Rumor: Penguins interested in acquiring long time member of the Flyers.

This might be the most interesting rumor I have heard so far this offseason, and having said that I still think it has the potential to be a disaster if it comes to fruition.

On Saturday the Pittsburgh Penguins made their first significant move of the offseason when they cleared a massive amount of salary cap space, just over $3 million in cap space in fact, by dealing veteran defenseman Olli Maatta. To be blunt Maatta had been a chronic disappointment for the Penguins and his inability to show any degree of consistency throughout his career combined with a host of medical issues had made it obvious that the Penguins were ready for a fresh start without Maatta on their blue line. The move gave the Penguins significant cap space to work with leading up to the draft, and there is already talk about how Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford intends to use it.

According to a recent report from Dan Kingerski of Pittsburgh Hockey Now, two sources have now informed him that the Pittsburgh Penguins have interest in acquiring long time Philadelphia Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds. This of course comes as a huge shock when you consider how much of a thorn Simmonds has been in the side of the Penguins over the years, but perhaps for that very same reason it makes a great deal of sense that the Penguins would value what he brings to the ice.

From Kingerski's report:

Scuttle from a league source is the Pittsburgh Penguins could enter the fray for free agent winger Wayne Simmonds. Unprompted, Saturday second-hand sources tied the long-time Philadelphia Flyer winger and the Penguins. The source posited the Penguins want more snarl among their forward crew and there is belief Simmonds will get a call from the team.

I mentioned earlier that this could be a disaster and that is due to how much Simmonds has appeared to decline over the past two seasons, in large part due to lower body injuries. The Flyers bruiser is on the wrong side of 30 and offering him a long term deal at that age, when he has already shown signs of decline, I believe would be a big misstep on the part of Penguins GM Jim Rutherford. That is not to say that a healthy Simmonds could not return to form and prove to be extremely effective for the Penguins, however I would put the odds of him doing so after a 1 goal performance in 17 games with the Nashville Predators somewhere below 50%.