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Player Value Means Team Success
In the NHL salary cap era, who spends the most money on July 1 doesn't mean your captain lifts the Stanley Cup in June the following season.
There at six teams in the NHL tied with the most points in the league with 34 points but the Islanders lead the pack with season projection spending $511,404 per point. The Penguins are fifth with $572,495 per point.
The Islanders have 7 forwards and 3 defensemen making $1 million or less, which gives them trade deadline cap space of $25,122,963 and that's after GM Garth Snow made free agent moves to sign forwards Nikolai Kulemin and Mikhail Grabovski and traded for goaltender Jaroslav Halak and defensemen Nick Leddy and Johnny Boychuk. If the Islanders keep playing up to their talent level lead by John Tavares, GM Garth Snow could be tempted to be the bully in the trade market because of the prospects and money available to make moves.
Then there's the Penguins with 6 forwards and 3 defensemen at $1 million or less but only $3,314,797 in trade deadline cap space. Historically, it isn't very reasonable to expect Blake Comeau to keep scoring goals and playing this well but at $700k, it is giving GM Jim Rutherford the payroll flexibility he desperately needed this season. When Rutherford went with Nashville's offer for James Neal to get Patric Hornqvist and Nick Spaling, it addressed the team's lack of depth, though some of that was negated with the mind-numbing two-year $4.4 million contract given to Spaling.
Salary Cap information from CapGeek.com
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Prospect Update
Kasperi Kapanen, LW - 14 games, 7 goals, 7 assists.
Here's an article quoting Kapanen about the upcoming U20 World Junior Championships, best one is this language translation from Finnish to English, "I hope I get to represent my country, and to bear the responsibility!"
Individual Stats
Christian Ehrhoff is tied for second among NHL defensemen at +14 Plus/Minus and scored his first goal in 46 games.
Simon Despres is getting number six defensemen minutes at even-strength with just 13:40 per game.
Robert Bortuzzo has 11 shots on goal in 8 games, Rob Scuderi has 14 in 23 games. Hmmm.
Sidney Crosby (49.9%) and Evgeni Malkin (42.7%) on faceoffs are starting to look like concern.
Player Cost per Point
| Player | Cap Hit | Games | Team Games | Points | $ per PT | Pts per Game | Pts Projection | $ per Pts Projection |
| Craig Adams | $700,000 | 23 | 23 | 2 | $350,000 | 0.087 | 7 | $98,171 |
| Beau Bennett | $900,000 | 7 | 23 | 3 | $300,000 | 0.429 | 28 | $31,818 |
| Blake Comeau | $700,000 | 22 | 23 | 14 | $50,000 | 0.636 | 52 | $13,580 |
| Sidney Crosby | $8,700,000 | 23 | 23 | 33 | $263,636 | 1.435 | 118 | $73,947 |
| Steve Downie | $1,000,000 | 23 | 23 | 10 | $100,000 | 0.435 | 36 | $28,049 |
| Pascal Dupuis | $3,750,000 | 16 | 23 | 11 | $340,909 | 0.688 | 52 | $72,727 |
| Andrew Ebbett | $550,000 | 1 | 23 | 1 | $550,000 | 1.000 | 60 | $9,167 |
| Marcel Goc | $1,200,000 | 22 | 23 | 1 | $1,200,000 | 0.045 | 4 | $325,926 |
| Patric Hornqvist | $4,250,000 | 23 | 23 | 25 | $170,000 | 1.087 | 89 | $47,683 |
| Chris Kunitz | $3,850,000 | 23 | 23 | 20 | $192,500 | 0.870 | 71 | $53,994 |
| Evgeni Malkin | $9,500,000 | 23 | 23 | 29 | $327,586 | 1.261 | 103 | $91,884 |
| Jayson Megna | $874,125 | 4 | 23 | 0 | - | 0.000 | 0 | - |
| Zach Sill | $550,000 | 20 | 23 | 0 | - | 0.000 | 0 | - |
| Nick Spaling | $2,200,000 | 23 | 23 | 8 | $275,000 | 0.348 | 29 | $77,134 |
| Brandon Sutter | $3,300,000 | 23 | 23 | 11 | $300,000 | 0.478 | 39 | $84,146 |
Fenwick Team Rankings
According to PuckOn.Net through the Penguins first 22 games
Even-strength and game tied: Fenwick % 50.6 (15th)
Even-strength and leading by 1: Fenwick % 55.7 (1st)
Even-strength and losing by 1: Fenwick % 56.3 (10th)