They're like 4-foot whirling dervishes.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have suddenly become enamored with size. Here's a look at the height and weight of the Pens draft class this year.

Simon Despres 6'3" 205lbs
Philip Samuelsson 6'2" 198lbs
Ben Hanowski 6'1" 198lbs
Nick Peterson 6'2" 186lbs
Alex Velischek 6'0" 200lbs
Andy Bathgate 6'0" 164lbs
Viktor Ekbom 6'2" 194lbs

and their only free agent signing to date.

Mike Rupp 6'5" 230lbs

Those guys probably carry some big sticks.

I'm guessing Shero looked at his organization and realized that not only is 13 feet of defensive awesomeness probably leaving this offesason, but our core of defenders include 5'11" Alex Goligoski, 5'11" Kris Letang, and 6'2" Brooks Orpik. Plus, outside of Malkin and Stall, all our probable long term offensive players are 6 feet or shorter (Crosby, Kunitz, Talbot, Kennedy and even Cooke if you keep him around.)

It's true that Caputi, Tangradi, and Dustin Jeffrey are all 6'3", but you never know who's going to pan out and who isn't. And power forwards are an elusive bunch. The Penguins learned this season what happens when you sacrifice size and grit, you become a much easier team to play against. And they learned how much those attributes can benefit a team in a 7 game series.

Shero has watched how teams have become successful in the salary cap era, and now that he's won the cup his sole goal is to keep the Penguins near the top of the league. He had a plan going into the draft and it was based on what he witnessed play out this season. I'll tell you one thing about Ray Shero the man learns fast. Crosby and Malkin aren't the only Penguins getting better every season.

On to the Pens free agency review so far.


Penguins sign Forward Mike Rupp to a 2-year $1.65 million contract.




This was a head scratcher. At first he appears to be a more talented Eric Godard, who we signed because he was a more talented and cheaper George Laraque. However, it seems that Godard, and perhaps Dupuis are on the trading block in an effort to cut salary. If this is the case it starts to look like a great move as Rupp can take faceoffs, always good to have an extra guy for that, kills penalties, which is Dupuis biggest strength on the team, and can be used as an enforcer as well. Calculated risk by Shero that he can move Dupuis/Godard and flip that into keeping Scuds or Feds. And I'm always cool with taking a guy willing to kick a Bruin in the head.
Grade: B, pending outcome of further moves.

Los Angeles Kings Sign Defenseman Rob Scuderi to 4 years 13.5 million

You win the Stanley Cup, all of a sudden everyone wants a Piece. Now the Kings have one. You know it's really a shame. I wrote earlier about how during the preseason I thought we could have kept him for somewhere in the range of 4 years, $7.5 million. God wouldn't that look like a fantastic deal now. The really shameful thing is that I have heard nothing but good things about this guy. I'm glad he's going to LA and not anywhere else floating around the rumor mill. LA is a very good young team and in 2-3 years with the right moves they will be on top of the West. Hopefully Scuds is a part of that. Even though they overpaid for him a but it shouldn't hurt them. The fact that he has already seen the learning curve that team is going to go through should be worth the extra cash. Good luck sir.
Grade: B+, The Piece A+.


-the legend