TWO PLAYERS THE PENS COULD GET

Here's an excerpt from my column for TribLive.com:

Here are two unrestricted free agents that the Penguins should look at:

*Mason Marchment, left wing, Columbus.

Marchment, 30, is 6-foot-4, 220 pounds. He plays big, aggressive, tough and dirty.

Marchment scores just enough: 19 goals last season, 22 in each of the two seasons prior.

Marchment would add a shenanigans element the Penguins lacked in their playoff series against the Flyers. The ability to initiate. Because sometimes you have to.

*Patrik Laine, right wing, Montreal.

Laine, 28, is a scorer of pedigree: 80 goals in his first two NHL seasons after debuting with Winnipeg in 2016. He was the second pick in that year’s NHL draft. Great one-timer. Excellent on the power play.

But Laine played just five games this season after undergoing surgery in October for a core muscle injury. He hasn’t played more than 56 games in a season since 2019-20. Laine is brittle.

Laine might sign for a low guarantee with a truckload of incentives. He could see Pittsburgh as the place to relaunch his career, like Anthony Mantha did by scoring 33 goals this past season.

Signing Laine would be a gamble. But you’d be gambling on talent.

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