Sunday, July 06, 2008

Penguins Add a Cooke

On Saturday, the Penguins added a little more grit to their line-up, replacing forward Jarkko Ruutu, who went to Ottawa during the free agent frenzy. The Penguins signed Matt Cooke to a 2-year deal worth $2.4 million in total and he'll likely play a key third-line role for the Pens.

Cooke finished with 23 points in 78 games last season between Vancouver and Washington, which isn't very good numbers for pool players, but he could very well see some time with Jordan Staal, which could mean some more points. You may want to wait and see how he lines up before you make any predictions about his production for next season.

With the addition of Cooke, the Penguins salary cap situation gets a little bit tighter, but they do have 20 players ready to go for next season. Their number right now is at $52.2 million, which leaves them $4.5 million for the last three players. If the team didn't already have seven good defensemen, you could add Mark Eaton to the list and there are a few signed prospects who could fit in as well.

ForwardsDefenseGoaltenders
Evgeni MalkinSergei GoncharMarc-Andre Fleury
Sidney CrosbyRyan WhitneyDany Sabourin
Petr SykoraHal Gill
Miroslav SatanKristopher Letang
Ruslan FedotenkoBrooks Orpik
Jordan StaalDarryl Sydor
Pascal DupuisRob Scuderi
Maxime Talbot
Matt Cooke
Tyler Kennedy
Eric Godard

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