Sykora and Staal

TIOPS has a new thing where they're going over questions they receive from blog readers. I thought the one posted today was interesting enough to post here. The girl asks about Petr Sykora and his being a UFA after next season and wonders whether or not he will remain in Pittsburgh. She thinks that Sykora's contribution are frequently overlooked and I tend to agree with her (I put him in a similar category as I did Ruutu - he's vital to the team but is not often commended for what he does). TIOPS responded by saying that Sykora has said himself he likes it here and they speculate he'll be signed unless his play changes drastically for the worse this season. And then go on to say they feel a deal such as 2 years / $3 million would be possible. They've heard that a deal had been thought about giving Sykora this type of deal before the season ends, but it'll more likely come after that (once he's a UFA).

TIOPS again mentions Jordan Staal and expects talks between him and the Penguin organization to "resume" when training camp starts.

[I know some (maybe alot) of you are going to disagree with me, but I'd much rather hang on to Sykora than Staal if that should be the case - I could be wrong on that especially since they may be looking to sign Staal before his contract is up and those 2 won't be talking to the Penguins over their contract at the same time and alot can happen in a season; however, I don't think Staal's going to make it an easy deal to negotiate at any point because he'll be asking for things that he deserves but Pittsburgh won't be in the position to guarantee him with all the other young talent we have on the team.]

I would LOVE to hear what the rest of you think, so please post a comment or send me and e-mail and we could some kind of discussion going that could make this off-season go faster!