In June, the Penguins drafted a goalie considered to be one of the best to come along in years. He may get his chance to prove the critics right much sooner than expected.
General manager Craig Patrick traded Johan Hedberg to the Vancouver Canucks on Monday for a second-round pick in 2004. According to the general manager, the decision to trade Hedberg was based mainly on the 30-year-old's impending free agency in 2004 and the team's youth movement.
But even though the move was made possible partly because of signing Sebastien Caron to a four-year deal last week, the No. 1 job is still wide open.
Patrick called it a three-man race between Caron, 2003 No. 1 overall draft pick Marc-Andre Fleury and Jean-Sebastien Aubin.
"We have confidence in both Aubin and Caron; they've shown enough to us over the long term about handling their duties," Patrick said. "But we still have a wild card in Fleury. It's way too early to rule out anybody."
Patrick said that he'd "pretty much arranged"the deal with the Canucks before he gave Caron a new four-year, $3.2 million contract late last week.
The 23-year-old will make $635,000 this year. The Penguins also signed Andy Chiodo, 20, who last year was the top goaltender in the Ontario Hockey League, and career minor leaguer Martin Brochu, 30.
The most likely scenario appeared to be Fleury returning for another year of junior hockey while Hedberg, Caron and Aubin fought it out for the top two jobs. That would leave Chiodo and/or Brochu in Wilkes-Barre, with one of the five getting traded.
Patrick ended part of the speculation, and promised that Fleury is very much in the mix for the Penguins' top job.
"It was going to be a three-man race; now it's still a three-man race but we'll see," Patrick said. "Camp's a couple weeks away."
One big hitch to Fleury starting his NHL career this year is the matter of his contract. Patrick has not yet been in touch with Beverly Hills-based agent Allan Walsh, who is practiced in negotiating substantial rookie contracts (Marian Gaborik, the No. 3 overall pick in 2000, for example).
According to the Entry Level System set forth in the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, Fleury must sign a three-year deal. The rookie salary cap for 2003 is $1.24 million, but an additional $10-11 million could potentially be added to that in performance bonuses, making the deal worth roughly $15 million. Walsh said there is no limit to performance bonuses, which are generally written according to "the model," also known as Joe Thornton's first contract.
That deal spelled out six bonuses (goals, assists, etc.) but said that if Thornton met two of the bonuses, all six would then kick in.
Rick DiPietro, the only other modern-era goaltender to be drafted No. 1 overall, had performance bonuses written into his contract that totaled $9.2 million over three years. He didn't hit any of them, of course, and has yet to secure a position in the NHL.
The Penguins could sign Fleury and send him back to juniors, which would relieve them from paying him right away. The deal would then slide to the next year, according to Walsh.
If they do not sign him before Sept. 28, he must go back to his junior team -- the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles.
Hedberg played in 41 games last year for the Penguins, with a 14-22-4 record and a 3.14 goals-against average. He will make $1.2 million this year.
When he separated his shoulder in late December, it opened the door for Caron to make his NHL debut. He was initially the backup to Aubin, but quickly won the job for himself. After Hedberg returned, Aubin was sent to Wilkes-Barre in the American Hockey League.
Aubin played well once there, but Hedberg remained Caron's biggest hurdle to the No. 1 job.
"I'm really happy about that because I'm getting my chance to play." Caron said yesterday. "At the same time, I won't be too happy because the job is not mine yet."
Caron was 7-14-2 last year with a 2.64 goals-against average. Aubin was 6-13-0 with a 3.13 goals-against average in the NHL, but went 8-6-1 with a 1.89 goals-against average after joining Wilkes-Barre. He was 3-3-0 in the playoffs.
Hedberg was still in Sweden yesterday and had planned to return to Pittsburgh today to begin preparing for the season. That all changed around 10:30 last night.
"(Patrick) just gave me the news and thanked me for my time here," Hedberg said. "It wasn't a long conversation, but I have nothing but good things to say about him and the rest of the organization. They gave me a chance to play and I'm very thankful to Craig, (Eddie Johnston) and everyone."
