Pens Points: The Stanley Cup Final is upon us. Finally.

Welcome to another edition of weekend Pens Points. The Penguins made another splash yesterday with the announcement of a two year deal for Jared McCann. And the Stanley Cup Final finally begins tonight!

Penguins News

As mentioned above, McCann is the new recipient of a two year deal from Pittsburgh with a cap hit of $2.94 million. [PensBurgh]

How will that cap hit affect the Penguins team cap number and also the bottom line for the Penguins as a club? Sounds like McCann was doing the Penguins a solid for next season. [PensBurgh]

Mike Sullivan headed into last season with what could be described as favorable job security. When the league paused in March, his stock was taking a hit. When the Penguins were eliminated in the play in round and his assistants were all let go, his job security may have bottomed out. Were the new coaches brought in only assistants, or possible replacements? [Trib Live]

Seemingly every year the Penguins don’t come home with the Cup, rumors get thrown around involving some core Penguins players. This offseason will be Kris Letang’s turn at avoiding the rumors involving a potential trade. Could Pittsburgh actually win in a Letang trade? [Pittsburgh Hockey Now]

Just as the trade rumors always begin swirling in the offseason, so does a potential third line center for the Penguins. Here’s a list of ten possible, not all likely, players who could fit that bill as the elusive third line center whether internal or otherwise. [Post-Gazette]

Stanley Cup Final News

How the Tampa Bay Lightning constructed their team after their disappointing end to last season. [NBC Sports]

Not many people were expecting the Stars to make it this far. Here’s how the Stars path has led them to the Western Conference Champions with eyes on the big prize. [NBC Sports]

Dallas and Tampa don’t scream out as traditional hockey markets as both teams hail from the south. Yet one of them will be parading Lord Stanley’s Chalice around soon. [NBC Sports]

In what will go down as one of the weirdest sports years ever, the strangest sight may be when Commissioner Gary Bettman awards the Stanley Cup and there won’t be fans there to boo the Bettman. [LA Times]

As always, there’s plenty of accolades and trophies to predict before they puck drops in Game 1. Here’s some Stanley Cup predictions. [NHL] [yahoo!] [USA Today]

Tale of the tape for the series between the Stars and Lightning. [The Hockey News]

Previews. [NHL] [NBC Sports] [Yahoo!] [The Athletic] [SportsNet]