From the official page:

The Pittsburgh Penguins have acquired the rights to defenseman Danny Richmond in exchange for the rights to Tim Brent, it was announced today by Assistant General Manager Chuck Fletcher.

Richmond, 23, appeared in seven games with the Chicago Blackhawks during the 2007-08 season.  He scored 14 points (two goals, 12 assists) along with 156 penalty minutes in 40 games with the Rockford IceHogs of the American Hockey League (AHL), ranking third on the club in penalty minutes.

Good times.

D.O. from Die By the Dlade (the Buffalo Sabres blog on SBN) has put together a great post on a Buffalo/Pitt rivalry - if there really is one.  He asked me to chime in with my own personal memories of the two teams.

PS - you'll love the first one (video included)

Die by the Blade

Stop by and share your own memories of the rivalry, even if it has already been mentioned at DBTB.

Rumor has it the schedules are hitting team sites today.  I didn't hear of any kind of time we can expect them, but if I had to guess I'd say before 5:00. 

Go Pens Go Pens Go Pens Go Pens Go Pens Go Pens Go Pens Go Pens Go Pens Go Pens Go Pens Go Pens Go Pens Go Pens Go Pens Go Pens Go Pens Go Pens Go Pens Go Pens Go Pens Go Pens Go Pens Go Pens Go Pens Go Pens Go Pens

Penguins assistant general manager Chuck Fletcher said the Penguins signed forward Adam Henrich and defenseman T.J. Kemp to one-year contracts.

Henrich, 24, a 6-foot-4, 225-pound forward, scored 51 points (24 goals, 27 assists) last season between the Norfolk Admirals of the American Hockey League (AHL) and the Wheeling Nailers of the ECHL. Henrich also had 122 penalty minutes between the two clubs.

He has appeared in 145 career games in the AHL, registering 69 points (27 goals, 42 assists) along with 230 penalty minutes. Henrich, a native of Thornhill, Ontario, was originally selected by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second round (60th overall) in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft.

Kemp (5-11, 197) appeared in 73 games for the Springfield Falcons (AHL), notching 46 points (8 goals, 38 assists)..

A native of Pickering, Ontario, Kemp has played in 152 career games in the AHL, scoring 84 points (13 goals, 71 assists) along with 104 penalty minutes. Kemp appeared in 14 games in the 2007 Calder Cup playoffs, notching seven points (two goals, five assists) and 12 penalty minutes in 14 games.

Both very interesting pickups.  Henrich sounds like a Ryan Malone type player; he's big and can score.  Kemp, on the other hand, is a smaller D-Man (at 197lbs).  I'm not sure if that makes him Gonchar like or what.

http://promo.espn.go.com/espn/specialsection/espys2008/?addata=2008_espti_xxx_xxx_xxx_xxx

The above is a link to the ESPY ballot at espn.com, also reachable via a link on the front page of that site. I ended up voting for some of your guys, or your team on three separate occasions, just letting you know in case you needed to give your guys a boost.

Continue reading this post »

I posted this over at Mile High Hockey since their moderator hates the idea of a Winter Classic on the hallowed grass of Wrigley Field.  According to this ESPN article, it looks like an announcement will be made for this season's Winter Classic, pitting the Red Wings against the Blackhawks at Wrigley Field.

Continue reading this post »

A lot of teams, when they dub the process 'rebuilding' at least, take an awful lot of time to turn things around.  But on paper it would seem the Lightning are trying to do it all in one offseason.

So now it's kind of funny to consider Mark Recchi.  Not because the idea is exactly outlandish, but because he now joins Ryan Malone, Gary Roberts and Adam Hall as guys who rocked Penguins uniforms last year.

Personally, I thought the guy would retire.  And if I didn't know better, I'd say Roberts lured him over to TB.

From what I can see, the Lightning still have a crucial hole in goaltending.  But then again, I'm not exactly a big fan.

Are the Lightning going to be for real this season, or does it just look 'pretty' on paper?

From here

The Penguins announced today the signing of forward Janne Pesonen to a one-year, two-way contract, as mandated by the NHL's transfer agreement with Finland.

Pesonen, 26, led the Finnish Elite League with 78 points (34 goals) in 56 games last season, and added 16 points (seven goals) in leading Oulu Karpat to its fifth league championship.

The 5-foot-11, 180-pounder -- a ninth-round draft pick of the Anaheim Ducks in 2004 -- has spent his entire career in the Finnish Elite League, where he was named Rookie of the Year in 2004 and playoff MVP in 2007.

"Pesonen is a quick, skilled player that has had much success in the Finnish Elite League," Penguins general manager Ray Shero said in a released statement. "We look forward to watching him perform at his first NHL training camp."

Also today, the Penguins have agreed to contracts with free-agent wingers Miroslav Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko, both of whom spent last season with the New York Islanders.

Contract terms were not immediately available.

Satan has outstanding goal-scoring ability but has been criticized for being a no-show in some games.

He is coming off one of his least productive seasons, with just 16 goals and 25 assists in 80 games on Long Island.

Fedotenko had 16 goals and 17 assists in 67 games in 2007-08.

The Penguins are believed to have focused on those two after learning they would not be able to sign ex-Penguin Markus Naslund.

Well we got Satan . . .

Thursday, July 03, 2008 By Dave Molinari, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Courtesy of Rob Rossi of theTrib: 

Fleury and the Pens have agreed to a 7 year deal worth 35 mil.

It will hopefully be official later today.

Here is the link:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/penguins/s_575876.html?source=rss&feed=8

I am glad to see that this deal is in the books.  With all of yesterday's drama this is a nice change!

Have a great day hockey fans & enjoy the rest of day three!