Chuck Finder: Pens Sign LeClair

Penguins continue to make big plays
Five-time All-Star LeClair joins team
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Penguins general manager Craig Patrick continues to play disc jockey to the tune of the NHL's new Collective Bargaining Agreement, spinning the hits. Yesterday's selection was something of a golden oldie, five-time All-Star left winger John LeClair, 36, the same age as depth defenseman Steve Poapst, who signed a couple of hours later. Another addition to the Penguins' playlist may come today, or someday soon: Slovak center Jozef Stumpel, 33.

And just like that, in 13 days, X-Generation kids have given way to Me-Generation alums.
If nothing else, all these thirty-something free-agent newcomers -- namely LeClair, right winger Ziggy Palffy, 33, and potentially Stumpel, Palffy's pal -- may mean that a couple of previous Penguins regulars get X-ed out: winger Aleksey Morozov and center Milan Kraft.

Both imported forwards, along with homegrown defenseman Brooks Orpik, remain the most prominent names among the unsigned Penguins properties. Each was given a qualifying offer in the summer of 2004, a maneuver that under the new CBA makes each a free agent whom any other team could sign, with compensation. So far, Orpik's camp seems to hold the most optimism about returning to the Penguins.

"I want to [sign], but I don't have anything from Pittsburgh. I've heard absolutely nothing," Morozov, 28, signed to play a second Russian season with Ak Bars Kazan, said yesterday of talks the past week or so between his agent, Jay Grossman, and Patrick. When the two sides previously chatted, added Morozov, who was the second-leading scorer (50 points) for the 2003-04 Penguins, "everything was OK. They want me back. Blah, blah, blah. I haven't heard anything else.
"What's going on with this year, I don't know. I have to talk to my agent, what's going to be better for me, what we can do in this situation."

Kraft, 25, who was second in goals (19) in 2003-04, wouldn't appear to fit into their plans if Stumpel signs. Kraft and Morozov are players who were tendered qualifying offers of $1 million-plus in 2004 but declined them, making those contracts worth significantly less with the 24-percent CBA rollback and depreciation amid Patrick's free-agent flurry. Also, both are former first-round picks who developed slowly for a team that suddenly finds itself with a glut of top-line speed and scorers, young and old: first-overall selection Sidney Crosby, Ryan Malone, Konstantin Koltsov, 2004 free-agent signee Mark Recchi, owner-player Mario Lemieux, and August acquisitions Palffy and LeClair, who signed a two-year contract believed to pay him $1.5 million this year. Of Kraft and Morozov, Patrick remained noncommittal yesterday: "We'll see what they're talking about, go through that process with them."

Center Evgeni Malkin still remains something of a Penguins possibility, though the Russian federation's refusal to sign the International Ice Hockey Federation transfer agreement may preclude the Penguins from reeling in their 2004 second overall pick across the Atlantic Ocean, let alone the Baltic Sea, this season.

Not that Patrick is taking this time to snooze away: "We're still trying to work the system here and make it work for us." Certainly, he had a hectic Monday, signing:

Josef Melichar, 26, a 6-foot-2, 220-pound defenseman who is the only returning Penguins player to have endured all 82 games of 2003-04, his minus-17 rating the lowest among the club's regular blue-liners. Melichar was scheduled for arbitration, but agreed to skip it by signing a two-year contract paying him $700,000 this year and $750,000 the next.

Forwards Matt Hussey, 26, Guillaume Lefebvre, 24, and Matt Murley, 25, signed two-way contracts worth $450,000 at the NHL level, but paying a fraction of that in the minors. Several other players were expected to sign and get in under last night's deadline for accepting qualifying offers -- after which time the Penguins could conceivably sign them at a lesser rate.

Poapst, 6 feet, 199 pounds, a former Capitals player, AHL Portland Hall of Fame and most recently Chicago defenseman who played on the Blackhawks along with Penguins coach Eddie Olczyk, was signed at a low-cost contract, likely around $500,000.

LeClair, 6-3, 226 pounds, the 10th thirty-something player on the Penguins' roster, is believed to have similarly signed a bargain-basement deal for this season after receiving a $4.56 million buyout from the Flyers a month ago. If indeed Poapst and LeClair came at a combined $2 million cost, that would bring the Penguins' payroll this season near $21 million for 18 front-line players, with Lemieux, Crosby plus a few others yet to sign and a $31 million-or-so cap well within reach.
Patrick, who in the past fortnight also delivered defenseman Sergei Gonchar, tough guy Andre Roy and goalie Jocelyn Thibault, considers an aging LeClair still a power-play threat and a first- or second-line presence. Once the league's consummate power forward, LeClair had three 50-goal and two 40-goal seasons in a row, though none recently. He rang up 25 goals in a full 2001-02 season, 18 goals in just 35 games the next year and 23 goals in 75 games when the NHL previously competed, when Recchi was a linemate.

LeClair had back surgery in May, his third such procedure since 2000. He also had shoulder surgery in 2002-03. Yet Patrick said all reports came back with a healthy verdict.

NOTES -- Orpik's agent, Lewis Gross, said he expects to negotiate face to face with Patrick later this week: "We're supposed to sit down and hash it out. I don't envision it being a problem." ... Lemieux declined an invitation to Team Canada's pre-Olympic orientation camp in British Columbia, citing Penguins commitments. ... Scratch defenseman Martin Strbak off any Penguins list: He signed with Moscow Dynamo and decided to remain in Russia. ... Melichar's signing leaves defenseman Dick Tarnstrom as the only Penguins player headed to arbitration, though his agent, Mark Stowe, said he was "reasonably optimistic" a deal could be struck before the scheduled Aug. 26 hearing.

(Chuck Finder can be reached at cfinder@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1724.)