Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman, and impending unrestricted free agent, Matt Niskanen has a lot of questions to answer about where he’ll play next season and years to come soon.
The question of whether Niskanen will remain in Pittsburgh or not was already up in the air before coach Dan Bylsma was fired. So where does he stand after that? As Josh Yohe of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review shares, he’s in wait-and-see mode.
“Dan being dismissed won’t affect my decision,” Niskanen said. “However, I will pay attention to what the coaching staff is going to look like. It’s not the only factor in the decision. But it is a factor.”
Regardless of who the new coach is, Niskanen may already be ticketed out of town.
The Penguins already have a lot of big money committed to Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang. With the salary cap going up to possibly over $70 million, the kind of deal Niskanen could command in free agency would be worth big bucks. The Penguins have other needs to address and other teams have holes on the blue line to fill.
Unless the new coach is someone Niskanen knows and loves, he’ll likely be in a different uniform next season.