The search for the next general manager has been narrowed, and apparently Pittsburgh Penguins assistant GM Chuck Fletcher is one of the finalists for the position...

With the help of a committee that includes former Wild CEO Jac Sperling, owner Craig Leipold has weeded down a list of nearly 30 applicants to a handful of men who bring vastly different perspectives to the job, multiple league and team sources say.

The short list includes Pittsburgh Penguins assistant GM Chuck Fletcher, TSN and NBC color analyst Pierre McGuire, longtime NHL GM and coach Pat Quinn, Nashville Predators assistant GM Paul Fenton and Wild acting GM Tom Lynn.

While other unidentified candidates possibly could emerge, sources say the two considered frontrunners have interviews lined up.

Fletcher, 41, is expected to be in town later this week, while it's believed McGuire, 47, will interview today.

Fletcher is seen as a "rising star" amongst league executives and many expect it's only a matter of time before he is handed the reigns of an NHL team as GM.  With the Penguins, Fletcher has been Ray Shero's right-hand man, with many responsibilities including being in charge of the ship down in Wilkes-Barre.

If it comes down to Fletcher against the ca-razy television analyst Pierre McGuire, could there be much doubt that the Pens will have a vacany in their front office soon?

If you look at any rumor you'll likely see the reference of  "a source."  Said Source is likely the anonymous insider who has a tip or lead to make them and others think a rumor is in motion.  Sometimes (rarely) these things come true.  Other times (often) they fall flat.

In this particular case, my "source" is not anonymous.  I will admit it doesn't have a pulse, but it remains a source nonetheless.

The source: Pensburgh's sitemeter.

This isn't the start of a rumor, but instead an effort to put some minds at ease.

Allow me to elaborate.

First off, this alleged "Penguins trade rumor" is not only the product of people's own speculation but it also combines a light sense of paranoia.  I say this with confidence, based solely on evidence that Letang's scratch in last night's game eluded to an unhealthy amount of Google searches for things like "Penguins trade Kris Letang" and "Letang traded."  

This isn't the first time Tanger's been a scratch.  Yet as the trade deadline edges closer, uneasy minds begin to wander.

Hooks Orpik and I were shooting some e-mails back and forth after last night's game.  I think he summed it up best:

Letang is only 21 years old and most defensemen his age haven't yet made it to the NHL, let alone played 123 games like he has.  Plus the added value of him being a right-handed shot that moves the puck really well just makes him that much more valueable.

Right on Hooks. 

This isn't the sort of trade that will likely manifest this season.  On one hand Letang is young and talented, but on the other he's still shaky and inexperienced.  His growth within the system is affordable ($685K this season, $625K next) and perhaps the first step to building a foundation that may affirm his position on the blue line for years to come.

Let's face it - Sergei Gonchar isn't exactly a rookie anymore.  One day someone will need to fill those skates and replace some firepower on the power-play.  At 34 years old Gonchar still has another season under contract.  There's a likelihood that this poses as the perfect time for a kid like Letang to learn from the best.

It's interesting to see how fans are handling the current state of the Penguins.  Everyone wants a solution and immediately sees a healthy scratch as the start of a trade rumor.

I'd like to think I'm right when I say Kris Letang is going nowhere. 

A wise man* yesterday floated the idea of Martin St. Louis becoming a Pittsburgh Penguin. Apparantely there's some smoke behind the wishful thinking, as various "chatter" has arisen between the two organ-eye-zations, as The Fourth Period reported earlier today and Puck Daddy expanded on.

(*OK, a fool)

But could it work?  Let's take a step back and look at this trade again:

The two sides of the coin on why Martin St. Louis to the Pens is still a little far-fetched, but if you look deep, it still could have some merit:

#1 Martin St. Louis has a no trade clause.

TAILS: The biggest reason the deal might not happen. St. Louis doesn't have to go anywhere if he doesn't want to. And hey, who could fault a guy for wanting to keep his family in warm and sunny Tampa. The place where his good buddy Vinny Lecavalier is. The place that gave St. Louis a second chance in the NHL when 29 other teams didn't want him. The place he won the Stanley Cup. (Notice how many of these events happened in the past and nothing for the future...)

HEADS: But then again, Tampa is a mess, thanks to the new circus of knee-jerk management in town. 42 different players ave suited up for them this season--including a staggering 17 defensmen. Other Lightning highlights this year include:

-Bullying a respect member of the team (Dan Boyle) into accepting a trade or risk exposing him to waivers

-Signing Lecavalier to "lifetime" 13 year deal last summer and then have talk of trading him crop up this winter

-Reportedly (although falsely) that they would financially be unable to meet bonus payments for Lecavalier and Ryan Malone.

The weather in Tampa might be warm, but it's certainly stormy, eh?

#2 Ray Shero may not want to meet the asking price

TAILS: Shero is a patient man. If anything, Shero's shown he's not just going to fire a coach mid-season or make a drastic trade to shake things up. He's content with the roster he has (if healthy) and makes most of his efforts to shape the team during the summer; allowing his players and coaches to take over and do their jobs during the season. Shero did stray from this philosophy with the home-run swing for Marian Hossa; a move proven to be the right call given Hossa's playoff performance and the fact the Pens wouldn't have gotten two games to the Cup without him. This season, as we all know, is a different story. The Pens aren't battling for the Atlantic division and to be #1 in the Eastern Conference, they're clawing their hearts out just to make it to the playoffs.

HEADS: A lot depends on what Tampa's price is. They had no problems shipping a legitimate number 1 defenseman in Boyle (plus veteran Brad Lukowich) to the Sharks for young defensemen Matt Carle, Ty Wishart and a 1st round pick. Shortly thereafter, they flipped Carle to Philadelphia for Steve Eminger, so it's difficult to get a bearing on just what they might do.  It didn't seem like they really maximized value on Boyle, and if they're looking to move St. Louis just as flippantly, clearly that plays into a team like Pittsburgh's favor.

#3 Martin St. Louis shouldn't even be on the trading block anyways

TAILS: Supposedly, the reason Tampa is interested in trading him is to remove his $5.25 million salary from the books. While $5.25 million is an extraordinary amount of money, it's a somewhat reasonable contract for a legitimate top line scoring winger. Plus Tampa can sell off guys with expiring contracts like Marek Malik, Matt Pettinger and old friends Mark Recchi and Gary Roberts. But expiring contracts will only go so far, Tampa has about $36.5 million on the books for contract next season, and that only covers 14 players. Lecavalier, his $7.7 million cap hit, and impending no-trade clause, isn't going anywhere. Ryan Malone's cap hit is $4.5 million for six more years (seems like an anchor now, huh?), but if the Lightning were really hard pressed to trade a vet; how about Vinny Prospal? After this season he's got three more years and another reasonable rate of $3.5 million.

HEADS: Trading St. Louis would save almost $2 million more a season, and Prospal isn't going to return anything near the caliber of players/prospects/draft picks that the diminutive St. Louis could.

#4 Salary cap considerations

From the salary cap aspect: for the Penguins to make it work, Tampa's going to have to acquire almost the same amount of salary for this season. That could be overcome by the Lightning receiving a "dead weight" expiring contract like Miroslav Satan ($3.5 million) or Philippe Boucher ($2.5 million) in addition to what they really want: younger players with talent. Is Tampa interested in Ryan Whitney, or is his $4 million tag a bit too much and they'd rather have a younger player like Alex Goligoski. Would they insist on getting a young forward like Dustin Jeffrey or Luca Caputi?

If so, Shero might be wisely hesitant to deal a combination like Caputi, Goligoski and Satan for St. Louis. Even though salary wise it would about work out*, does he really want to further diminish the organization's young talent by dealing two players with a high ceiling? Even if the deal is Whitney, Jeffrey and a pick for St. Louis is that the best long-term option for Pittsburgh?

*this would probably still leave Pittsburgh a little over the cap and probably have to make another move to shed a little salary

Even though it would be awesome to add a player like St. Louis to the Penguins, it's not worth overpaying for, so the Lightning's price for him obviously is key.

So all in all, don't go customizing that #26 St. Louis jersey yet, Pens fans.  There's still a lot that has to go down before the best player who's played for the Penguins, that's under 6'0 tall and who's name starts with "Martin S" isn't Martin Straka.

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If you're running the Pens and Tampa is asking for either scenario I mention in the hypothetical poll, would you pull the trigger on that trade to get Sidney Crosby the skilled winger he needs?

He's a fighter, sniper, a tip-in specialist and he runs a chance of landing elsewhere before next season.  Ryan Malone, the Pittsburgh-bred left winger, turned a lot of heads in 2007/08 with his first 50-plus point season.  Conveniently for him, and equally inconvenient for the Penguins, Malone enters a phase of contract negotiations.  Will Malone's value on the open market have him leaving Pitt, or will the hometown favorite take a discount to stay with Sid and Geno?

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Pittsburgh's pest and hometown favorite Jarkko Ruutu runs a chance of sporting another sweater next season.  Will the guy who has elicited Ruuuuuuuuu's from the crowd stay amongst the fans who have come to admire him, or will he face the same fate of his brother Tuomo and be forced to jump ship?

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When you take on the responsibilities that come with blogging about a team you're guaranteed the regular season right off the bat.  If you're lucky (or the team is skillful) the season will extend at least another best of seven series; maybe two, three or all the way up to four.  This year the Penguins were fortunate enough to see the Finals, but as you may have noticed now in the wake of all the excitement and craziness that surrounded the Pens right up until their Game 6 loss, there's not much to talk about.  Is it just another day in the offseason, or the proverbial calm before the storm?

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Stories are just starting to surface now in regards to Malkin's performance in the Finals.  Similar to how Crosby played with a broken toe/fractured foot in the first round last season, Malkin was playing through the finals with the flu.  Some would say he lost value because of it, but as far as I'm concerned it doesn't play a factor.

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Of all the drama surrounding free agents and re-signings and blah blah blah; let us not forget one of the biggest names [potentially] on the market - Marian Hossa.  Some believe he wants the cash, others say he'll be willing to stay for a Cup.  See what Hossa himself had to say about the ordeal.

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