But Pittsburgh understood that free agency wouldn't be the best route to acquire a center.
"We weren't really looking at one in free agency," general manager Jim Rutherford said. "The prices were a little high on a few guys that we had talked about. I'm not surprised that we didn't get anything done today.
"We have a long way to go before we play. We've talked about enough different things that we're confident that we'll get somebody obviously through a trade."
The Pens lost Nick Bonino, who signed a four-year deal with Nashville, and Matt Cullen is still weighing his future plans. Currently Pittsburgh only has three centers on its NHL roster: Sidney Crosby; Evgeni Malkin; and Carter Rowney. And with the trade of Oskar Sundqvist to St. Louis, the organizational depth is slim.
Rowney could fill the fourth line center role. But that means the team still needs a pivot on the third line. But Pittsburgh feels it is important not to overpay for a center. In fact, the team is willing to start the season without adding a center if it comes to that.
"It's important now not to panic and go after somebody just to say that we got a center," Rutherford said. "I've talked to the coach (Mike Sullivan) about this. He said as long as I've got my two big guys healthy (Crosby and Malkin) I can work around anything early in the season."
Sullivan would have to be very creative with his roster in that scenario, but the Pens will remain patient with their process.
"We'll move on one when we're comfortable with somebody that we like," Rutherford said. "It could be in the next day. It could take us a couple of months. It could take us early in the season before it happens."
For the first time in a long time the Pens have breathing room with their salary cap situation. The team is currently $16.5 million under the cap. That will go a long way in trying to add a center or defenseman via trades.
"We're not going to be pressured from a cap point of view. This is probably the best shape we've been in in a few years at this point in time," Rutherford said. "We'll be able to add another player and still end up under the cap, which would be a good place to be going into the season. We'll have flexibility going forward."
The Pens restricted free agents will eat up a portion of that free cap space. The most notable are defensemen Justin Schultz, Brian Dumoulin and Derrick Pouliot and forwards Conor Sheary and Josh Archibald.
