Brandon Tanev Better Be Good, He’s Here Forever

In 2013, a garment factory collapsed in Bangladesh, killing an astounding 1,100+ people and injuring 2,500 more. Edward Snowden became the world’s largest whistleblower by leaking information about the NSA. In the world of movies, Iron Man 3 came out, along with World War Z, American Hustle, and the eternally memeable Wolf of Wall Street. Sony released Playstation 4 and Microsoft released XBox One. Apple put out the 5C and 5S phones.

How well do you remember those things' Are the memories getting a little fuzzy because it’s been six years and some of these products have been significantly upgraded?

That’s just the nature of our modern world. Don’t get tied down to something for too long, because a better model will be coming around the corner.

Which brings us to Brandon Tanev, this summer’s latest edition of What Was Jim Rutherford Thinking' Since the Penguins raised their 2nd consecutive Stanley Cup in June 2017, Jim Rutherford’s decision making has been on a sharp downward spiral. Last year saw the addition of Jack Johnson in free agency on a 5 year/$16.25M deal, when I’d be hard pressed to believe that anyone else was offering 3 years. But this year, Rutherford set out to top himself by signing Brandon Tanev (age-28 this season) to a 6 year/$21M deal.

That’s right. Brandon Tanev, a fungible 3rd/4th line type if there ever was one, is now locked up with the Penguins for the next six seasons. The very same Tanev that reached a career-high in points last year with 29 in 80 games. But wait…maybe he’s here for his penalty killing tenacity. In the 78 games he killed a penalty last year, he accumulated 172 minutes of time on the penalty kill, or a shade over 2 minutes/game. During last season, he was on the ice for 4 short-handed goals (he scored two of them) and on the ice for 16 power play goals. That’s a respectable 20% ratio. To contrast, Bryan Rust (a player that is the closest equivalent to Tanev on the roster), saw the same 2 minutes/game of penalty killing time. Rust was on the ice for 5 short-handed goals (scoring two of them) and was on for 14 power play goals against, a better ratio of 26.3%.

The only other player under contract in the 2024-25 final season of Tanev’s deal is Sidney Crosby. It’s good that a franchise icon is locked up for the next six seasons, even for his probable decline years. It’s not good that a grinder of a certain type that is readily available each offseason is also under control for that long. By the time the 2024-25 season rolls around, Tanev will be viewed in the same vein as Darren Helm or Justin Abdelkader on the Red Wings — guys that are just clogging up the cap for a team in the midst of a painful rebuild.

A similar style of player, Marcus Johansson, was inked to a 2 year/$9M deal by the Sabres well after Tanev was scooped up in early July. The last two years have not been kind to the 28-year old Johansson, as he’s only played 87 total games and lodged 44 points. If Tanev wanted that deal, it would have been preferable just to shorten up the term. If Rutherford wanted to finesse the cap on that $4.5M AAV on the Johansson contract, he could have done a 3 year/$9.6M deal to account for interest. Or he could have signed the actual Marcus Johansson.

Adding Tanev’s 6 year deal to the pile only continues to exacerbate the cap issues the Penguins have moving forward. The team is, to no surprise, out of cap space this year. But next year, when they’re already tied up with six contracts to players that will be 30 or older, the Penguins have only $18M of cap space and need to sign at least eight players. Three of those eight players include RFA’s Matt Murray, Jared McCann, and Marcus Pettersson. We’ve already discussed Murray’s potential deal, but McCann could look to bank a serious upgrade with a breakout season if he skates with Crosby.

This is a team that is raging against the dying embers of light that remain in their relevancy to win a Stanley Cup. The last thing needed was yet another anchor of a contract stretched out well into the next decade. The expansion Seattle team can only bail out the Penguins once in the June 2022 draft and that’s already been earmarked to be Jack Johnson’s albatross plus a draft pick. Now we may have to re-consider all that.