The Penguins traded for Phil Kessel, an elite goal-scorer in the prime of his career, a year ago Friday.
It was a high-stakes move that generated headlines and heated discussions across the continent, and ultimately helped to make the Penguins’ Stanley Cup victory earlier this month possible.
General manager Jim Rutherford is every bit as open to bold personnel moves now as he was when he acquired Kessel, but the Penguins’ circumstances are radically different than they were 12 months ago.
Their lineup was remade on the fly during the 2015-16 season, thanks to a series of trades and promotions from their farm team in Wilkes-Barre that provided a major infusion of speed and skill. The payoff was the parade that wound through the city just over two weeks ago.
But as the free-agent market prepares to open for business Friday at noon, the Penguins don’t appear to have anything nearly as dramatic as the Kessel deal in mind.
Rutherford has said he has about $1 million with which to work — it should be noted that teams are allowed to be up to 10 percent over the $73 million salary-cap ceiling during the offseason — and it figures to take more than that to realize his primary objective, re-signing veteran center Matt Cullen.
If Cullen, who made $800,000 in 2015-16 and will be 40 Nov. 2, signs elsewhere, the Penguins plan to plug Oskar Sundqvist into his spot on the fourth line.
Sundqvist is 22, and obviously has more upside than Cullen, but Cullen is the better, more reliable player at this stage of their careers.
And while it’s inevitable that age will catch up with Cullen at some point, Rutherford made it clear he doesn’t expect it to happen anytime soon.
“He’ll run out of gas at some point, but I’m not concerned that it will happen next year,” he said. “He’s one of those special athletes who has longevity.”
Here are the other players from the Penguins’ major-league roster eligible to sign wherever they choose, effective at midday Friday:
■ Defenseman Ben Lovejoy. A year ago, Rutherford was saying that sending Simon Despres to Anaheim for Lovejoy was the trade he most regretted making during his first year as GM. He surely didn’t feel that way after watching Lovejoy capably fill a second-pairing role and do some quality work during the Penguins’ surge to the Stanley Cup. Lovejoy’s postseason work surely didn’t go unnoticed around the league, and he should reap the fiscal rewards for his performance Friday.
■ Defenseman Justin Schultz. He revived his career — and resurrected his reputation — after being acquired from Edmonton at the trade deadline, but the Penguins couldn’t justify paying a third-pairing guy anything close to the $3.9 million cap hit Schultz’s just-expired contract carried. Used properly, however, he can contribute at this level.
■ Goalie Jeff Zatkoff. There’s not much chance he’ll get a No. 1 job somewhere, but Zatkoff can pick a team where the crease is a bit less crowded than it has become with the Penguins, one where he will get more than the 14 appearances he made in 2015-16. The Penguins aren’t expected to fill Zatkoff’s spot on the depth chart, presumably by signing a veteran goaltender, until Marc-Andre Fleury’s future has been resolved.
Nine other players on the Penguins’ organizational depth chart who played primarily, if not exclusively, in the minor leagues in 2015-16 are scheduled to hit the open market Friday.
Forward Tom Sestito and defenseman Steve Oleksy are on that list.
Dave Molinari: Dmolinari@Post-Gazette.com and Twitter @MolinariPG
First Published: June 30, 2016, 8:43 p.m.
