Rumor: Penguins Looking to Make Free-Agent Splash

The Pittsburgh Penguins have been busy this off season making multiple changes to their roster. General manager, Jim Rutherford has never been shy to make moves, and this year he's pulled the trigger on several.

Gone are Matt Murray, Nick Bjugstad, Dominik Simon, Justin Schultz, Patric Hornqvist, and Jack Johnson. One quarter of the Pens roster flipped, and just when you would think the team is done, turns out that may not be the case at all.

According to Pittsburgh based reporter Dan Kingerski, the Penguins are interested in signing free-agent forward Erik Haula.

The 29-year-old is one of the best free agents left on the market, coming off a season that saw him collect 24 points in 48 games. The numbers certainly don't jump out at you, but with his production over the course of the last three seasons, Haula is drawing interest from several teams. Back in 2017-18, Haula had a career high 29 goals and 55 points. The Pens would love to see Haula return to this form in black and yellow.

The Finnish winger made $2.75 million per season on his last deal, and if the Penguins can find a way to move out (or down) roughly $3.5 million, Haula could be the newest member of the Pens third-line. The team has a few options to make it happen, including using their LTIR spot on Zach Aston-Reese and sit with roughly $2.4 million to currently spend.

Now the only question, would Haula be interested in joining the Cup contending Penguins?