Well, this will make one section of the fan base happy and another section really upset....

The Pittsburgh Penguins have given head coach Dan Bylsma a two-year contract extension through the 2015-16 season, it was announced today by Executive Vice President and General Manager Ray Shero. Bylsma had one year remaining on his current deal.

Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma The Penguins also extended the contracts of assistant coaches Tony Granato and Todd Reirden.

This idea was floated around a couple of days ago. At least the extension puts an end to the issue for now and prevents the coaching situation from being a distraction in the immediate future.

Like it or not, the current Pens' organization is built around certain people, certain philosophies, certain strategies and certain ideas. Dan Bylsma is a big part of that system. Getting rid of him as coach would have meant changing a major part of the Penguins' organization and possibly heading in a very different direction. Despite what happened in the playoffs, it doesn't look like the Pens are too keen on heading in a completely different direction right now.

If the team is going to keep him on as coach, it was a good idea to give him the extension so the issue isn't hanging over everyone's head for the next year. Of course, as Michel Therrien knows, a team can still fire a coach who is under contract if the situation gets bad enough...

4. Jonathan Toews

3. Brandon Saad

At the time I'd have said no. Hard to argue now.

2. Marian Hossa

One of the great tragedies of our time.

And finally...

1. Ol' Double J

The #JagrWatch defeat still stings in some aspects, but none more than when you think about the Pens getting smoked by two Double J teams the past two years. Jagr is a shell of his former self, but his leadership is constantly on display. He is also completely insane, re: reports of him working out until midnight after games in the playoffs and shit. What if the Penguins would have offered Jagr $4 million? Could he have done better than TK? Could he have gotten the Penguins a goal somewhere in the Eastern Conference Finals?

As he does so often, Mike Colligan nails it with this thought:

If #Pens decide that Bylsma is their guy, they have to extend his contract or the debate will linger heading into his final year

— Mike Colligan (@MikeColligan) June 11, 2013

Believe or not Ron Cook actually brought this up as well. [ pg ]

The Pensblog Podcast for June 10th. We stop wallowing in our own misery long enough to talk to Dejan Kovacevic of the Trib and some other stuff.

It's not to say that the Pens won't make some changes during the offseason but, if they do, it won't necessarily be due to salary concerns. A quick look at Capgeek shows us that the Penguins' cap situation isn't necessarily as dire as it appears like at first glance.

Of course, it all depends on what players like Dupuis sign for and if all of the players listed above want to come back.

Outside of being unable to sign Malkin and/or Letang to an extension and therefore being forced to trade a big name this offseason, the Pens line-up at the start of next season could look pretty similar to the one that started this season. And that's not a bad thing. That's a very competitive team.

The Penguins only have five players signed beyond season and $39,700,000 in cap space that year, if the salary cap stays the same. If you're looking for drastic change in the Penguins' line-up, that's where they will probably come. 

The Penguins may still decide to change up the team for next year, but it will most likely be due to hockey reasons or because a player doesn't want to re-sign, not because of the cap crunch that we are all predicting. A look at the numbers shows that the Penguins can retain most of their players (outside of the deadline deals) if they want to.

That's not to say that this will be the exact Pittsburgh Penguins' line-up next season. Some players will probably be different. The point is that it's possible to dress a line-up that looks similar to this one.

It's not as bad as it seems.

$7 million per year. That's the ballpark number that Letang will be able to command in free agency following next season. And that's simply not worth the Pens' time or money, especially when you crunch the numbers and see that the Penguins' decision will undoubtedly come down to re-signing either Evgeni Malkin or Letang to a massive contract. There shouldn't even be a debate about which player the Pens will pick if that is, in fact, the dilemma Shero is facing. As it stands, Shero and Malkin's agent are already in discussions, while Shero and Letang's agent have been putting off extension talks. That may be a good indication of where the Pens currently sit.

We're not saying the Pens couldn't afford Letang under the cap, because they probably could fit him in somehow. But it just doesn't make sense in the context of the Pens' roster. They already have big money wrapped up in Crosby, Malkin, Neal, Martin, and Fleury. Just can't see the Pens throwing that much money at Letang even if they don't have a "replacement" for him set in stone. Could possibly get a top-4 d-man in a trade. Pens got swept by the Bruins in a humiliating fashion, so anything is possible.

This season fell apart in the blink of an eye, and the NHL Entry Draft will be here just as quickly. We all remember what happened at last year's draft with Jordan Staal's eventual lame-duck season staring Ray Shero in the face.

This pales in comparison to how certain female sects of the Pens' fanbase would react to a Letang trade. Even if Shero gets a box of Cheerios in return, it would make the trade worth it.

Shero went big but still went home this season, resulting in the Pens not having a pick until the 3rd round this summer. Coupled with multiple young defensemen in the Pens' system knocking at the door for a shot at NHL action and Kris Letang's stock being probably as high as it ever will be, the Draft may be the time to strike.

Colorado is already being mentioned as a potential partner in trade talks. When we say "being mentioned," we mean you're probably hearing about it here for the first time. Trade Letang and MAF to Colorado for whatever. Patrick Roy probably wouldn't mind having MAF as a pupil.

Montreal would probably overpay in a trade for Letang.

Or Letang re-signs with the Penguins and gets a haircut.

Either way, Go Pens.

Everyone, whether it's us, you, or a veteran journalist, can be made to look like a fool when it comes to predicting a playoff series or how a certain player will perform. We've learned this the hard way recently when the Pens' season and Stanley Cup hopes were annihilated within a calendar week.

But you know one thing everyone can agree on? Tomas Vokoun took away some of the sting. By definition, he was the Penguins' MVP in the playoffs. God only knows how much worse the Boston series would've looked if the Pens were giving up 4 and 5 goals a game. Instead, in Games 3 and 4 of the Bruins series, the Pens' biggest games of the season (and on the road, no less), Tomas Vokoun turned in a 1.17GAA and a .953SV%. He was the only reason the Pens' were in pissing distance of the Bruins for both of those games.

And then Sunday happened. Dan Bylsma was asked about Marc-Andre Fleury's status:

Marc-Andre Fleury is our No. 1 goalie. He's the No. 1 goalie for this franchise. And he will be going forward. We were in a situation where Tomas Vokoun went in the net and won the third and fourth game of a series for us and continued to play. But you know, Marc-Andre Fleury is a guy who's going to come back to our team, and he's going to be the No. 1 goalie. He's going to be our franchise goalie. He's going to be this franchise's goalie.

And then he was asked what that means for Tomas Vokoun:

Tomas ... um, I don't think is in any different boat than when he came in last year. He's going to play games for us, big games, but ... next year, he's not going to get that opportunity because Marc-Andre Fleury's going to be in net for us winning hockey games.

Dude. What a kick in the nuts. The prevailing thought going into next season (if Fleury is still a Penguin) would realistically be that the net is Marc-Andre Fleury's to lose again. Even with that being the case, you don't come out and say it while pretty much dismissing everything Vokoun did for the team over the past month. Just smile and say, "Tomas played well for us, for sure. We have some stuff to look at this summer," yada yada yada.

Everyone but the most ardent MAF fanboys can go read Dejan's column about this and agree with everything he has to say. 100% on point. Dejan mentioned that this could simply be the Pens hyping up Fleury as best they can to see if any teams come calling about him, but come on. What a joke.

According to the Tribune Review, Gilles Meloche will resign later this week, in the most nonsurprising news maybe ever. [ Trib ]

Meloche has been the Penguins goalie coach for literally 30 years it feels like. The Trib said Mike Bales, the Wilkes-Barre goalie coach, will be the likely candidate to take over the spot. Gilles Meloche will apparently take on another role with the team, which probably means the Penguins will mail a nice check to him every two weeks until he stops noticing they aren't coming.