m about to talk about but let’s start with the ones that he signed in Toronto the first name that comes up is Jake muen he signed a contract with Kyle dubis at the age of 31 for four years and 500 or 5.625 million at the time he signed it muzz’s deal accounted for 7% of the Toronto mapela salary cap in the first year of 2020 21 he was the Lea’s best defenseman when healthy again defensive defenseman I think we can all agree that Morgan Riley was probably their number one defenseman but defense-wise it was Jake muzen when he that contract like I mentioned when healthy that’s why that deal ended up looking as bad as it did at the end and it’s still going to be on the Leafs LTI going in next season because musen is retired he struggled with health he retired in the third season of this four-year deal with a cervical spine injury just unfortunate for Jake muin but I think that the contract parameters apply here in a similar way a deal that was signed in that same offseason TJ Brody signed at the age of 30 one year older than what Marcus Peterson’s going to be whenever his next contract kicks in signed for four years at $5 million which accounted for 6% of the leaf salary cap in that 2020 21 season again Brody complimentary defenseman he is not the guy that is going to be the Superstar on his defense pair he was complimentary he was brought in to be that steadying Force for an offensive Puck moving defenseman he’s not overly physical similar to p he plays physically but not again overly highlight real physical but defensively sound so 6% for Brody 7% for muzin that’s about where I was going for Marcus Pon especially whenever you look at what Ryan Graves signed for last year and that’s the last contract I was looking at in this projection Ryan Graves signed at the age of 28 so one year younger than what Marcus pson was going to be he signed for six years four and A half million which accounted for 5.4% of the penguin salary cap last season and he was brought in to be I don’t want to say the number one defenseman on the left side because I think we all agree that even when he signed that contract the Penguins viewed Marcus Pon is the number one but he was brought in to be a a compliment to Marcus petson he was brought into be able to play with one of the top two on the right side and lat tang and Carlson and whether or not it worked that is what the plan was for Kyle dubis that is what Kyle dubis envisioned when he signed that contract next year now Graves we can get into a long discussion about but as it pertains to contract negotiations with Marcus Pon I think we can all agree going into this he’s probably going to be asking for higher than that $4.5 million I think that’s a pretty good starting point so with all that said 5.4% for Graves 6% for Brody 7% for Jake muen with Marcus Peterson’s next contract what I think is likely to happen what I think is the most Fair scenario for both player and team in this situation is going to be 6.5% of the NHL’s projected salary cap next season because he’s goingon to sign it this off season and that’s going to be a six-year deal for Marcus Pon 5.71 three million AA AV which brings the grand total out to because Kyle dubis likes to work in player numbers into the contract it works out to 34.2 million in total for Marcus Patterson’s next contract so I’ll say it again six-year contract 5713 million now that accounts for 6 and a half% of the penguin salary cap if it were to begin next season which is the only salary cap numbers we would know and that’s probably what they’d be working off of but that would be projected if you go with the $92 million that cap friendly is projecting for the NHL salary cap next season it would be a projected 6.2% of their salary cap in the first year of that contract higher than Graves higher than TJ Brody a little bit under what Jake muzen was whenever his contract started now I think it’s fair for both sides it locks up Marcus Pederson for the Penguins and he’s here throughout the foreseeable future the remainder likely of The Big Three era you have that big bodied number one defenseman on the left side for Pon it gives him that stability that he’s going to be able to stay in Pittsburgh at the very least he doesn’t have to go through a contract negotiation I would assume that he gets at the very least a modified no trade clause as well it runs through his age 34 season and at that point you see what you have in him but at that point you have also already had six more years of Marcus Pon for a grand total of I believe 11 or 12 seasons of Marcus peton in Pittsburgh not to mention the fact that the cap is Raising just as we go along here as we project out it’s going to become less and less of the salary cap from the Pittsburgh Penguins perspective not only that but whenever this contract hits Jeff petre’s money is going to be coming off the books at the end of next season that’s an extra $1.5 million in dead cap that the penguins are getting back that’s going to help them be able to afford to give Marcus Pon this pay raise from his 4 point 025 million all the way up to 5713 so that’s my contract projection that’s how I got there that’s what I think is fair and that’s what my prediction is for a Marcus pson contract if it’s signed this off season if it’s signed during the season or next season some of the parameters change because then you have to include how is he performing at the beginning of next year how is the league performing at the beginning of next year are they projecting to stay on course with that $92 million salary cap projection which all comes from the revenue of the previous season so there’s a lot of factors at play if it goes beyond this summer but if it’s signed this summer my prediction and feel free to to cut this REM remember this and tell me I’m wrong if he signs for less or signs for more but I’m thinking that if the Penguin sign him this year my projection six years 5.71 three million let me know in the comments what do you think about Marcus Pon signing a six-year deal what do you think of Marcus p being under contract with the Penguins for the foreseeable future at $5.7 million is that a fair contract for peton is that a fair contract for the Penguins I want to know your opinion let me know in the comments below but that’s going to do it for this episode of Iceberg to go thank you guys so much for tuning in to this one remember you can find us on YouTube at inside the Penguins make sure you like you share you subscribe you comment you do all the fun stuff because we love interacting with our listenership here inside the Penguins on YouTube or if you prefer the podcast version you can find us anywhere you get your podcast from but that’s going to do it for this one have a great one pens fans [Music]

On this episode, Nick takes a deeper look into Marcus Pettersson’s next contract and what the Pittsburgh Penguins may have to spend to keep him. Tune In!

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